CITY OF ASHES (2019 - Spanish)

Studio:      Producciones Verdebiche Sas.
Director:    Jhon Salazar
Writer:      Jhon Salazar
Producer:  Jhon Salazar
Stars:     Alex Adames, Caterine Escobar, Luis Fernando Hoyos, Patricia Tamayo, Jorge Herrera, Patricia Castano, Isabella Garcia

Review Score:

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Summary:

When an orphaned girl enters their lives, a Colombian farming family unravels a countryside conspiracy connected to witchcraft and goblins.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Recently orphaned, Miriam comes to live on a Colombian coffee plantation with her aunt Evilia, Evilia’s husband Antonio, Antonio’s widower father Ramon, and the family’s housekeeper Carmen. Antonio takes to Miriam like a doting father, which causes ongoing resentment from Evilia because sterility prevents her from giving Antonio a daughter.

Evilia secretly visits village witch Alicia, who regularly performs pagan fertility rituals on Evilia. Alicia gives Miriam a bracelet like Evilia’s that she claims is for protection.

Antonio experiences a recurring nightmare of himself as a boy finding his mother on her deathbed. Antonio tells Evilia that he thinks the dream is a warning related to protecting Miriam.

Evilia wakes in the morning to find Miriam’s bracelet broken on the floor. She also discovers someone braided Miriam’s hair while she slept.

The family attends church services for Lent. Alicia also attends. Father Aguirre delivers a sermon warning about a notorious town on the mountain known for misfortune. The priest invites Miriam to receive her First Communion at an upcoming sacrament. The family is surprised to discover Miriam doesn’t know any Catholic prayers. Carmen starts teaching her.

Upset after Antonio insists on buying Miriam a First Communion dress and starts talking about moving to a house in the plaza, Evilia visits Alicia again. Alicia tells Evilia that she suspects there is an evil presence in the plantation house. Evilia mentions the family has a goblin who guards their farm. Alicia warns that the goblin can take the appearance of a child.

The farm is strangely dark at dawn on the day of Miriam’s First Communion. The black sky rains ash for two days. Ramon tells cryptic tales about a similar circumstance that lasted for weeks. Ramon recalls ‘The Mohan’ stealing children, pigs being born with human faces, and cows giving sour milk.

Antonio has a nightmare of a shadowy figure and three witches surrounding his mother’s deathbed. Miriam’s screams wake Antonio. Antonio finds Miriam convulsing in her bed.

Miriam finally has her First Communion. Ramon asks Evilia if Miriam truly is her niece. He also suggests her convulsions could be due to manifestation, not possession. Evilia reveals she found Miriam’s hair braided like the goblin sometimes does for horses in the stable.

Despite concerns from his father and fellow farmers, Antonio declares his intention to enroll Miriam in school and move into the house in town. Evilia insists she will not leave the farm.

Miriam wakes to find her hair braided again. Miriam falls unconscious after encountering the goblin.

Evilia, Carmen, and Miriam go to see Alicia. Alicia notices Miriam isn’t wearing her bracelet and her face changed. Alicia advises Evilia that she can be free of the hate, fear, and demons that torment her if she abandons the love that is harming her. Alicia also asks to visit the plantation house.

Evilia tells her husband about the fertility rituals with Alicia, which upsets Antonio. Evilia also tells him that she believes the goblin visits Miriam.

Alicia performs a cleansing ritual on the house. Antonio recognizes her as a former friend of his mother’s. Ramon warns Antonio that Alicia is a bad woman capable of killing a harvest or a child with a glance. Alicia gives Miriam another bracelet.

Antonio privately tells Alicia that he believes Miriam is in the same danger his mother was. Alicia suggests Antonio may have to sacrifice another loved one in order to save Miriam. She also claims someone in the house wishes harm on Miriam. Meanwhile, Evilia visits Father Aguirre, who warns her about Alicia while advising that she abandon the use of sorcery.

Evilia, Carmen, and Miriam visit the cemetery. Miriam falls unconscious again after seeing the goblin stalking her.

Carmen warns Antonio and Evilia that the goblin killed Antonio’s mother. She also warns them about Alicia. Later, the goblin causes Carmen to fall down a well.

