Reviews

Canadian werewolf film with a historical setting, Quebec, New France, 1665, The Hair of the Beast tells the story of young man, the good-hearted petty thief type, caught in the middle of a creature hunt saga led by a specialist in lycanthropy, a priest, Father Brind'amour. When our anti-hero, the thief, gets mistaken as Brind'amour, a series of adventures start to unroll in the wild beautiful countryside of Quebec. The film goes back and forth between comedy and drama, and successfully manages to avoid being too trivial or too serious. There's a decent amount of blood and guts but most of the time the movie focuses on the lighter tones. It's nothing special but I enjoyed it, reminded me of Brotherhood of the Wolf but that one took itself too seriously, instead, The Hair of the Beast never ceases to discretely mock his protagonists, and intended or not, the werewolves themselves are actually looking like extra hairy overgrown pups. They're vicious alright, but the CGI effects fail to capture that aspect in their appearance. But it doesn't make a big difference in the economy of the film because they're actually fully revealed at the end and until then the occasional clawed paw or the mysterious shape quickly sweeping the foreground are enough elements to insert the necessary amount of tension. Though not at high standards, the film delivers a nicely woven creature tale set in a beautiful woodland in a time when horror figures of folk legends were actually feared and believed as real

These old voodoo films are strange fruits, I love them a lot though they're not particularly respectful towards the aboriginal population inhabiting the exotic far-away places which in the era were mostly fictionalized as destinations of great adventures but especially of great dangers. Blatantly racistic, and terrifyingly simplistic in their exploiting of the occult edges of voodoo as weapons of the natives, seen as barbarian beasts, against the white race, they stand as fascinating curiosities of the horror and mystery cinema of their times. Years before I Walked with a Zombie, we have here a white woman ''zombified'' in the original and accurate meaning of the term, hypnotized, drugged, and occultly manipulated into a being of voodoo folklore, a bloody queen performing dreadful rituals which include human sacrifices. There is no sympathetic approach towards the so-called ''savagery'' of the natives, so, by immediately associating with them, the white woman is seen as an enemy turning against her race, beyond redemption for her family and friends. Even her husband turns against her while she fiercely embraces the islanders' ways. For those who believe old black-and-white films are tame, there's a lot here to make one's skin crawl, including matricidal intentions which I consider it to be the most terrifying element of the film. In a role that's too small for her talent and charisma, Fay Wray is, as always, a delight on screen though her character is diminished in intensity by the restless lady of the house who metamorphoses into a murderous voodoo priestess. It is obscure compared to other classics of the genre, White Zombie or I Walked with a Zombie but it stands on its own and delivers a frightening, completely politically incorrect, tale of exotic voodoo mysteries

I used to be more dismissive towards low budget modern horror, in fact more dismissive towards a big amount of modern horror, low budget or not, but I grew to be tolerant and give the films chances, and let them settle before the usual spontaneous ranting I used to ''perform'' against them. Maybe I've lowered my standards or who knows maybe I am becoming wiser, but I do know that I tend to gain more on a personal level by not being as aggressively critical as I used to. So, despite immediately feeling the temptation to catapult Absentia to the bottom of the ocean to be swallowed by a pit and melted into lava and if possible sucked into the burning hell from the core of the Earth, I decided not to think too much of the film that way and let the things I appreciated about it gently float to the surface. Any film that stuffs its first half hour with a bunch of cheap annoying jump scares using a ghostly presence with muddy eyes and mouth would not usually rate high in my book, but leaving that part aside, Absentia manages to create an atmosphere of doom by taking advantage of the location, that tunnel mouth works well in the favor of the film, and it kind of grows throughout the movie as a dark character of its own. I had the sensation while watching that the characters were somewhere on the edge of a map, and beyond that lied the void in which the creature dwelt. And speaking monsters, this is one intriguing one, I was not bothered by it not being fully introduced to the viewer, glimpses of its insectoid features are enough to intrigue and challenge your own mind into completing the rest. It was all due to low budget, no doubt about that, but I am glad they didn't fall into the trap of fully delivering a mockery of a CGI monster and instead opted for teasing with only shades and curves of its ferocious appearance. There's not too much to say about the acting because there isn't much display of it, the characters are trying but deliver not even half of the real deal, and that gives some tones of silly awkwardness to the film. Overall, despite lots of flaws, the horror tale manages to keep itself in good steady balance and to leave a solid impression of a dark little corner at the end of a street (could be any street anywhere) used as a nest and playground by a terrifying underground creature which happens to enjoy hunting, kidnapping humans and torturing them in its den