TADFF 2022: Evil Eye (Mal de Ojo, 2022)

Evil Eye (Mal de Ojo, 2022)

Director (and co-writer): Isaac Ezban

Cast: Paola Miguel, Ofelia Medina, Samantha Castillo, Arap Bethke, Ivanna Sofia Ferro, Paloma Alvamar, Mauro Gonzalez

Witches, fairy tales and parables, children in peril, creepy grandmother and a big house: All of them a good element to making a good horror. Evil Eye is a Mexican witchcraft horror film that plays with the parable reflected in real life and follows a young adolescent Nala who is forced to go to her estranged grandmother’s house because her younger sister Luna is sick and her parents are seeking more help. As she gets there, the most interesting is the housemaid’s story about three sisters and their encounter with a witch and the central message that everything is an exchange: they give you something and will take something back.

Evil Eye is an odd horror film to talk about. Its first part is unsettling and sets up a really great backdrop to what to anticipate. There’s a few jumpscares that are effective because the atmosphere is done so well. The second act feels a little more overdone as its a battle between the different values between the young city girl of Nala versus the elderly grandmother’s controlling nature which carries a hidden plot as Nala starts to find her increasingly bizarre and starts to see the connection with the story she heard versus her grandmother. In films like this, a lot of times it takes the path of the unexpected which makes the audience guess whether its just a misdirection as it plays up on the grandmother’s strong personality to bring her granddaughter up her own way so to see it going that extra step makes it a lot creepier. We’ve seen creepy grandmothers who own up to them in films like The Visit but Evil Eye takes a different direction and the final reveal as all the pieces come together makes for a pretty impressive final act and a rather bleak one to say the least as it brings in an element about moving from adolescent to adulthood.

Evil Eye as a whole is a pretty impressive film and it uses its elements pretty well. The cinematography and sound design also does pretty good to create a creepy and spine-tingling atmosphere. There are some fantastic design in terms of the witch design and the whole concept of how the witch works. Its a little sad that the witch’s appearance isn’t used more and rather the middle segment drags a little with the whole push and pull energy between Nala and her grandmother. It feels like it goes a step too much plus the grandmother brings in these moments of over the top expression and in some ways, it takes away a little from the initial mystery and sinister feeling that has been hanging in the air at times.

With that said, this film is centered around young actress Paola Miguel who plays Nala and she does a pretty great job. Much like Ivanna Sofia Ferro who plays her younger sister Luna. Nala is a pretty good character and reminds us a little of films like Pan’s Labyrinth, with their young female protagonist stepping into all kinds of dangers that going way over her head without the necessary protection that she needs. She’s a strong character and through all her jealousy towards her younger sister, the family and sisterhood element comes up even if she also has this helpless and misunderstood side because she’s against a much stronger and evil force.

Overall, Evil Eye has its little flaws here and there but the messages that it carries and the execution is pretty great overall. The setting in the big house and the surrounding area also have a character of its own as it amplifies the sinister atmosphere in its emptiness and solitude. While it carries multiple horror elements, they do blend very well together. Its always fun to see a parable-style film and in the vein of witches which seem to be a rising trend in both regards. Mexico seems to be a breeding ground for these types of films in general with Pan’s Labyrinth to Tigers Are Not Afraid and now this. While this one is more grounded in reality, there’s still a whole debate whether the tale told actually happened.

TV Binge: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (Part 3, 2020)

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (Part 3, 2020)

Creator: Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa

Cast: Kiernan Shipka, Ross Lynch, Gavin Leatherwood, Lucy Davis, Chance Perdomo, Miranda Otto, Michelle Gomez, Jaz Sinclair, Tati Gabrielle, Adeline Rudolph, Lachlan Watson, Sam Corlett, Richard Coyle, Alessandro Juliani, Luke Cook, Jonathan Whitesell

As her 16th birthday nears, Sabrina must choose between the witch world of her family and the human world of her friends. Based on the Archie comic. – IMDB

Picking from the events from Part 2, Greendale has completely switched around. Sabrina’s boyfriend Nick has sacrificed himself and taken to Hell with Lilith who now rules there. Much like Aunt Zelda who now has taken over the Academy of Unseen Arts to hopefully rebuild it. While Ambrose and Prudence have gone off to travel around the world trying to track down Father Blackwood and get rid of him before he can exact anymore hazardous plans upon his probable return. However, Sabrina soon gets dragged into a much more serious role in exchange for saving Nick as she takes on the role of Queen of Hell and is challenged by Caliban, the Prince of Hell who also wants to win the throne through a series of quests to find the Unholy Regalia.

Part 3 of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina takes an interesting turn of events. The relationships are now pretty much set as much as the alliances. The shift in power as well as the new outline of who is running things starts having a bigger toll especially as a lot of the secrets were revealed by the end of the last season. This season, its about making up for those things with some rather dire consequences, notably the main one being Sabrina given the power of the Queen of Hell and having an inner tug of war between what she needs to do, what she should do and what is more important to her. This all comes crashing together in the big finale when there is a whole time manipulation sequence where things get warped and she has to find a way to fix it.

