The year 2020 saw a global pandemic putting everyone under lockdown to slow down the infection rate. If horror fans looked to the movies to take their minds off how uncertain the world suddenly looked, odds are they found Host, a tech-meets-supernatural horror film that used the restrictions of the COVID-19 lockdown to its advantage. While that one became a big hit, another horror movie released in 2020 unfairly went under the radar. Instead of grappling with the new normal, the Spanish-language The Last Matinee turned the clock back. Ticket stubs are stained with gore when a brutal killer is among a group of unaware moviegoers. What happens when someone smokes a cigarette and then gets their throat slashed? This film, taking influence from ‘70s and ‘80s horror for ruthlessly inventive kills, has a cold-blooded answer.
What Is ‘The Last Matinee’ About?
On a rainy day in 1993, a mysterious killer arrives at a baroque cinema in Montevideo, Uruguay, that has seen better days. A horny couple, a trio of teen friends, and a boy who has sneaked inside make up the small group of moviegoers who take refuge from the rainstorm by watching the upcoming matinee screening. It’s a B-horror movie adaptation of Frankenstein, but little does anyone know as they take their seats that another kind of monster is in the audience with them. The workers include an exhausted usher and Ana (Luciana Grasso), daughter of the elder projectionist, who has arrived to take over duties from her father. As the film reels click and whirl, a mysterious killer (Ricardo Islas) locks everyone inside.
Directed by Uruguayan filmmaker Maximiliano Contenti and set/filmed in the South American country, The Last Matinee is part of Uruguay’s growing horror scene that includes the 2010 film The Silent House, which got an English-language remake starring Elizabeth Olsen, and Uruguay’s most famous horror filmmaker working in Hollywood right now, Fede Álvarez. The Last Matinee is brutal and doesn’t overstay its welcome with a runtime that is just under 90 minutes. That is more than enough time for Contenti and cinematographer Benjamín Silva to craft beautiful visuals out of all the viciousness, with the moody rainstorm that pelts outside and the neon-drenched main lobby of the cinema. But the savage kills are the best part, and Contenti takes influence from two horror subgenres to serve a Spanish hybrid of the Italian giallo and American slasher.
‘The Last Matinee’ Is a Throwback to Old-School Horror
Films by directors Mario Bava and Dario Argento gave rise to the giallo, which were erotic murder mysteries with violent, stylized deaths committed by a black-clad killer, in stories that had bizarre plot twists and weird soundtracks. The Last Matinee gives a nod to these films, specifically with its supply of over-the-top, creative kills. One that should be a horror fan’s new favorite is when the cinema’s usher goes for a smoke. Cigarettes kill, but not usually in the way this scene depicts. The killer attacks and slashes the usher’s throat, allowing the smoke he had inhaled from his cigarette to escape from the gaping wound. For another shocking fatality, the killer stands behind two characters, who share an innocent kiss, and uses a metal rod to impale them both in the skull.
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While the black-clad killer is an iconic look from the Italian subgenre, The Last Matinee lacks a murder mystery that is essential to any classic or modern update of a giallo, thus bringing Contenti’s killer into slasher territory. There is no motive behind the brutality, and the killer has an unexplained, gross fondness for taking eyeballs. Ana, unaware of the killings in the projection booth, has to be the final girl if she wants to survive to the credits. Similar to old-school slashers, most of the cast in The Last Matinee have little character depth and are on-screen to become part of the kill count. With its original release in 2020, it belongs to the horror films put out in the year of COVID. Leaving out references to what was going on in the world, the impact of the pandemic can still be felt in the central location where The Last Matinee takes place.
This Spanish Horror Film Loves Movie Theaters as Much as Creative Kills
When virtual video chatting was a prime source of communicating with friends and loved ones in 2020, the use of a séance over Zoom made Host a timely way to be scared. Although The Last Matinee doesn’t directly talk about the pandemic (being set in the early ’90s also helps to keep the real world separated), the movie theater setting was a social space affected by the lockdown and health precautions. Seeing a theater be the single setting in The Last Matinee makes it feel relevant to the year of COVID.
People were turning to streaming. When theaters opened again, it wasn’t the same. Seeing the moviegoers in Contenti’s film sitting far apart in a massive screening room, leaving large gaps of empty seats, can bring to mind the social distancing requirements that were required. This is under the surface, coming in second to what is first on the mind in this South American horror film. Along with the neon lights of the lobby, The Last Matinee finds visually striking imagery in the old cinema with a layout of stairways and corridors that are castle-like. It is as beautiful as it is dangerous. Fans are not throwing around popcorn during A Minecraft Movie. Instead, the movie on the in-world screen goes by without interruption or nuisance. That makes it easier for characters to not notice a killer lurking in the dark aisles.
- Release Date
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September 3, 2020
- Runtime
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88 minutes
- Director
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Maximiliano Contenti
- Writers
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Manuel Facal, Maximiliano Contenti
- Producers
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Lucía Gaviglio
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Ricardo Islas
Asesino comeojos
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