EL BAR
Spain, 2017, 103 minutes, Colour.,
Directed by Alex de Iglesia.
The films of Alex de Iglesia are an acquired taste. There often seems a certain madness about them, eccentric characters, weird situations, touches of horror, black humour. Not to everybody’s taste – and perhaps not always to Spanish taste for which the films are made.
Which serves as an introduction to review of El Bar which this reviewers actually liked. It may be that the director has been overdosing on a range of Spanish horror films of the last decade, especially the Rec series which it quite resembles. In those films, a virus has gone out of control, trapping inhabitants in an apartment block, trapping a photojournalist as well the authorities and introducing a welter of bloody and gory mayhem.
The title gives us the location, not a high-rise, rather a bar and a basement. As the film opens, the camera focuses on several people walking along the street, talking on their mobile phones, encountering street beggars, gossiping. And they all go into the bar which seems to be doing its ordinary trade, a collection of characters, a stern boss, Ampara, servers and behind the counter staff. Everything seems normal until one customer goes out the door a shot is heard, and the man falls down dead. Sudden shock, no explanations. Then one of the staff goes out into the street to assist and is also shot.
The apocalyptic tone enters the film when a local customer, quite deranged, quoting the Scriptures, a wild-looking man called Israel, enters and behaves erratically.
The focus of the film is on the terror amongst the group, compounded when anonymous workers in protective clothing appear and the bodies have disappeared as has the victims’ blood. The group cannot go out. They do not go. They dare not go out. Then the recriminations start and a series of blame games, accusations, speculations and atmosphere of nastiness. The screenplay shows how much there is in the irrationality and eagerness to find scapegoats.
And then the group members a large man who had come in to use the toilet. Then they go to find him, the corpse bloated, eyes ablaze but dead. They search the man’s mobile phone and go through all his messages, discovering that there is some kind of epidemic, that he had syringes for protection. The owner and two of the men, one a former policemen, force the others down into the basement because they had touched the dead body and are considered contaminated.
Thee claustrophobia, uncertainty, silence about the discovery that the others were dead takes effect. The only way out is the hole to go down into the sewer, but the hole is tight. They send Israel but he gets stuck. Finally, the young woman is able to get through but there is a dispute about the use of the syringes, not enough for the whole group, and power struggles, especially with the apocalyptic Israel.
Once everyone is in the sewers, there are fights, deaths, – but some kind of celebration when one of the group emerges into a perfectly normal Madrid, the authorities having done a cover-up and the media reassuring everyone that all is well.
1. A contemporary horror story? Scientific experiments? Government? cover-ups? Terror behaviour?
2. The credits, the detailed illustrations of genes and mutants?
3. Madrid, the streets and the initial crowds, the bar, and ordinary setting?
4. The bar, the interiors, Amparo in charge, Satur and his work, the range of customers, drinking, slot machines, charging phones, computer work, the salesman, the police, a cross-section of Madrid people?
5. A film of interactions, ordinary, life in the bar? The change with Israel’s entry, his behaviour, appearance, quoting the Scriptures, a sense of the apocalyptic? Satur and Amparo kind to him and controlling him?
6. The man coming to the bar, going to the toilet, their forgetting about him, the later discovery?
7. The customer out in the street, his being shot? The reaction? The man from the bar going out to help, his being shot? Everybody cowering, the phones not working, no information from the television news? The arguments about being heroic, not? Going out? The bodies and blood, the disappearance?
8. The cleaning squad, the reaction of the group, the cleaners as anonymous and in uniforms, masks? Impersonal?
9. The reactions and the suspicions, accusations? Examining the different parcels and bags, Nacho and his headphones and not hearing, his computer, the explanations, Elena smashing it? The salesman and his case and the lingerie? The policeman and his gun? Amparo, her severity – especially about Elena and her snobbish remarks? The woman, age, her fears, gambling
background? A regular at the bar?
10. The man in the toilet, bringing him out, his being bloated, his eyes? Touching and repercussions? The search for his phone, going through all the calls, discovering the experiment, the codes, the syringes?
11. The reactions, Amparo and the men saying they had not touched the body? The others rounded up? Going downstairs, the woman and her fear of confinement, Israel and his behaviour, his quotes? Issues of power and control downstairs? Ideas for escape? The gun?
12. The issue of the sewer, Israel going down, but not able to get through? Nacho in charge? The four syringes, Israel immediately using one? The issue of the three remaining, drawing lots, selfish reactions?
13. Elena, going down the sewer, the progress, hiding the syringes?
14. Chopping away the entry to the sewer, all getting down, Israel and the gun, the fight with Nacho, Israel dead – not? The woman, her speech, her life, her dying? Satur and his falling to the sewer and drowning? Naccho and Elena, going to the light? The latter? Israel, his attack? Dragging Nacho down, their deaths?
15. Elena, the sewer cover, removing it, emerging, ordinary life in the city?
16. Conspiracy theories, the role of the government, the experiments, dead bodies, cleaning? The scene of a fire in the city? The role of the media, the reports, cover-up?
17. The use of the horror genre to illustrate contemporary problems and conspiracies?
