Movies
Daemonium: Underground Soldier
Even so, Daemonium: Underground Soldier is probably a little too bonkers to appeal to mainstream fans.
Pares' latest film is pretty much what I expected from it. It's not your regular zombie film, there are strong sci-fi and Japanese splatter (Meatball Machine comes to mind) influences that liven up an otherwise boring niche. It's not quite as zany or outrageous as his best film, but if you're looking for a short and sweet horror flick, there is plenty to like here. A local tinkerer opens a portal to an alternate dimension. He isn't really prepared for the chaos that he is about to unleash. The portal works both ways and something slips through into our world. A mind-controlling parasite and a cloaked hunter ravage a small Argentinian town, while an all-female band gets stuck in the middle of this violent stand-off. The intro could've been a little shorter, but once the group arrives in the overrun town all hell breaks loose. The horror is sufficiently bloody, the sci-fi elements add a neat twist to the zombie cliches and the second half of the film is one big gory ride. I kind of lost sight of Pares, I guess this might have been the push I needed to delve back into the rest of his oeuvre. Fun.Read all
I absolutely adored Parés' Daemonium, wasn't quite as taken with de la Vega's work. I Am Toxic falls neatly in between both oeuvres, where the hand of Parés stands out, but the film itself isn't quite up to snuff. That makes I Am Toxic an interesting watch, even though it never lives up to its full potential. A post-apocalyptic world that shows us a South-America riddled with rotten corpses. One of these corpses wakes up, unaware of what happened to him and how he got there. Before he can compose himself, he's attacked by a zombie. A hunter rescues him and takes him to his hideout, where the man's taken captive. It's a novel premise, though it's really just another zombie flick with humanity turning out to be the true bad guy. The styling is pretty cool, sporting a Max Mad vibe with some original touches, the setting also looks pretty appealing, but I've grown really tired of the direction this film took. Bottom line: Parés is better working on his own.Read all