Rich dinner guests are trapped in a room of the house where they attended the party. Even though the door is open, they cannot leave. They run out of water and food, lose their humanity and turn against one another.
It was an interesting premise that seems like it would have made a good Twilight Zone episode. An hour and a half seemed a little long though. The plot does develop more fully than my brief description, with different characters acting their parts in the psycho-drama. All of the characters were rich, white and well-dressed, making them difficult to differentiate at times. The doctor always stood out for his age and relative sanity. I could understand a word or few of the Spanish dialogue, but found good English subtitles. The only problem was that "Y" was replaced with "T". The dwarves of Conde Petie in Final Fantasy IX get "hungert", Not Mexican aristocracy. I thought the actors did a great job of going crazy. One woman pulled out her hair and everyone looked haggard in their suits and gowns. Needless to say, not too many sets. There was an exterior and a dining room at the beginning and a church at the end. There were also some exterior shots spread throughout as people outside could not enter the house. Everything else was in the room. Camera-work was not the best I've seen, even accounting for black and white. That honor goes to Fire over England, a dull, but beautifully shot film. I thought the shots stayed too much in mid-range without getting very close or far away and the general compositions just didn't do it for me. There was a disembodied hand special effect and some creative double exposures or layering to make a dream sequence. The audio seemed on for dialogue and there was not much noticeable music (seems to be the current trend). The gritty style and surrealist subject matter definitely reminded me of Un Chien Andalou. IMDb has an 8.2/10 rating listed, AllMovie has 4.5/5 in both AllMovie and user ratings and Rotten Tomatoes has 96% Tomatometer with 93% Audience Score for an average of 90.2%. Why this gets a consensus A- and A Chinese Ghost Story (1987) gets a consensus C- is beyond me, but that doesn't happen here. Not on my blog! I would say it should be reversed. This gets my o.k. rating because I don't think it's as magnificent as everyone else apparently does.
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