Satanás - Profile of a Killer (2007)

Best movie of this year hands down!

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

.........................................................from Pasto,Colombia...Via: L.A. CA., CALI, COLOMBIA and ORLANDO, FL O.K…First...About the film: SATANAS is awesome! This has to be one of the 5 best Colombian films ever made! Well, Colombian-Slash-Mexican film, anyway… (As listed on IMDb!) In the leading role of "SATAN", is Mexican actor Damian Alcazar, who gives us an eerily haunting performance as a tormented Colombian who did two active tours of duty with the U.S. army in Vietnam. He is obviously suffering from PTSD…but he was mustered out of the military and left the U.S. long before anyone was officially diagnosed, or much less, received any treatment for this condition. Alcazar's Colombian accent is spot on!…So much so that if I had not known he was Mexican, I would have assumed he was Colombian! (If you speak Spanish, you'll undoubtedly notice!) SATANAS, probably more than any other film I have ever seen in my life, really hit close to home…LITERALLY! Why do I say this? Well, this based on true events film, is about the massacre that occurred in the Pozzetto restaurant in Chapinero, Bogota, Colombia, on December 4th, 1986. To be precise, the restaurant is on the corner of the Carrera Septima (7th) and Calle 62.My mother lived in an apartment not more than 2 blocks from the Pozzetto. It was, perhaps, my Mom's default setting restaurant! We have eaten there on numerous occasions, both before and after the horrendous 1986 deed! Yes, despite the gruesome massacre there, where 20 people were killed, the place is still open! It really occurs to me just how lucky my Mom, my wife and I were that we had not decided to eat there that fateful evening…..There….But for the grace of God….!!! Throughout the entire film, you can really feel the mounting pressure Delgado (Alcazar's character) exerts on himself leading up to his total implosion. Teresa Gutierrez, who passed in 2010, was excellent as the rather overbearing, but concerned and clueless, mother, Blanca. Gutierrez is probably known to everyone in Colombia over 15, but is pretty much unknown outside of Colombia.The Director, Andres Baiz, who hails from CALI, oís!...In his directorial debut…despite overseeing and putting together a truly outstanding Colombian film, has only gotten the directorial nod again on 2 occasions: La Cara Oculta (2011) and ROA (2013)! It is impossible for me to wrap my head around this situational anomaly! Does this penalizing directors for making excellent films only happen in Colombia? Two other examples come to mind…Francisco Norden, after directing Condores No Entierran Todos los Dias in 1984, was not given another shot for 21 years! And Felipe Aljure, who directed La Gente de la Universal in 1991, was denied another turn until 2005! It seems the rest of the cast is Colombian and they do a fine job, perhaps with a couple exceptions. It is worth noting the cultural impact of this tragedy in Colombia. If you ask people here to name one example of a mass shooting where a deranged lone gunman walks into a public place and begins shooting total strangers randomly and indiscriminately, if the person can provide one example, and most people certainly can, "The Pozetto Massacre", will, undoubtedly, be it! In the USA, it is rare that 3 months go by without a crime of this nature. Considering that Colombia, in general terms, is a country that definitely has much more violent crime than the U.S., I think it is no coincidence that practically the only random mass shooting, not rooted in some sort of mafia, guerrilla, paramilitary or personal vendetta, involves a Colombian with PTSD who served in Vietnam with the U.S. Military! This fact really needs to be looked at and analyzed extremely carefully! SATANAS is a must see movie for many different people for a myriad of different reasons! 9 Stars! ENJOY!/DISFRUTELA!

I did not know anything about this movie or the book it was based on until today. My brother's former wife emailed me that me she saw a powerful Colombian movie about a ex-Vietnam vet who goes on a killing spree. Not until the end of the movie did she realize what she was watching was the murder of my cousin Roberto Montes and his girlfriend. Of course she was completely rattled. Roberto was a wonderful young man and adored by his family. Especially since he was the only boy in the family of three sisters. He had just finished graduate school and had dreams of embarking on his career and I imagine marrying the woman he loved. Tragically the night they were killed they were celebrating their birthday which they shared. It was a truly horrifying time and I am not sure if I will ever see the movie. We glorify the killers and forget the victims.Lisa Ackel Judge

I saw this film at the 2008 Palm Springs International Film Festival. This is the debut film from director Andrés Baiz who also adapted the screenplay from the novel by Mario Mendoza. Mendoza actually knew the killer Campo Elias Delgado and wrote the novel drawn from his killing spree. In 1986 Delagdo was a 52 year Columbian Vietnam Vet living in Bogota and working as an English Tutor. He was said to be someone who hated violence and lived with his elderly mother in an apartment building and had a fascination with the novel Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde. One day he went on a killing spree that left 23 dead and 15 wounded. There is a the good and bad in most of the principal characters we follow in this dramatized story. Paola (Marcela Mar) is a beautiful vendor at a street market is enlisted by nefarious acquaintances to become a woman who frequents bars with wealthy patrons and she drugs their drinks so her associates can rob them. She eventually becomes a victim her self and is faced with a decision of life or death in retaliation. Father Ernesto (Blas Jaramillio) is a priest who is having second thoughts about his vows as he lusts for the parish's beautiful housekeeper. After a poor parishioner with three hungry children commits an unthinkable act he finds that she made an ultimate choice and rather than accepting help has made another choice of slipping further into madness. The once helpful Ernesto sees an evil side to himself when confronted by a panhandler. Natalia (Martina Garcia) is a 15 year old daughter of wealthy parents who is being tutor in English by Elisio (Damián Alcázar). Natalia is an innocent that Elisio is attracted to but he resents the wealth she is brought up in and her family and friends. Elisio hates his mother and his neighbors and refuses to contribute to a neighborhood charity to help the poor and needy. He has no friends except for the librarian at the university. He is nicknamed Doc by some who know that he was once a medic in Vietnam but Dr. Jeckyl is rapidly and irreversibly becoming Mr. Hyde. This film is filled with protracted violence and as for it's English subtitle Profile of a Killer, it is less a profile of the killer as much as a story of the other characters who have nothing to do with his story until late in the film. This film is a poor choice for Columbia's official entry as Best Foreign Language Film to the Academy Awards and I would have to believe the country has better to offer. This film is certainly not for everybody and I wouldn't recommend it to a general audience. There are some good acting performances here but there is so much you would want to change about this film that I can only give it a 6.5 out of 10.

As a Colombian proud of my country, I find it depressing and pathetic that most Colombian films have nothing to show but the most horrible human atrocities without any artistic purpose to back them up. Both the author of the book, on which the movie is based, and the director, demonstrate their absolute inability to reach the public without using morbid and sickening situations where human compassion or any redeeming qualities are completely inexistent. On top of the fact that the book is based on a horrifying real story that took place in Bogotá 21 years ago, the author adds upsetting characters and situations (including one of the most horrible rape scenes I have ever seen, children murdered by their own mother, child molestation, kidnapping, robbing, prostitution, street and domestic violence, etc, etc, etc.) that are made up and not connected to the real story, and fulfill no artistic purpose. The director does not use one of the most interesting qualities of cinematography, which is its capacity to "suggest" ideas or emotions, without having to show "literally" every single detail of those horrible situations. There is no artistic complexity in this film and the connections between the characters are absolutely arbitrary. I am no baby for violent or grotesque films in fact I admire and respect many movies that are very violent (say Pulp Fiction for example) because there is more to it than just the crude situations. Satanás insults my intelligence and my artistic taste, and my desire to be at awe in front of a work of art.