American Horror Expansion to the East It was American, although the money for the film apparently gave the British. But it doesn't matter. The main thing is that the Arabs began to rivet horrors. Their first pancake, running ahead, turned out to be a few comas, but like any film from the category of “the first” it quite successfully swept the world and even managed to grab a couple of some awards (apparently as an encouragement of effort).
The main problem of the film is that the Asian exoticism (which actually ended after the opening credits) in it is much less than I would like, and what it should be. There are no majestic desert mountains, no mosques, no extremist Islamists, no other expected Arab attributes. “Hell’s Lands” (the name seems to be translated) are presented in the form of the most ordinary forest park zone, moreover, filmed at night. So apart from the appearance and talk of the actors on the country-producer little indicates.
For the model took the super-popular “Texas gasoline” for a change, powdering it with a local zombie masakra. The standard group - bad girl, junkie, nerd, virgin and "just drive" - packs in a painted hipp van and goes somewhere. In the story goes purposefully to the concert, although it is noticeable that the van simply cuts circles around the neighborhood so that “just drive” at the key moment could report that he ran out of gasoline. Before this, the truth follows a stop in a diner, led by Bela Lugosi (well, not the real of course, but the local analogue). While Bela instills fear and horror with stories, his partner (or partner, I’m not sure) sprinkles half a packet of suspicious green balls as food, from which the stick soon got sick, and he began to spew poison to the nearest reservoir. Then, in fact, it went on.
Interesting (read - pluses):
1) In the pluses, the maniac himself is first recorded, who was dressed in a dirty white hijab with a hole for the right eye, and a hefty such a spiky brush was put into his hands, probably from the arsenal for hunting elephant cubs. The weapon looked very cool (I bet that a makhach such a thing in 3D would look like a hurrah), but due to its low use, its murderous power was not really revealed.
2) Zombie. As mentioned, they play an episodic role. The meaning of their presence is unclear, but on the other hand they do not interfere (however, nothing could interfere with this film). Probably, the director was a fan of Romero and decided to pay tribute to the idol, establishing the shooting of the corresponding short scene of the “storm” of the van and stuffing it into the film. By the way, the dead looked relatively good, especially the grandfather and the main feature – a zombie dwarf. The latter is an entertaining spectacle... I must say that some creativity from this image blows.
3) Music. Eastern. Specific of course, but the video is surprisingly suitable. The sound hums and rattles decently, the truth hums and rattles unfortunately not always at the right moments. The main topic I put on my mobile phone is painfully funny.
There is a final opinion number 1 (the usual opinion).
In fact, the film is quite weak, the plot, although there is, but cracks at the seams, taking into account the chaos and confusion in the actions of teenagers, actually turning into a set of roughly tied scenes. There is no Suspense and wandering through the night forest - the route of the heroes is clearly determined by the lanterns carefully hung here and there (?). The atmosphere for this reason is no – it seems that all the action takes place on a dacha area about six acres in size. Comedy doesn’t work: some jokes are noticeable, but not too clear (with transsexuals or with Angelina Jolie, for example). Tin, despite the attempts of the operator to weave some originality here, is shown rather lazy and as if even through strength, lightness and ease is not enough. And some of it. Actors -- well, amateurs, yeah. Plus the subjective minus is speech. Communicating with each other, the characters constantly jump from Arabic to English and back, which causes slight difficulties with the perception of dialogue (couldn't it be possible to shoot entirely on their native and not show off?) The ending of the film is also wobbly. Aisha picks up a brush, makes a harsh face, and immediately cheer up - it is clear that now she will go to wet her grandmother. Anne, it's gonna be a lot more dubious.
3 out of 10.
...but there is a final opinion number 2 (special opinion).
It is based on the general delusions of what is happening. In particular, this idea was suggested from time to time appearing on the screen comic pictures with text in the spirit of “And they did not suspect ...”. It may well be that what you see is nothing more than a thin, fairly secretive oriental banter over the Yusov horror with the listing / ridiculing of the perennial stamps available in it. From this point of view, many film follies and even "left" zombies fall into place. And if you think and revise based on this theory, we have to admit that the banter was quite good.
7 out of 10
In any case, it turned out far from brilliant, far from a failure, but just a funny such and boring TRB clone about stupid teenagers, a family row of maniacs and gender perversions. For general erudition or in the pursuit of exoticism, it does not hurt to look.