Rabies

(2010) *****

Rabies is the special type of movie special Horrorthoners would enjoy -- it's got all the necessary elements: feelings of suspense and terror are evoked, the actors do not portray caricatures (in other words they are tolerable at worst), and the villain(s) are real jerks. It's also got plenty of blood, guts, guns, and perverts to further the story line. This is also the special type of movie that has an unpredictable ending.

Names aren't important in this plot summary (mostly because I've watched 24 movies since and forgot to write 'em down), but all you need know is a) the Main Plot: four friends are going out on a day trip somewhere and get lost in the woods; b) the Sub-Plot: a brother and sister are trying to evade the man who kidnapped the sister. There are few players in the casting of this Israeli film -- a pair of cops and a couple camping in the woods, in addition -- and yet it transcends its genre to capture the beauty, complexity and evolution of different human relationships.

I know it might be awkward to write about a slasher film as such, but the more time I've had to let Rabies sink in the more I see it as poetic. With the interpersonal relationships of love and betrayal and scandal, the unfolding carnage and death and contemplation of existence, you would think that Shakespeare crafted such a beauty as Rabies.

Though there weren't any rabies in Rabies, a case can be made for it as a proverbial disease that infects the minds of murderers that quickly spreads to infect the minds of others toward malicious deeds.