REVIEW: THE PARFORM AKA EL HOYO
By Elena Anele (*)
THE PLATFORM, Sitges Film Fest winner and now on Netflix, is a movie directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia – actually this is his first feature film after two shorts, and written by Pedro Rivero and David Desola.
The film’s cast includes Iván Massagué, Antonia San Juan, Zorion Eguileor, Emilio Buale Coka and Alexandra Masangkay.
The film, premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the People’s Choice Award for Midnight Madness, happens in a vertical prison with one cell per level, there we are introduced to Goreng (Iván Massagué) and his cell mate. This explains to Goreng, the newbie the way everything occurs in there.
Strengths I want to highlight the creativeness of the story, the world created and the weird starting point. Also, it is kind of thought- provoking as it presents a moral from a social and religious perspective.
Besides, there are some drawback to take into consideration as the lack of sympathy towards the characters, there is something that does not work in there, no thrilling or elements to keep you on the chair. It also seems we are dealing with a short movie instead of a feature.
Anyways, it is a very interesting and original movie any aficionado can enjoy.
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Elena Anele is the woman in charge of SPANISHFEAR.COM, Horror Rises from Spain and Un Fan de Paul Naschy . 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 as Fangoria or Hidden Horror. She has also been in charge of several translations including Javier Trujillo’s complete works, La Mano Film Fest, The Man who Saw Frankenstein Cry and many more.
