Review #19: Buena onda (1999) - Short film

Buena onda is a strange, nonsensical short, in my eyes. Directed by Miguel Coyula, a well-respected young Cuban filmmaker, Buena onda is one of the few, if not the only, Cuban film I've seen thus far in my life. Unfortunately, the impression left by it was not a good one.

Source: Vimeo

Length: 11 mins

Number of Ratings from IMDb: 19

Country of Origin: Cuba

Director: Miguel Coyula [Buena Onda]

From what I can tell, a woman is walking through a forested area, and comes across an item of potential alien origin.

She takes it back home with her, and it causes chaos somehow. I can't tell what the item does exactly, but whatever it is, it's sinister. The story is disjointed, but from what I can tell, her family is rather dysfunctional - the father is a police officer, the mother a broken-looking woman, and the brother, an average brother.

The item in question

My favorite caption of all time

There are various scenes that I feel are lacking in context. I don't quite understand what's going on throughout most of the film, but I do deeply enjoy the last three minutes, in which a Carrie-like massacre occurs in the woman's house.

I'm sure people in Cuba enjoy this short just fine - I just simply don't get it. I don't even think it's meant to be experimental or arty, it's just how Coyula filmed it. It could have been a really interesting film, if the story was a bit more fleshed out. Bit of a shame, really.

Coyula's films nowadays have been getting awards from all over the world at various international film fests. He seems to be doing well for himself, which is nice to know.

My rating: 5/10

IMDb page

Review #14: The Wolf Man (1999) - Short film

The Wolf Man is a six-minute animated short by Tim Hope. While not really just horror, it has elements, and more so, others tend to count it, so I see no harm in reviewing it.

Source: YouTube

Length: 6 minutes

Number of Ratings from IMDb: 95

Country of Origin: United Kingdom

Director: Tim Hope [The Wolf Man] 

So, as aforementioned, this is an animated short. This is not your normal animation, however. Below are two examples of how it looks.'

It's sort of like animated cardboard cut-outs. It's unique, no doubt.

So as for the story, in a forest, we see a woman walking down a path, singing a song to herself to keep occupied.

She does not go unnoticed, though - a wolf see her, and is on the prowl.

From the wolves' point of view, the woman is attacked. But wait, what is this?

It was a movie on the telly, being watched by a bored astrologist, who wishes more than anything he could be a werewolf.

Feeling the moon calling to him, he imagines the moon singing a song to him, while he watches, memorized.

From this point on, the short is quite unclear. Apparently, he turns into a werewolf and... destroys the world. Don't believe me?

So the ending is not very clear or coherent. Perhaps it was all just in his wild imagination, which is what I am inclined to believe. His life is so boring that he would rather turn into a werewolf and destroy the world, so I feel some pity must be felt for him. Oh, and he needs help, as he's utterly insane.

The Wolf Man is an odd film. Apparently it aired on television (in the UK) quite commonly after is came out, so it has a plethora of fans out there. Just look at the YouTube video - almost 22,000 views. This is not unknown by any stretch of the imagination, it just doesn't have anywhere near that many votes on IMDb, which I feel is a shame.

It's an unique short, no doubt, whatever genre one chooses to label it. Due to the ambiguous ending, I can't say I loved it, but it was something interesting. In my opinion, you should check it out at least once, and then probably remember it fondly.

My rating: 6/10

IMDb Page