Alicia returns to the house after Miriam has more convulsions. Alicia advises that the family must discover who invoked the goblin. Then they can track the goblin to its lair and burn it.

Ramon confronts Alicia regarding their past history. He then tells Antonio that Alicia always interfered in his marriage because she was envious of the love between he and Antonio’s mother. Alicia swore revenge after Ramon kicked her out of the house, and their family has been plagued with bad luck ever since. Antonio has another nightmare of his mother’s death, but this time Ramon is in it.

After Carmen’s body is discovered, Antonio warns Alicia to stay away from his family. Alicia claims Ramon lied to him. Alicia implies Ramon killed Antonio’s mother because she was pregnant and threatening to leave him. Alicia gives Antonio a potion to remember what really happened and also tells him to ask Father Aguirre for the truth.

Antonio visits Father Aguirre, but the priest merely tells him not to listen to Alicia. The goblin stalks Father Aguirre in the cemetery, but does not attack.

The goblin attacks Alicia outside her home, but she escapes inside. There, she confronts Ramon. Alicia warns Ramon that the evil pact he made with the devil corrupted his soul. Alicia asks if it was worth it to be possessed by a goblin just to deceive a woman in order to take control of her land. It is revealed that Ramon and Alicia were once lovers. Ramon wanted a second child, but the goblin did not. The goblin took control of Ramon and compelled him to murder his pregnant wife.

Ramon stabs Alicia, but she manages to put a bracelet on him. At the same time, Antonio finally remembers witnessing Ramon killing his mother.

Miriam’s screams shake Antonio out of his vision. Antonio follows the sounds to a hut where he confronts Ramon. Ramon tries to kill his son, but Alicia’s bracelet stops him. Ramon explains that the goblin is controlling him. Antonio rescues Miriam, traps his father in the hut, and sets the hut on fire.

Some time later, Antonio contentedly moves into town with Miriam. Townspeople whisper rumors that Antonio became a widower because Miriam is actually The White Fairy, the daughter of Mother Mountain or Mother Nature. A flashback proves that Miriam caused Evilia to go off a cliff.

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Review:

It wasn’t easy to pull the trigger on “City of Ashes.”

As a feature film selection for Screamfest 2019, “City of Ashes” was slotted for a 9:15pm start time. This would take place after another movie that included a post-screening Q&A too. If you know anything about film festivals, you know they nearly never run on time, especially when a Q&A is involved, and especially as it gets later in the evening.

Not only that, “City of Ashes” was paired with a 35-minute short preceding its presentation. Even without an anticipated delay from the previous show, this meant the movie wouldn’t actually begin until maybe 10pm in the best-case scenario.

With Lana Del Rey performing at the nearby Hollywood Bowl on the same night, I additionally realized I’d be driving through poorly timed gridlock in both directions. All of this just to be at the TCL Chinese Theatres until after midnight on a Thursday watching an unknown Colombian film that didn’t even have an IMDb page. I won’t deny I probably sound like a crank who can’t handle “oh, get over it” inconveniences. But the circumstances I just described weren’t exactly instilling me with enthusiasm to give the movie a go when staying home with a screener would be infinitely simpler.

What I kept in mind was that I initially balked at “Tumbbad” (review here) and “The Unthinkable” (review here) for similar reasons during Screamfest 2018. Both were off-the-radar foreign films I knew nothing about. Both were wedged into timeslots that weren’t ideal for me. And both ended up landing on my list as two of the top three movies of the year.

Begrudging rationality prevailed. I decided “City of Ashes” would be my “I hope this is worth it” dice roll for 2019. And as was the case the previous year, another fine foreign fright film with no prior pedigree humbly reminded me that sometimes, you simply have to venture outside your comfort zone to find something uniquely intriguing.

I’m repeating myself from previous reviews, but my absolute favorite thing about horror films from other countries is that they expand my imagination with new pieces of foreign folklore. I’m automatically engaged in culture-specific creeps and am less prone to zoning out because I’m seeing unusual sights, scares, and am taken to places and times I couldn’t otherwise go. “City of Ashes” is naturally no exception.

