Before The Fall (Tres Dias – 2008) IFC / 2009 Directed by F. Javier Gutierrez Written by Antonio P. Perez, Antonio Banderas Cast: Victor Clavijo, Mariana Cordero, Eduard Fernandez, Daniel Casadella, Ana de las Cuevas, Elvira de Arminan, Juan Galvan Review by Brian Harris When the end of the world is announced and worldwide panic ensues, Ale finds himself alone and fighting for the lives of his brother’s children when an escaped child murderer sets out to even the score. I’ll be damned! The Earth faces impending doom from a life-extinguishing meteor and F. Javier Gutierrez’s main character Ale instead decides to battle a madman for the lives of children that won’t live to marry, have children and grow old. That’s intense. Before The Fall is a fantastic sci-fi thriller, one which I’ll purchase the minute it sees release on retail shelves! Not content to just end the world or just offer up a psycho thriller, F. Javier Gutierrez combines the most terrifying and thrilling from both and the result is every bit as tense, disturbing and original as one could hope for. The character of Ale is hard to like but even harder not to admire when he places himself at risk for the safety of others. You find yourself disliking him for being an asshole and loving him for showing such sacrifice and bravery. Before The Fall is deep, emotionally-charged and captivating. It’s so refreshing to see genre cinema with this kind of heart; it’s a damn shame Hollywood won’t stick its neck out to fund anything this original. I know there’s an English language remake, with Wes Craven attached, on the way but that just don’t count as original.

First Timecrimes, now this? Before The Fall wasn’t flashy or bloated with CG, its thought-provoking sci-fi with stylish touches of two-fisted American western and action cinema combined with the beautiful aesthetic we’ve come to expect from Spanish cinema. I highly recommend Before The Fall, as a rental and/or purchase.

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