The third day of the festival started with a little tragedy, the film adaptation of the gothic horror short story Carmilla. Written by Irish author Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu and one of the early works of vampire fiction, the novella tells the story of a young woman preyed upon by a female vampire named Carmilla. The character is a prototypical example of the lesbian vampire, expressing romantic desires toward the protagonist, and is depicted as a trait of antagonism in line with the contemporary views of homosexuality. By many, it is considered one of the first lesbian-oriented fictional stories, and it became a big referent. Although not 100% loyal to the original story, the movie adaptation is a beautifully filmed and acted movie that perhaps lacks the dynamic rhythm to keep the audience in tension along the entire running time, but it is still a good drama with a little dose of fantasy.
Coming straight from Berlinale, the Berlin International Film Festival, where it achieved the Teddy award for Best Feature Film arrives Brief Story from the Green Planet (Breve Historia del Planeta Verde in the original Spanish language) (2019), a surreal and simple but yet deep story about three rejects from the society in a road trip to help out their new mysterious pal. Always swimming between a social drama and a Lynchian comedy, with some drops of delicious science-fiction, the movie managed to raise some laughs to an audience that was since the beginning accomplice with the movie. The kind of gems that are always a pleasure to discover at the Sitges Film Festival.
The party went on with a high dosage of gunshots and fights, with Renny Harlin and his Die Hard (1988) Made in China Bodies At Rest (2019). An action film with a script full of weak points but a superb direction and action choreographies. That was followed by the world premiere of Spanish comedy-thriller Ventajas de Viajar en Tren (2019), presented by the director, the producers and most of the cast. An emotive moment for the protagonists of a movie that brings lots of surprises and means some fresh air in the panorama. And to put an end to the heavy movies marathon, Ready or Not (2019), one of the last gems to be brought by Fox Searchlight before being absorbed by Disney and that was introduced by a dedicated video of the star of the film Samara Weaving.
But all that means nothing, because like always, the main star of the first Saturday of the festival is the Zombie Walk. Hundreds of regular people come to the village this date of the year to get blood on their clothes and rotten skin on their faces and do the popular route to allure the visitors. For once, we all get proud to be brain-dead and feed ourselves with the flesh of other fellow humans. And, like every year, after the classic Zombie Walk also comes the classic concert by Barcelona-based horror rock-n-roll and punk band Motorzombies. I say the same every fucking year, but man, this is a must!
