REVIEW: MALNAZIDOS (2020) AKA VALLEY OF THE DEAD.
By Elena Romea(*)
MALNAZIDOS (2020) is directed by Javier Ruiz Caldera and Alberto de Toro on a screenplay by Jaime Marqués and Cristian Conti. It is based on Manuel Martín Ferreras’s novel Noche de difuntos del 38. Main actors are Miki Esparbé, Aura Garrido, Luis Callejo, Álvaro Cervantes and Manel Llunell.
The original date premiere planned was September 11, 2020. Due to the Covid19 pandemic, it was first moved to January 22, 2021, and eventually to September 24, 2021. Its final date to be premiered was March 11, 2022
It is a zombie story set in the middle of the Spanish Civil War, in which Franco’s supporters fought against the Republicans after a declaration of military opposition, of revolt against the Republican government by a group of generals of the Spanish Republican Armed Forces. Months after bloody combats leave behind thousands of dead in the trenches. Jan Lozano, Captain of the Fifth Brigade has fallen prisoner by an opponent’s platoon along with a young driver while carrying out a mission that has been entrusted to him.
In the intro scene, we have witnessed how the Nazis killed all the population of a village while they were celebrating a wedding and after that spread gas over them. We do not know the effects, but soon as the story goes we will learn that they have been turned into living dead creatures. Jan Lozano, his driver, and their captors will unite forces to fight a common enemy: Zombies.
Not even entertaining, not funny it is a boring tape. Given the fact that two directors and two writers were needed to make this it makes no sense at all that it is full of goofs, anachronism, and stupid situations. On many occasions, sound effects of bursts of shots are present as characters fire single shots from pistols, at the opening scene, where the German soldier opens fire with the machine gun, you can clearly see that the belt is empty, and many more. Let me add that actors play silly roles in really bad performances, too.
Not recommended for Spanish Horror fans or even for horror comedies ones.
The movie was produced was Spanish Television media Telecinco and distributed in cinema theaters by Sony. Now is available on Netflix. Watch at your own risk. I have warned you!
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Elena Romea is the woman in charge of SPANISHFEAR.COM, and Horror Rises from Spain. A literature and cinema researcher, finishing her postgraduate studies with a thesis about the mystic filmmaker José Val del Omar. She has published in different media and books such as Fangoria or Hidden Horror. She has also been in charge of several translations.
