REVIEW: URUBÚ AKA WHO CAN KILL A CHILD… AGAIN?
By Elena Anele (*)
Urubu is a film from 2019 directed and produced by Alejando Ibánez Nauta (Chicho Ibañez Serrador’s son, now in charge of PROINTEL, the cult production company his father started). It was written by Carlos Bianchi, Alejandra Heredia and Alejandro Ibáñez, too.
Urubu is the name of a Brazilian scavenger bird Tomás (Carlos Urrutia) is obsessed with. He and his family start a journey by boat through the jungle to take the perfect picture of this animal. They are in Manaos where news on sailors disappearing is on the radio and soon they will come across some scary situations. Once on the ground and in search of the bird, strange events are happening, and their daughter gets lost in the jungle. This first part is really boring slow, of no importance for the rest of the flick. Also, sexual attraction between the captain (played by Alejandro Ibáñez himself) and Tomas’s wife Eva (Clarice Alves) induces sleep.
Congratulations you made it till the second part (!!!) because from then on, a kind of tacky remake of WHO CAN KILL A CHILD starts. There are some tributes to the Spanish Horror classic in frames and scenes even though this plot twist makes no sense at all. The end credits are the same as starting ones in the old movie telling all info on violence against children.
I do not know what is worst: acting, directing, narrative, filming, or music – which is actually good but does not match with the flick at all.
Not only that, but I was also expecting some creativeness from Alejandro Ibáñez, a story of his own not a daddy’s remake. As the story is presented and living in the 21st century I was really looking forward to a gorier, creepier, and bloodier movie with no 35-minute scene of a family business on a trip.
I think it does not work for old fantaterror aficionados not even for horror newbies who are more used to better quality products. However, it could be a good option for a beer-and-friend evening, just to have fun.
After being on some fests and cinema theaters with not a lot of success it can be watched on the Spanish VOD platform Filmin.
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Elena Anele 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 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.
