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3 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
a regurgitation of grossness and cliches, 21 April 2003
3/10
Author: Zagria from Ottawa

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Some almost spoilers, but I rewrote this to avoid stating who is the killer.

This film played as the closing event at the 2003 Ottawa Chilean Film Festival under the English Title of "Dark Angel". It is an unimaginative regurgitation (a carefully chosen word given the director's extended shots of toilets and vomiting) of cliche's taken from the worst kind of US horror flic. Even the fact that the survivor is a woman - the cliche of the final girl - was a standard item in the 1970s. It was old when it was used in Alien I. But, unlike even many trash horror films, she doesn't earn her survival, she is rescued by the policeman. The killings by knifing are gratuitous, and could have been left out of the frame. On the other hand if you go to this kind of film to see bodies cut open, you will feel teased. The music is overdramatic, the motivation is unexplained, and there is no subtext to compensate. The horror could be taken as a type of the "the monstrous feminine", but it is of an unthinking male heterosexuality that was more appropriate to the middle twentieth century. It does not have the self-reflexivity of a Wes Craven, or the sly self-subversion of a Hitchcock.

If you want an imaginative horror film from world cinema, there is of course the incredible 'Ringu'. If you specifically want Chilean horror, go see 'The Others' or even 'Tetis' by Alejandro Amenábar. The latter is only a weak film, but it is better than 'Dark Angel'. What is this nonsense about this film being the first Chilean horror film - by location and financing maybe. Not by director.

Why does the killer kill the bank security guard with such ferocity? The guard is an innocent bystander. Given the crudity of the costume, how could the killer get into the suite of the politician's son by claiming to be his girlfriend?

I had figured out the killer by the killing of the politician's son. Look at the person's stride.

What is the purpose of the extended shot from above as the survivor vomits into the toilet bowl? How does it advance the story, and wouldn't a quick suggestive shot in fact have been more effective?

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Formulaic Chilean Slasher, 28 February 2008
Author: Rapeman from New Zealand

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Ángel Negro is a Chilean horror flick from writer / director Jorge Olguín - this is his first full length feature. The plot of this rather formulaic slasher tells the tale of a teen coming back from the dead to get revenge on all of those who played a role in her death.

The film opens with some black & white home video footage in which we see a group of teens drunkenly celebrating their graduation. As the night progresses things start to get out of hand as the kids turn against each other which eventually leads to the death of one of the girls, Angel, who was the outcast of the group. Cut to ten years later - one of the teens, Gabriel, who was deeply in love with Angel and is now a forensic pathologist, begins seeing his old school chums turning up as murder victims on his autopsy slab. As the murders continue, soon only Gabriel and Carolina - another old friend who was married to one of the murder victims - are left alive from the original group of friends that witnessed / contributed to the death of Angel and she is steadily tracking them down for a long awaited "reunion".

I really thought I was going to like Ángel Negro, its hyped status as being Chile's only horror film (which is obviously not true) combined with it being well received at Montréal's FanTasia film festival had me expecting an original Chilean slasher which was the exact opposite of what I got. First off, the killer wears a f@cking Michael Myers mask, for which the film immediately loses originality credits, secondly, it is very slow moving, almost to the point of dullness. In an extra feature interview, the director explains the blank mask is a metaphor for how in Chile's totalitarian society people who don't conform or agree with it's regime are outcasts and "disappear". That may be, but it sure didn't help the film any.

The violence overall is pretty low-key, there are stabbings, shootings, beatings and wire strangulation but none are very graphic aside from one prolonged stabbing scene. The scenes in the morgue are pretty realistic seeing as they were shot in an actual morgue, but any autopsies that are performed are done off camera. Slightly in the films defence, it does have kind of a giallo vibe going on, especially with it's "shocking" final twist that vaguely separates it from other slashers but still not enough to make it interesting. Another negative about the film is the awful subtitling - apart from the fact that the subs are white so are basically invisible in the B&W flashback scenes and any other light shots, they were obviously translated by a retarded primate as the grammar is almost indecipherable at times.

