Rabies (2010)

i must have seen a different film!!

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

One of my requirements for most movies is at least one likable character. Not this movie. To boot, there was more than the average number in a movie that were unlikable. Luckily, those negatives were offset partially because many of the unlikable characters died off. Yay! There are good twists, not that the twists weren't predictable but there was more than 2 options to every twist incident, so guessing was like a multiple choice question. The movie was slow for a horror movie, excruciating in some scenes. There were an inordinate amount of people in the forest considering it was closed/off limits to the public. Do all the cars in Israel have a hard time starting, including police cars? Due to the being set in a forest, no studio sets, no CDI, a large budget was not required to make the movie, so not so much good money was thrown after bad. In general the movie was extremely, irritating. In the hands of the right director it could have been an excellent black comedy.

Fresh, inventive, fast paced - this film was like going on a fun roller coaster. Never a dull moment and you do not know exactly what will happen next. Just when you think it is going to follow a formula the bottom drops out. Never having seen any of these actors before added to the experience. At first it may seem there are too many characters but it all blends together at the end. If feels like the directors took the theme of the old movie "After Hours" and paired it with the comedy of "Shaun of the Dead." Then gave it a Cohen brothers twist. I really enjoyed this film and the previous effort (Big Bad Wolves). There are gory scenes (and I dislike gore) but it did not seem excessive or gratuitous.

Over 30 years in the horror genre and this must have been my first horror that I watched coming from Israel. It's not your usual horror because it's more about how things can turn out rather bad with a sick twist.It's all about being at the wrong place at the wrong time and just when you think that the police can help you one of them is just a sexist and want to abuse the short skirted girls in which he does by searching for weapons but put his hand were it doesn't belong and it's not her juggs. From there the story about a missing couple turns out in a sick way. On part of the horror it's low because it never really becomes scary but the effects used makes it rather brutal especially the face being hammered. But what I liked most is that it doesn't have a happy ending. For the first Israel horror flick I must say that I was surprised even as it didn't look like a real horror it still is. It's being sold as a slasher but for me it wasn't, although it's all about a slasher walking around. It has won a lot of prices and I must agree, you can't see it coming what is going to happen to them all.Gore 1,5/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 3/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5

Rabies isn't just the first Israeli horror film, a country most people living outside of it mistakenly think suffers from horror on a daily bases, but is also a slasher film with no real slasher. The fact that there isn't one killer, just makes the horror more intense and real: when the going gets tough, the tough (and gentle) get murderous; And when all happens in an enclosed part of the woods known as "Fox reservoir" - it's hard for anyone to escape the part of the man (or woman) with the gun (or ax,knife and anything around). The film follows a brother and sister that flee to the woods to hide their forbidden secret. But in the woods other people hide secrets; a psychopath killer sets traps all over the woods and the sister falls into one of them. The brother seeks for help and is hit by a car with two couples of tennis players that got lost on the way to a tennis tournament. He drags the two men in two the woods to help him and leaving the girls alone on the road. From this point on everything that might go wrong goes worst and involves a forest ranger, two cops and more. What strikes me most about the film is the way in which it lets human nature do its thing without needing any special incentive: everything that happens is just people loosing restrains on their civilized manners. The films seeks to show that movies don't need any super natural killer or a psychopath with a plan - just let people forget the way they were brought by, and anyone can kill. It is both a genre film and a comment about the genre and human beings. The woods is most likely the most important character in the film, and Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado in their directorial debut along with their cinematographer Guy Raz meticulously crafted its appearance as to look like the place where all hell can break loose, though it is usually a nice place to have a picnic. Blending in horror and comedy, the film puts (after more then 60 years) Israel on the map of horror films and hopefully will not just open doors for other young Israeli film makers to make other horror, Sci-fi and even musicals - all genres that have been almost completely forgotten in the history of Israeli cinema, but will also mark the beginning of an ongoing career for the two young directors.