Fuego Negro (2020)

Quirkily bad. It could have been a Bollywood production; that mustache, in particular, is unacceptable anywhere else. But the over-the-top sets and lighting fall into that category too. What could have been strikingly stylish and authentic is, above all, strikingly kitschy. Extremely saturated, as if it were a fucking Mondrian. Every single image has to contain green / yellow / red and blue. It is all a bit too much, but time and money clearly went into the set designs, among other things, and that is a 'branch' of B-movie making that is often skimped on. There are absolutely moments where it works, but the aftertaste is mediocre. Moreover, the soundtrack is extremely bland and the action scenes fall short on all fronts; poorly (broken) edited, but highly necessary because both the choreography and the incompetent cast make a mess of it. It is a waste of the few weird / freaky characters that appear; they give it a certain character that the rest of the film subsequently doesn't rhyme with. Strange project...

Translated from Dutch · View original

While watching, I had to ask myself multiple times what on earth I was watching, but you will quickly encounter those kinds of questions when you hit the bottom barrel of the Netflix catalog. Not that it was intentional, as Fuego Negro had been on my list for some time and certainly possesses a number of demonstrable qualities. Specifically, the colorful setting looks well thought out and the horror follows in rapid succession, but the (poorly acting) main characters seem rather lost amidst it all. Not entirely surprising when there is barely a coherent storyline, causing you to lose track after a while and distance yourself from this not-so-engaging affair.

Translated from Dutch · View original