Per Matt
What’s Halloween without a little subtitled terror? The Last Matinee is My Guilty Pleasure!

Originally titled Al morir la matinée, as well as alternately titled Red Screening, this Spanish-language horror film by writer-director Maximiliano Contenti is an international release (involving Uruguay, Mexico and Argentina) that pays tribute to classic giallo tales and American slashers. Originally released in 2020, I randomly caught the movie on a late-night viewing of The Movie Channel.

Set in Montevideo in 1993, the story takes place on a rainy night at a run-down movie theater. We know the place; we’ve all been there numerous times: The dirty floors, the underpaid employees who’d prefer to be anywhere but working and the analog projection system. Long before assigned seating and digital clarity, there were still jerks found in movie theaters. And there’s a few here.

The mundane gets featured for a moment, as a projectionist calls out, while an old man temporarily takes their place. The show must go on, don’t ya know. As a variety of attendees file into the empty theater, nobody notices a stranger wearing a full-length rain jacket, gloves, boots and hood carrying a mysterious bag, looking nothing but suspicious. One by one, the small audience disappears. Will nobody survive to see the end credits of Frankenstein: Day of the Beast?

First of all, it’s the spooky season and this film thrilled me. It wasn’t every horror trope imaginable, because just about all of them are present and accounted for. There are not really any jump scares to speak of. Blood and gore? You know it, but the violence is pretty tame compared to today’s standards. This low-budget horror film that I previously knew nothing about almost feels like a meta storyline, with a serial killer hiding out inside a movie theater, unnoticed by many until it’s too late (it’s also a little too real these days).

It’s just people ignoring other people — not just the American way!

We spend an unusual amount of time watching what these 10 characters see, which is mostly a movie within a movie with subtitles, but it’s also their reactions. And with a loud horror movie playing in the background, no one seems to notice any of the make outs, the sex and the killings. Naturally.

Early on, a horoscope reading predicts the final girl to those who pay attention to Easter Eggs and the film slowly builds up our hero’s stamina.

There is a gag that’s noteworthy, where a smoking victim inhales, gets his neck slit and then smoke comes out. I thought it was pretty cool, at least. The killer never speaks (or receives any sympathy), so character development is out the door. It’s unclear why Asesino Come Ojos (the “eye-eating killer”) does what he does, especially dragging a jar full of pickled eyes on his journey. Maybe he was simply hungry. We’ll never know. In fact, this guy looks like he was killing people with a small, serrated kitchen knife, which seemingly should have been easily removed by anyone who noticed it.

And for those who like tiny nuggets of needless trivia, Frankenstein: Day of the Beast is an actual movie (I haven’t seen it) and the serial killer in this film is played by that movie’s director, Ricardo Islas! The more you know.

I’ve really gotten into watching a variety of subtitled movies lately and the horror genre never seems to disappoint. I’m always on a mission to discover something new in MGP, so if you have a great recommendation or two, feel free to send it my way!

On a rainy night, a killer strikes… visit the Opera Cinema, its films are to die for!