Alberto is dead and can no longer hide it. Make-up and perfume can no longer conceal his quickly decomposing body. Dismayed, he decides to withdraw from the world, whilst forming an unusual friendship with Luly, the manager of the 24-hour gym where he works as a night guard.
Halley - Das Leben eines Zombies, 哈雷, 핼리, ハレー
Mexico
USA
Netherlands
Czechia18+
Poland18
Hungary18
Romania18+
Germany16
Czechia
Germany
Hungary
Mexico
Netherlands
Poland
Romania
USA
A dead man walking.
Halley is a very original and insightful take on the zombie subgenre that manages to tell a thought-provoking tale of a constantly decomposing man, who has accepted and surrendered to his fate.
What makes the plot different is the absence of all the usual elements of a zombie flick, over-the-top violence, blood gore etc.. as Halley is more of a character study of a man who knows he is dead but is still attracted to the worldly desires no matter how much he stays in a state of denial. And the fact that he can't cherish them as a normal human beings is what breaks him the most.
It's quite frankly a very depressing tale when…
Without a doubt, independent cinema continues to have the best stories. It makes me even happier to know that the film is Mexican (I'm not from Mexico), but this highlights good Latin American cinema.
Sin duda el cine independiente sigue teniendo las mejores historias. Me alegra más aún, saber que la película es mexicana (no soy de Mexico), pero esto hace notar, el buen cine latinoamericano.
Having recently watched director Sebastián Hofmann's Time Share, I felt compelled to check out his debut full length feature Halley.
It's an odd one, and Cronenberg fans might find something to appreciate in this cold, silent, gloomy little film; though visually and tonally, it has more in common with Christian Bale's The Machinist.
This may be the most grounded depiction of an 'undead' person I've come across. Of someone who is clinically deceased and gradually decaying. There's no zombie nonsense here, such as the act of growling or craving slabs of flesh.
This is simply a walking dead man who wishes to withdraw.
At least the withdrawing part of the synopsis for this film is accurate. The part about forming…
A zombie movie where the virus is life itself. The lethargy and monotony of existing for what feels like nothing in particular slowly turning you. The film's deliberate pacing worked for me, emphasizing the feeling of always being stuck.
Sin muerte sólo hay decadencia, vivir es decaer. Halley es casi perfecta. La belleza del cierre evidencia el potencial enorme de Sebastian Hoffman. Ojalá no tire el balón.
Me pregunto si la idea final de Beto como observador eterno de la decadencia del mundo no lo emparenta con Uatu, "el vigilante". No es gratuito que Beto trabaje, de hecho, como vigilante. ¿Estoy loco?
Notal al margen: no hay nada más digno que el hielo.
Cronenberg worship all the way here. Even a mild ode to Nekromantik dare I say?
Halley caught me off guard with its distorted camera angles, superb cinematography and it’s minimal dialogue script. Pour on the amazing tonal soundtrack and then blast the blue murky tone.
I dug this in the sense that I really hate my body and have an overwhelming fear of illness. To watch this film really made me body scan a few times too many.
via Mubi
Comentario peludesco 🐾🐾🦁 #90 :
👓 ➡️ "Todos sufrimos de diferentes maneras"
Filmada excelentemente y mayormente visual ya que casi no hay diálogos, "Halley" nos cuenta el deterioro de Alberto, una imagen opuesta a otras personas de la sociedad que lo rodea.
Excede el desenfoque en varios momentos que no eran necesarios, pero es una propuesta que vale la pena chequear.
💿 ¿Recomendada? ➡️ Sí!!
💿 Escala de entretenimiento ➡️ Buena.
🎥 Puntaje personal ➡️ 8.4/10
Años buscando y queriendo ver la ópera prima de Sebastián Hoffman y por fin tuve la oportunidad.
Más body horror que zombi postmoderno. Una película sobre morirse lento un poco más rápido que los demás. Su paleta de colores es una revelación, mexicana y extraterrestre a la vez. Sus actores son puro drone. Su ritmo es letárgico, como debe de ser en una película que trata sobre podredumbre. Si se me cae un poquito es porque la escena de donde toma su título me pareció padre por sí sola, pero un poco cursi en contexto.
Hoffman me parece uno de cineastas mexicanos más interesantes trabajando hoy. Su sentido de lo fantástico me resulta muy fresco y le quiero ver más.
Bressonian body-horror? Hell, yeah, this is what we've been needing. The late-modernist/postwar Sartrean agon figured as spiritual decay figured as physical decay figured as the representation of a disease that isolates the subject within a decaying body that doesn't grant him the privilege of dying.
And a coda that hints at resolutions or alternatives that can't be rendered explicitly.
I would have given this a full **** if the second of the two B.H. setpieces hadn't had such a clear and obvious antecedent in a certain other movie.
padre película inserta (tal vez) en una tradición que se renueva: la del zombi existencial. o en otra: la del paso de la humanidad a la zombicidad.
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estilísticamente ya los sospechosos comunes notaron una tendencia a la composición a través de reflejos, a la simetría, el foco ultraselectivo, etcétera. algo que no veo señalado por ahí y que me encantaría platicar con alguien: la toma "planimétrica"; o sea: la cámara perpendicular a una pared (u otro objeto grande, plano), con la mira paralela al piso (completamente frontal) y personas o cosas colocadas, a su vez, paralelas a esa pared.
se me hace que sin darse demasiada cuenta muchos críticos han denostado este tipo de tomas considerándolas "teatrales" pero en…
Perhaps the most clinical and patiently observant body horror film I've seen, and it scores some points for eschewing many of the most popular zombie tropes. But the film also moves at the creeping pace of Death itself, so I can see how audiences might be disappointed if they go in with the wrong mindset. From the lighting to the set design, this is a film that looks like it's dying, or worse.
A slow-burn film about a lonely decaying man who tries to cover his suffering, fit in a society, and escape his fate. Overall, the film is so slow because there is no jumpscare or scary scene. There’s only body horror. But the film is full of meaning to analyze and has beautiful cinematography.