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3 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
muleitor, 4 January 2003
Author: luchorock from Chile

The first horror movie made in Chile, a decent movie but doesn't bring nothing new to the table for this kind of movie. the history is to similar to several new-school horror movies like scream, i know what you did last summer, valentine, etc.

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It's a excellent horror film with much atmosphere!!!, 13 January 2007
10/10
Author: paulofx

It's a film of horror with much atmosphere and very good performances. The plot is very classic, an adolescent abused by a group of companions, commits suicide. 10 years later she apparently returns to the life to make justice. Perhaps that is not very original, but the surprising thing of this film, is that it's filmed with much elegance, with a disquieting atmosphere, in a solitary city and with tormented personages. It's a film of nostalgic horror, that remembers much to the old "giallos" and "eye" with the final turn. It's an excellent debut done with little budget, but by far talent and creativity, it surpasses many films type "slasher". It's strange to find this type of films in Latin America, is a small jewel to collect.

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Excellent new blood for new a terror!!, 24 September 2006
10/10
Author: carolina morales from Chile

It's the first film of Jorge Olguin when he was a student of cinema in the university, with a budget of 25 thousand dollars managed to make this feature of terror, that is first in Chile. The plot is very similar to films of assassins with adolescents, very similar to the films like Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Urban Legend, etc… But the interesting thing, is that in spite of his ultra-lowbudget, it has much atmosphere and it is looked like films of Dario Argento. Without a doubt, Angel Negro, is plus "giallo" that slasher. The scenes filmed in B/N are formidable. It is a film violent and very melancholic, has a spirit very twisted, in spite of his low-budget, is filmed elegant, without a doubt it is an excellent new blood for new a terror!!

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7 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
An Amazing Slasher..., 30 May 2004
Author: rodrigo (rolawoo@hotmail.com)

Not!!....Angel Negro is the greatest insult anyone has ever made to such a noble genre as the slasher. The mediocre Jorge Olguin tells the story of some psycho killer who kills people in Santiago from Chile, but what we actually get is a jerk who, unlike Kevin williamson, hasn't seen a genre flick in his life.

I mean, you rent a couple of classic 80s slashers or even Scream, and you're more ready to make a movie than this guy. Avoid this like the plague, or just go ahead and rent Friday the 13th XIV Jason vs Predator, i don't know... "Oh my god, its a mannequin!!"....hahaha, and Carpenter rolls in his grave...he isn't dead?, well, you know what I mean... 0 out of 10

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1 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Horror in a Chilean way, 14 December 2000
10/10
Author: Alfredo Orellana (alfardo@hotmail.com) from Copiapó, Chile

Angel negro is not only a new try to make movies in a country where is so difficult to make them, Angel Negro is the first horror Chilean movie and it works perfectly. You can not ask for a huge money production but they replace it with a strong creation. Jorge Olguín could create a very good fun without any ambition, that was for better. This Movie is more close to entertainment cinema than the "autor" cinema and that we can appreciate it because this movie is one of the most funny chilean movie ever made. blood, scream and persecutions are its elements in an authentical horror movie. Andrea Freund is a great actress and her performance in this movie is simply irresistible.

A good entertainment, good performances and a funny story make of Angel Negro the first Chilean Horror Movie and one of the most funny.

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1 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Not only the first Chilean horror movie, 9 December 2000
Author: Ostomedo (cristian-orellana@usa.net) from Santiago, Chile

Presented as "the first chilean horror movie", this film is not only the first in this way. Is the first successful attempt to do a movie for entertainment. Until now usually chilean directors tried to do "auteur" films with different results. So, Angel Negro is not a deep or very artistic film but keeps you in your seat all the way. I worked as cameraman there and was a tough work. We struggle with serious budget problems but fortunately all this misery didn't brought a B-series movie. Andrea Freund's performance and Arnaldo Rodríguez cinematography are, in my humble opinion, the highest points.

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