Scherzo Diabolico (2015) 1h 31m

When we watch a film, most of the time we're engaged in some form that allows us to feel part of it.  Jump scares, the moment of cringe when we get a close up of a needle going in, or the relief you can feel from someone escaping death, these connect us to the screen.  With Scherzo Diabolico, I felt less personally engaged and more like I was a voyeur to our main character's life.  Spying on him while he has his breakdown and develops his subsequent plot.  It felt perverse at moments to see his planning and begin to have that become my engagement with the film.  Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself here...

Scherzo Diabolico is a film out of Mexico where we follow Aram, an accountant that, despite his hard work, is under compensated by his manager.  Aram formulates a plot to kidnap his boss' daughter and let the mental breakdown of his higher up lead to the manager's removal so Aram can move into his position.  It works, but the emotional trauma to the girl leads to her finally being triggered and she seeks out revenge.

This film falls under the "thriller" umbrella much more than horror but it was a good watch regardless.  Each character is defined well in their role.  Aram himself is done in such a manner that even if you wanted to celebrate him getting his due recognition you can't because of the layer of scum that surrounds him.  It's not just a greasy film that encircles him, but it's revealed that he is covered in it as the movie progresses.

When I started this review I mentioned that I felt more of a voyeur.  I saw a review on IMDB where someone complained about this movie being non-engaging.  I think it just depends on how you watch this film as to what your engagement really becomes.  I enjoyed it, but odds are I'll probably never watch it again.

I give Scherzo Diabolico 2 day of the dead masks out of 5:

White Coffin (a.k.a. Ataud Blanco: El Juego Diabólico) (2016) 1h 15m

You should be familiar with the analogy of something having layers like an onion.  While it makes sense, I've never spent time peeling an onion for anything.  I don't think that I know anyone that has actually been cooking and thought "I need to peel this onion to use it."  With this film though, I finally had a real understanding of what it means to have layers skinned away to reveal the new.

White Coffin takes us on an insane adventure.  Virginia's daughter is kidnapped (after she has already kind of kidnapped her own daughter) by some sort of strange cult.  While in chase with the initial kidnapper our heroine is run off the road by an ambulance and killed in a car crash.  Her body is resurrected from her coffin and thus begins a twisted game of riddles, a white coffin, and multiple women attempting to save their children from this murder cult.

When I read the description of this film I wasn't too into it.  The moment Virginia is resurrected then I was ready for whatever.  This movie had so much going on, but it paced itself well and each reveal became more intense until the finale.   Then the ending became a series of madness upon madness.  I loved this film.  It's one of those movies that I will pull out when I want to have rad discussions with friends after it's done.

I give White Coffin 4 cult members out of 5:

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