For Part 1 & 2 reviews, I haven’t really taken a lot of time to look at the other characters other than the character development of Sabrina. Part 3 seems like a good time since most of the main cast is now rather set and developed at this point. For the most part, the show does revolve primarily around Sabrina and her development and it ends up putting the others a little bit more in the background with little scenes that come and go which is mostly revolving around Ambrose and Prudence, the Aunts Zelda and Hilda, her mortal friends Harvey, Roz and Theo and her love interest at the moment. In this case, the season is mostly surrounding Nick and eventually also the possible interest in Caliban. In reality, the characters in Sabrina probably have a lot more space to develop and for the most part, they feel rather one dimensional despite some of their abilities being more fleshed out as the show moves forward, it could be one of the reasons that it feels a little less engaging.

The main engaging and fun element are mostly the events that they pop up that flips the situation. The gives the show a nice course of dilemmas and situations throughout that eventually lead to a big finale. In this case, it goes to a mysterious circus that comes to town and the escaped Father Blackwood messing things up in the background who all come into play as he now aligns with anyone who can exact the revenge he wants. The threat here being pretty much more engaging since this new crew of characters (the Pagans) pose their own threats. If the circus itself didn’t bring its own oddities, the people they bring also have their own influences to different characters and brings in yet another branch of belief and another force that wants to take over the realm. If the Hell issues weren’t enough, this definitely kept the plot points very busy.

Overall, Part 3 was a pretty decent one. It did step up a little from the second part. This time’s threats and dilemmas between the characters helped give it a lot of constant motion, propelling it forward so fast that it was actually rather fascinating. The twist at the end was a huge highlight especially since it gave it something of an adventure like Harrry Potter and the Goblet of Fire but the different realms giving some variation to the plot from its first 2 ways. The power struggle expands and pushes Sabrina to make some tough decisions, constantly developing her character further.

TV Binge: A Discovery of Witches (Season 1, 2018)

A Discovery of Witches (Season 1, 2018)

Cast: Matthew Goode, Teresa Palmer, Valarie Pettiford, Malin Buska, Owen Teale, Alex Kingston, Aiysha Hart, Edward Bluemel, Gregg Chillin, Trevor Eve, Louise Brealey, Elarica Johnson

Diana Bishop, historian and witch, accesses Ashmole 782 and knows she must solve its mysteries. She is offered help by the enigmatic Matthew Clairmont, but he’s a vampire and witches should never trust vampires. – IMDB

A Discovery of Witches is a fun little gem. Season 1 is neatly packed at 8 episodes and stars the talented but rather underrated (in my opinion) Matthew Goode (I mean, have you seen him in Stoker?) and the very charming Teresa Palmer as they are paired up as two magical individuals, vampire and witch who unexpectedly and much against the magical order’s rules, fall in love with each other, except maybe its not that surprising with later discoveries.

Granted its only a few episodes long for the first season, the story does have some odd execution issues that probably lean more on building a romantic foundation between the two characters a lot in the first half before bringing in the magical dangers in the second half. This execution is good and bad. Its good because the characters of Matthew and Diana become quite the connected couple and we can root for them together. The bad is that, it takes a little away from the thrills of this world of magic and keeps that part relatively more shallow and piles it on a lot more in the second half. I haven’t read the source material so maybe that is also how the book is.

While I say that, Matthew Goode and Teresa Palmer are amazing as a couple and probably will end up on couples to ship together for sure. Their characters Matthew and Diana are fascinating together even when some of the dialogue is very been there done that and maybe even a tad cringey however somehow whenever ancient vampires come into play, it all becomes a little more acceptable because they are expected to be old-fashioned. The connection they have is great on screen and they have some believable chemistry and passion between them. It also helps that Diana learns from him as he learns and protects her from the magical world that she isn’t quite familiar with. At the same time, they balance out because while she lacks control in her powers, she is also a tough character with determination not only for their love but other elements as well. TV couples that somewhat grow and better themselves together make for strong characters.

Where this season and possibly the story itself has its limits is in some relatively annoying characters who almost seem endless and have no sense of danger to them. Like the girl above playing Satu (Malin Buska) who honestly is supposed to be scary or unsettling through the constant character design of quiet and glares. Her character felt quite useless throughout although how they end the season 1 (and depending on what Season 2 does with it) might change that thought. While there are other fairly disposable characters here presented, which probably only feels that way because the season is so compact and has a good number of characters revealed but never quite having enough place to be memorable or meaningful.

This first season of A Discovery of Witches is honestly setting up a lot of foundations and giving an outline of the characters and the world and magical politics, that set the stage for whats to come in future seasons. Many shows tend to do that as something of an introductory. Luckily, there’s enough here to have Season 2 greenlit and hopefully will be released soon.