{"id":24481,"date":"2017-02-27T18:40:39","date_gmt":"2017-02-27T23:40:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=24481"},"modified":"2017-02-27T18:41:21","modified_gmt":"2017-02-27T23:41:21","slug":"night-of-the-virgin-2016-frightfest-glasgow-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2017\/02\/27\/night-of-the-virgin-2016-frightfest-glasgow-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Night of the Virgin (2016) [FrightFest Glasgow 2017]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>On New Year\u2019s Eve, a young man goes to a party hell-bent on losing his virginity.\u00a0 There he meets an older woman who takes him home and tells him all about a goddess she learned about in Nepal.\u00a0 Quickly things take a turn for the weird, the weirder, and the WTF.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Written by Guillermo Guerrero and directed by Roberto San Sebastian, the film takes its premise and cranks it to 11.\u00a0 Most of the film revolves around two characters, Nico the titular virgin and Medea the lady who may make his dreams come true.\u00a0 The film is written in way that goes from \u201cmaybe this is a bit much\u201d to completely over the top within its runtime.\u00a0 The story is fairly simple with only 3 characters really, one of them spending a good part of the film talking through a closed and barricaded apartment door.\u00a0 The characters feel simple yet complex in their messed-up-ness.\u00a0 Their lives could be easy but the choices they make put them in this insane situation by the film\u2019s third part.\u00a0 While they feel exaggerated and completely crazy, they work in this story and their environment.<\/p>\n

The three lead characters, Nico, Medea, and Spider, are played by Javier Bodalo, Miriam Martin, and Victor Amilibia respectively.\u00a0 While Bodalo starts the films exaggerating a bit much in his performance, the film\u2019s insanity eventually catches up with him and he fits right in.\u00a0 Martin gives a properly, increasingly demented performance.\u00a0 She shows her craziness bit by bit, turning it up along with the film\u2019s madness.\u00a0 Amilibia for his part works better through the door when he can only be heard.\u00a0 Once he is seen, he goes too over-the-top and feels cartoonish in a few scenes.\u00a0 Generally though, this all works in the end due to the sheer general insanity of the second half.<\/p>\n

Supporting this insanity are the special effects.\u00a0 The crew led by Mario Campoy and Irene Rio have done amazing and amazingly gross effects here.\u00a0 These start easy enough with a bit of blood and other bodily fluids.\u00a0 Then I the second half of the film, they get to really shine amongst the insanity and madness.\u00a0 Things take a bit of time to develop, but once they start going, they go to eleven fast.\u00a0 The effects are a huge part of the second half, even more so in the last third or so.\u00a0 One piece of their work in particular is a special shade of batty and thus highly enjoyable.\u00a0 Not wanting to spoil it makes it difficult to discuss but lets just say it should make everyone cringe in the best way possible.\u00a0 It\u2019s gross, great, cringe-worthy work.<\/p>\n

The way all of this is shot with cinematography by Adrian Hernandez keeps the focus mostly on the titular virgin and slowly shifts it to the insanity involving the poor guy.\u00a0 The way the action is framed brings up the intensity by going up-close and (sometimes literally) personal with the characters.\u00a0 Everything is right in your face, like it or not, and it may very well be a case where they aimed at \u201cor not\u201d which it does beyond well.\u00a0 It takes the sometimes revolting, almost always surprising images and forces the viewer to watch up-close lest they close their eyes, which brings us back to the effects that need to be beyond on point when shot and shown this close up.\u00a0 Also upping the insanity is how the film is editing by Ibon Belandia.\u00a0 Belandia\u2019s work adds an energy to the scenes with calculated cuts and occasional lingering on certain emotions and reactions.\u00a0 Between the framing and editing, the action feels hyper-active at times which is perfect for the film.<\/p>\n

Night of the Virgin is one gross-out of a film with a decent story and characters that are all desperate for one thing or another, bringing them all into one apartment for a maelstrom of insanity.\u00a0 Considering last year\u2019s The Greasy Strangler and Antibirth, Night of the Virgin looks to be in good company for what could very well be the birth (or re-birth) of Bizarro Cinema if that is even a thing.\u00a0 It\u2019s nuts but in a good way.\u00a0 Once one scene made this reviewer go \u201cthat was unnecessary\u201d while the rest of the WTF proceedings felt almost logical in the film\u2019s own world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On New Year\u2019s Eve, a young man goes to a party hell-bent on losing his virginity.\u00a0 There he meets an older woman who takes him home and tells him all about a goddess she learned about in Nepal.\u00a0 Quickly things take a turn for the weird, the weirder, and the WTF.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[219,349,367,477,703,1087],"class_list":["post-24481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-comedy","tag-fantasy","tag-foreign","tag-horror","tag-mystery","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24481"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24483,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24481\/revisions\/24483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}