You’re Gonna Die Tonight (Short, 2016)
Howard Gorman
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Starring Mónica Aragón, Antonio Zancada, Francisco Reyes
Directed by Sergio Morcillo
Formulating something fresh and appealing in the overcrowded, and oftentimes generic, slasher/home invasion realm is always going to be a tough task; even more so if you set your sights on cramming everything into a lean, mean 15-minute short. That’s the exact gauntlet director Sergio Morcillo lays down for himself with You’re Gonna Die Tonight, and whilst the end result feels more like a proof of concept vid than anything else, it does a damned fine job of leaving the viewer clamoring for more.
Presented by Miguel Ángel Vivas, director of the recent snow-set zombie chiller Extinction (review), which starred Matthew Fox and Jeffrey Donovan, You’re Gonna Die Tonight is penned by Álvaro Fuentes, inspired by an original concept from the clearly tormented-but-talented minds of Morcillo and Ismael de las Heras.
With time of the essence, Morcillo quickly establishes an appealing concept by resourcefully fostering a gritty and erotic Giallo vibe, with protagonist Mónica Aragón interrupted whilst enjoying her own body, so as not to play an all-too-familiar home invasion tune. This is brilliantly buoyed by a killer combination of deft sound design and Pablo Trujillo’s sinister score, the latter sharing common roots with many an ’80s slasher, almost a modern-day reworking of Charles Bernstein’s original orchestrations on A Nightmare on Elm Street. Talking of which, Wes Craven’s influences are unapologetically apparent throughout, and the film is dedicated to his memory in the closing credits.
The short comes packed to the rafters with cleverly executed edge-of-your-seat set pieces depicting sheer violence without overly relying on in-your-face brutality, leaving it down to the audience to conjure up a much more gruesome picture in their heads. That’s not to say the special effects are kept to a minimum by any means, though. After all, the effects team involved, Inside FX, were previously responsible for that rather epic little zombie franchise most of you will likely have heard of… [REC] so you can imagine the kind of wizardry involved here.
A scene-stealer in many a home invasion/slasher flick is, of course, the mask(s); and top plaudits go to the costume designers as the intruders’ nightmarish Gimp-esque headgear is the most inspired and freakish I’ve seen in a good while. Extra kudos to the actors who had to wear them as I’m still scratching my head as to how they managed to breathe under all that vacuum-sealed leather.
In terms of flaws, the only real qualm this reviewer had was the fact that most of the actors’ English pronunciation skills left a lot to be desired. While it’s clear how committed the entire cast was to their performances, the poorly pronounced dialogue sadly robs the premise of some of its believability, a real shame given the absolutely stainless production values involved. Speaking Spanish definitely played in my favor here as there were times when I found myself reading the Spanish subtitles rather than listening to what the actors were saying. If this film eventually goes on to screen at international festivals, this is, unfortunately, going to be the short’s biggest niggling point. Having the cast speak in English to reach a wider audience is absolutely comprehensible, but I couldn’t help feeling it would have worked that much better if the actors had just spoken in their mother tongue.
All the same, as a whole, You’re Gonna Die Tonight pretty much manages to overcompensate these linguistic shortcomings thanks to the aforementioned ominous soundscape and foreboding aesthetic; and our leading lady, Mónica Aragón, puts up one hell of a fight that the antagonists clearly hadn’t bargained for. I’d happily pay to see her kicking plenty more ass in a feature-length version.
Fans of top-tier home invasions, especially the likes of Bryan Bertino’s The Strangers or, more recently, Mike Flanagan’s fantastic Hush, will definitely find plenty to appreciate in You’re Gonna Die Tonight, as it boasts all the trappings of a home invasion feature crammed into a menacingly efficient short.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QvWig739BI
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Film
Categorized:Reviews