When is the last time you saw a movie set on a Colombian coffee plantation? “City of Ashes” takes place in an unspecified time period that could probably pass for any decade in the 20th century. Recently orphaned, Miriam comes to the farm to live with her aunt’s family. Miriam’s aunt Evilia seethes with resentment. To her, Miriam symbolizes the child she is incapable of giving her husband Antonio. Antonio’s doting devotion toward Miriam only increases each day. To him, she is the surrogate daughter he has always wanted.

Evilia secretly seeks out village witch Alicia to perform ancient fertility rituals. That’s a big no-no in her devoutly Catholic family. Antonio’s widower father Ramon knows darkness invites misfortune. He recounts bizarre tales of a time when ‘The Mohan’ came for their countryside’s children, and pigs were born with human faces.

Ramon and Antonio worry that time could be at hand again. Miriam’s sudden convulsions suggest possible paranormal possession. When the sun refuses to rise for two days, they wonder if they’ve invoked nature’s wrath, just like the forsaken city nearby that few dare speak of. Alicia warns evil has already infiltrated Evilia’s house. Now Evilia second-guesses the pact of protection made with an unseen entity who supposedly guards their safety.

The film is far easier to follow than that intentionally cryptic summary may make it seem. Given how thick it already is, “City of Ashes” would have a hard time stuffing its script with any more legends or fright-filled fairytales. Yet the richness in storytelling achieved by integrating so many flights of fearsome fancy is precisely what keeps the movie so eerily enthralling.

Screamfest’s bio for Colombian-born writer/director Jhon Salazar explains, “when he was a child, his grandparents told him stories of witches, demons, and the undead who watched them from the darkness … as an adult, he wants to share with the world all those fantastic stories that were part of his childhood and his culture.” True to intent, “City of Ashes” stirs together a compelling brew of witchcraft, pagan sorcery, goblins, and South American superstition. Or, as Salazar himself cited, its style and themes meld a mixture of influences including “The Omen,” “Pan’s Labyrinth,” “The Exorcist,” and “Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.”

Arguably, the mythology mish-mash gets to be too much of a good thing. The ending wades in slightly murky waters as “City of Ashes” takes for granted that everyone understands its amalgamated incorporation of ‘Mother Mountain,’ ‘The White Fairy,’ and other references largely unfamiliar to North American viewers. Then again, this can be considered a credit to how much the movie thinks of its audience and their ability to maintain the same stride as the story.

Outside of some downturns in pacing that are necessary for revealing additional exposition, my only complaint on technical execution involves isolated instances of inconsistent ambient noise under dialogue and a few abrupt music cues. At the post-screening Q&A, director Jhon Salazar revealed his movie was fresh out of the edit bay, rushed right in under the submission deadline and we were the first audience to see it. I’m thinking this criticism could be moot then, as I’d imagine the movie might have a loose end cleanup before getting a wide release.

Simultaneously rooted in dreaminess and working class reality, “City of Ashes” tells a fantastic cinematic fable. The actors, who are notable names in their native country yet unfamiliar stateside, are excellent from the top tier all the way down to each ancillary farmhand. Shot over five weeks on $250,000, that money goes a further distance by capturing country conditions, lush vistas, small mountain towns, and then polishing the entire production to have a multimillion-dollar appearance.

Cinematography doesn’t distract with indulgent effects or movements. It doesn’t have to considering how naturally attractive everything looks. Yet the camera comes up with coolly creative shots like a terrific crosscut where it passes worms writhing through a skeleton while rising from beneath the cemetery ground.

The appealingly uncommon yet accessible texture of “City of Ashes” proves that as much as I’d like to, you can’t always lazily stay home in front of familiar-feeling flicks just because that is what’s currently streaming. After all, why would a run-of-the-mill thriller be anything but “another forgettable DTV B-movie” if that’s all you ever watch? Distinctive films like this one reward those who go out of their way to get to it by beautifully, and bizarrely, broadening their horror movie horizons.

NOTE: The film’s Spanish title is “Pueblo de Cenizas.”

Review Score: 80

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