Scherzo Diabolico

With nothing but cases of flavored water and potato chips, Anabela, a terrified young beauty, waits shivering in a grimy abandoned factory for her captor’s return. Beneath a skeletal mask that invokes the Mexican Dia de los Muertos is Aram, an overworked accountant making a desperate attempt to blackmail his boss by kidnapping her daughter. Things go methodically according to plan as Aram destroys the lives of those closest to him in his expertly calculated plot. But months later, Anabela discovers an overwhelming capacity for brutal revenge. Suddenly it’s Aram’s life that’s crashing down upon him as Anabela demonstrates how she’s even crazier than he is. Directly addressing the regenerative power of violence, veteran Spanish filmmaker Adrián García Bogliano delivers his most intense chiller to date. Featuring stunning widescreen camerawork, terse editing, and unfathomable plot twists, SCHERZO DIABOLICO is an old-school shocker. (In Spanish with subtitles) –C.P.