El rey de la montaña / King of the hill (Film Review)
December 15th, 2011
I am ostensibly a fan of found footage films – when they are done well ala ‘The Poughkeepsie Tapes’ or ‘Diary of the Dead’. With ‘Cannibal Holocaust’ rating as one of my all-time favourite films. Others are so bad I’ll disavow ever having seen them.
I was so surprised by the quality of Apollo 18 – regardless of the odd plothole – that I found myself online looking at their truth about the moonlandings website. My friend and I were left so curious about the quality of Apollo 18 that we ended up on IMDB – doing a bit of reseach on its director Gonzalo López-Gallego.
This led us to the page for a film called ‘El rey de la montaña’.(King of the Hill)
The description on IMDB was not clear and perhaps not translated very well – the gist of it was; Quim gets lost in a rural area, whilst trying to find his way he gets shot from a hill. Escaping, he meets Bea, a woman from before who is apparently lost as well. Suspicious of each other, they join forces to run away through the forest from those hunting them.
Finding out that back in 2007 that he’d made a Spanish Independent survival horror/thriller – was too tempting. At 2:30 AM we set off into the wilds of the Internet to track it down. It wasn’t easy and was often frustrating but after sometime, we finally managed to get a Spanish version for which we still had to track down subtitles for.
Survival Horror is a favourite genre of mine. Even when done badly they tend to fare well. But when done well – like the English ‘Wilderness’ (2006) or the Australian TV movie ‘Fortress’ (1985) or more – the stunning Norwegian ‘Rovdyr’ (2008). They become exercises in tension that are often more immersive more gripping and far more satisfying than other genres.
We were not disappointed. I’m not sure what I was expecting – even something approaching the quality of ‘Bosque De Sombras’ (Backwoods 2006) would have left us both happy with the effort. Satisfied with the directors’ skill. But no.
Damn it – this is a fine, fine film – one worthy of more attention. One not to be forgotten and definitely one that needs to take its place in the great and long pantheon of survival horror/thrillers.
It feels lovingly made – set in a particularly beautiful part of Northern Spain – with a stunning stark soundtrack – it kept us on the edge of our seats until the final reel. Jaded as I am – I was not expecting the twist thrown up. As the credits rolled – reminiscent of ‘Bosque De Sombras’ – there came a perfectly placed piece of singer-songwriter music called ‘Another Mind’ by Russian Red. It served like a whiskey espresso after a good meal. A digestive we sat and listened right through to the end – nearly clapping the screen when it finally went black.
Find this – Watch It.
I can’t find this film on iTunes – but it is apparently available here at Netflix
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