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Porto dos Mortos
Beyond the Grave
Brazil 2011
produced by
Davi de Oliveira Pinheiro, Isidoro B. Guggiana, Glauco Urbim (executive) for Lockheart Filmes
directed by Davi de Oliveria Pinheiro
starring Rafael Tombini, Álvaro Rosa Costa, Ricardo Seffner, Amanda Grimaldi (= Amanda Lerias), Luciana Verch, Leandro Lefa, Tatiana Paganella, Adriano Basegio, Marcos Guarani, Felipe Longhi, Isidoro B. Guggiana, Claudio Benevenga, Cassiano Griesang, Daniel Bacchieri, Lindon Satoru Shimizu, Luca Tombini, Heinz Limaverde, Carolina Silva Zimmer, Néfer Kroll, Samy Duarte, Zé Leandro Ourique, Ian Ramil (voice)
written by Davi de Oliveira Pinheiro, music by Augusto Bornhausen, Bruno Fritzen, Gabriel Fritzen, Felipe Lermen, Felipe Longhi, special effects by Kapel Furman, visual effects by Pedro Marques
review by
Mike Haberfelner
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The apocalypse has long happened, humanity has long been run over by
zombies, and the fact that a few of the humans have survived is mainly due
to the fact that zombies are rather un-smart. Civilization as we know it
has likewise long run its course, and still, a lone police officer (Rafael
Tombini) still figures himself on duty, taking out bad guys left and right
- which gets harder pretty much by the minute, since he is quickly running
out of ammunition, and it's not likely he's getting any any time soon. But
he's a man on a mission, driven to have his revenge on the Dark Rider,
a serial killer who has destroyed his life once and he thinks he has
killed him in the process - but now he's back. Eventually, the police
officer stumbles upon Shooter (Ricardo Seffner) and Nina (Amanda Lerias),
a couple of teens who also have a score to settle with the Dark Rider.
Even though the officer is a loner in general, he takes on the two teens,
knowing that they would wind up dead without his help pretty soon. Before
long, our three heroes reach a sort-of safe haven, an abandoned school now
in habitated by wise Franco (Álvaro Rosa Costa), pregnant Adriene
(Luciana Verch) and dim-witted Ashley (Leandro Lefa), where they spend a
few peaceful days before picking up the trail of the Dark Rider ... but
the Dark Rider has lured them into a trap, and while killing Shooter and
Nina, they leave the officer alive, because the Dark Rider has other plans
for him. Franco and company pick up the badly injured officer and nurse
him back to health - but at a price, eventually Adriene is bitten by a
zombie and kills herself to not become one of them, and Ashley behaves in
such a way he has to be expelled ... and before long, he teams up with the
Black Rider's gang and spills the beans about the abandoned school, which
the Dark Rider gang soon raid. But the officer and Franco manage to escape
and arm themselves for a counter attack - which seems to be such a success
since they take out the Dark Rider himself ... only the Dark Rider is a
soul-hopping demon who eventually possesses Franco, turning him against
the officer - and things only go downhill from there on ... Beyond
the Grave is a genre cocktail unlike any you've ever seen: It starts
out as a pretty straight forward post-apocalyptic movie of the zombie
variety, complete with muscle cars and the like, but eventually takes on
influences from genres as diverse as the spaghetti Western, possession
movies, cheesy gang movies, and so on, all done with a certain arthouse
attitude to it and a total refusal to just quote genre masterpieces à la
Quentin Tarantino. Now add to this a direction that finds the right
balance between subtlety and genre-specific violence, and a strong cast of
interesting characters who defy genre clichés, embodied by a strong cast
of actors, and you've got a pretty interesting movie! Recommended!
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