La hora fría

Settling into the story, be prepared for a character-driven study, even hinted at within the movie itself. The acting is superb, the story intriguing, and the conclusion leaves you answering AND asking questions. The director brought it all together and made everything work. There are some drawbacks in terms of character/story logic - why wait so long to confront the Strangers? Would you believe Pedro's version of events? - but they do not take away from the experience of "living" through young Jesus and his video camera. It's one of those films for which I am BEGGING to be released on DVD in the US with a director's commentary. There HAS to be some importance to the character names - Jesus, Judas, Maria, Magda, Peter, Paul, Matt, Luke - even Paul stops by. Someone can take it and write a dissertation...if you do, please post a link. I've got more movies to watch and review...

The eight years boy Jesús (Omar Muñoz) has been living in a crumbling underground facility since he was born with eight survivors of an apocalyptical war: the leader Maria (Silke) and her lover Pablo (Julio Perillán); the gays Lucas (Pablo Scola) and Mateo (Sergio Villanueva); the astronomer Magdalena (Carola Manzanares) and the teenager Ana (Nadia de Santiago); the soldier Pedro (Jorge Casalduero) and the lonely Judas (Pepo Oliva). They are permanently is state of surveillance, threatened by the contaminated mutants The Strangers and once a day they have to lock themselves in their rooms without heating to protect against the dangerous ghosts The Invisibles that attack in the Cold Hour. They cannot go to the surface, destroyed by a nuclear war. When they need supplies, medications and ammunitions, they organize expeditions to a store. When the menace of The Invisibles affects the safety of the group of survivors, they need to reach the surface.

"La Hora Fría" is a great low-budget movie showing a pessimist view of the fate of mankind after a nuclear war. The atmosphere is melancholic and claustrophobic and the story discloses the characters through the innocent eyes of an eight years old boy. I expected to find an explanation to their biblical names, but the film never clarifies. The story recalls "The Omega Man", "Day of the Dead" and "28 Days Later...", but is original and supported by a great cast that transmits fear, panic and lack of hope to the viewer, and by an excellent cinematography, using gloomy colors. I was a little disappointed with the ambiguous conclusion, and I understand that Pedro was right and the group was part of an experiment, but I am not sure if this was the intention of the writer. I believe the director Elio Quiroga failed since he was not able to express his real intention in the last scene. Probably due to commercial reasons, the Brazilian title does not correspond to the original Spanish title, as usual. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Hora Negra" ("The Dark Hour")

This is a great little movie, not perfect - the multiple threats are too improbable - but really atmospheric. The ending is a revelation, and makes a lot of sense given earlier details (though there remain unanswered, and probably unanswerable, questions).

I really enjoyed it, but it could be depressing and grim if you are not in the right frame of mind.

The Cold Hour takes several cliché' horror film tropes, combines them in entirely unexpected ways, adds brilliant acting and great cinematography and ends with a purely science fictional image that will live in my mind for a really long time. This is a well put-together ensemble piece. I'd tracked it down, having been encouraged by the largely positive IMDb reviews, but mainly because of the Silke (Hornillos Klein) Rule: "Buy Anything She is In" that dates back to Julio Medem's wonderful, Philip K. Dickian, Tierra. Purely from the perspective of The Silke Rule, this film could almost have been seen as a disappointment since, although her character Maria is top billed, all of the characters are extremely well balanced and no one is really the lead. Every part is so well written and so well acted, however, that the viewer comes out ahead. In fact, the primary PoV is 8 year old Jesús, played by Omar Muñoz, and he is wonderful, despite my normal antipathy towards child actors. I can't, alas, say much more without revealing too much.

If you've read the other reviews, you already know that the primary situation appears to be similar to 28 days, et al. (This MAY actually be correct - if you prefer clear, pat explanations from a film, rather than have it ask as may questions as it answers, leaving you with a delicious sense of cognitive dissonance, then go watch something else). However, I've never seen that ultra-standard plot trope handled THIS way, or combined with THAT. Run, don't walk, to get La Hora Fría if you admire and enjoy originality, a continual sense of surprise, and a refusal on the part of the creators to spell everything out; if, like me, you prefer leaving the experience of a film with a deep sense of unease and the feeling that you have a lot of thinking to do especially about what that final shot meant. Your mind will have something to mull over for a long, long time.

The tone and setting of "The Cold Hour" will instantly remind you of such genre milestones as George Romero's "Day of the Dead", Danny Boyle's "28 Days Later" and Ridley Scott's "Alien", but in his directorial debut, Elio Quiroga nevertheless manages to develop a very personal and unique atmosphere. This is more than just post-apocalyptic survival horror, it's a truly courageous drama that gathers relatively many characters in a very limited number of locations. And even though "The Cold Hour" introduces no less than TWO different types of hostile monsters, the battles against them are only secondary to the character drawings and the often complex relationships & vulnerable understanding between the 9 members of the underground community. The events that put them in this precarious situation are never properly explained, but the protagonists presumably are survivors of a devastating nuclear war that made it nearly impossible to live on the surface. Chemical warfare turned the majority of the population into contagious zombies, the Strangers, that wander around the surface and simply touching them is enough to transform into one yourself. Still, the bravest leaders of the group occasionally have to leave their underground lair in search for food and medication. The Invisibles form another and even greater danger, as they're ghosts that hunt once a day – during the titular cold hour – and spread frosty terror. There are a lot of things going on in "The Cold Hour", but there's very little on screen action or bloodshed. Still, the film doesn't feature a single boring moment as Elio Quiroga puts the emphasis on slowly brooding fear and desperation. You quickly develop sympathy & compassion for the identifiable characters and hope that at least some of them make it out of the adventure alive, but you also realize their chances are extremely slim and as good as hopeless. "The Cold Hour" ends with a, dare I say it, ... brilliant shot that suddenly and completely unanticipated alters everything you think you figured out about the story up until then! Regardless of what your personal opinion is on this shocking twist (either brilliant or disappointing) it definitely clarifies a lot and answers several questions that bothered you during the film. The film is beautifully photographed, with sober and depressing images of the survivor's pitiable living conditions, and the music is often enchanting. The cast is excellent, mainly featuring unknown but professional Spanish players, and even the child-actors were great. Elio Quiroga is currently traveling around the world to proudly present his film at several festivals, so if there's one near you, don't hesitate to see it in the theater. It's one of those films of which the emotional impact is even larger if you catch it on a big screen. Recommended!