Descendents (2008)

the audience applauded

How sad is this?

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

This post-apocalyptic Chilean film begins in an interesting way.Instead of showing the decimation of the world as we know it into a zombie-strewn, blasted wasteland, the terrible events are told through the narration and drawings of a child; the end of the world seen through a child's eyes. Except this child (Camille, played by Camille Lynch), and a handful of others, have been born with gill-like marks on their necks, making them immune from zombie bites and the sickness that accompanies them.When the film proper begins, it becomes apparent that this opening narration isn't an introduction to the story being told - it IS the story. What follows is a series of images, relentlessly punctuated by flashbacks (often the same flashbacks, repeated), of a group of children – each one displaying no acting ability whatsoever – either playing happily on swings, being chased by the living dead (from whom they have nothing to fear because of their 'gills'), or chased by soldiers eager to learn more about their immunity. And that is it. Story-wise, nothing happens until the end. Worst of all, the viewer is not given any inclination to care.Visually, things are more interesting. A lot of the colour has been bled from the images, and we are treated to a kind of sepia world, with only rolling contaminated orange skies and the bright redness of blood to enliven the vistas. The zombie transformations are effective, but undermined each time by the juveniles' utter lack of reaction to them – they are immune, so why should they worry? The children reach the ocean, and the swelling of triumphant music tells us this is a good thing, even when a giant digital octopus emerges and destroys a helicopter full of ever-present soldiers. The youngsters' transformation is complete, it seems, as Camille turns to the camera and reveals fully matured gills and webbed hands.

South American cinema at its most powerful. Jose Olguin, director of the fascinating film, Eternal Blood, has left a deep mark upon Chilean cinema and it is clear why his impact has been so profound with this masterpiece. This motion picture certainly is an attempt to reconcile Chile's history of military dictatorships and violation of human rights with the enlightened nation it has become. Beautifully filmed with stylistic cinematic flourish, the imagery is hauntingly stark and surrealistic in intent. Some of what is depicted involving the innocents is shocking but justifiable in light of the artistic purposes of the director. The film is unrated or NC- 17 because of the violence directed at children but these sequences are clearly misinterpreted in their true meaning as metaphor. In the end, Olquin refers stunningly to Magic Realism and the film's conclusion is overwhelmingly mesmerizing. A true treasure of Chile's cinematic legacy.

I had the pleasure to watch this 'gem' of horror genre in cinema.The story is about a little girl who gets separated from her mother during a zombie virus outbreak and now has to live on her own, wandering through abandoned, dead villages or suburbs to search for food. Killer-Commandos were sent out to clean up the place, so not to be mistaken for a zombie is high priority on her list.Because she is immune to the zombie virus, not a single zombie is a threat for this girl. Eventually she finds other kids who are also immune and they group up to find salvation at the ocean - or something.Sounds awesome? It gets better: Not only the plot is completely destroyed by the main 'characters' being immune to zombies, the visuals are so extremely bad, irritating and unnecessary that you want to break the DVD in half and burn it after wards.Expect long, pointless slow motion, blurred and shaky scenes even when nothing happens AT ALL. Watching 5 minutes of playing children with an overload of shitty effects and slow motion. GENIUS!When the little girl remembers her mother, flashback scenes are used. Not one, but you'll see many of them. However, they are all equally annoying and mostly meaningless.There was hardly any acting or dialog.Sound effects do their part to slingshot this horror movie right into the dumpster.This is no trashy-bad zombie movie but simply a VERY bad zombie movie.1/10

Beyond Geroge Romero there has not been a zombie film that's loaded with this much social/political commentary. Jorge Olguin's 2002 follow-up to SANGRE ETERNA aka ETERNAL BLOOD is a very strong and original post-apocalyptic/Sci-fi/horror movie. For about a half a million dollars, the movie was shot in ten days, with mostly young children ranging from five to ten years old. The children's acting may not be up to par and some of the effects surely reflect the lack of budget & time but DESCENDENTS/SOLOS is a truly dark and disturbing movie set in a dystopian world that looks like a low budget mixture of 28 DAYS LATER and CHILDREN OF MEN, with strong echoes to Chile's past as a military dictatorship. Jorge Olguin is a talent to definitely keep an eye on.