The Last Matinee (2020) – Film Review

Director: Maximiliano Contenti
Cast: Ricardo Islas, Luciana Grasso, Franco Duran
Certificate: 18

By Sarah Morgan

“Seen any good Uruguayan-Argentinian horror movies lately?” asked nobody ever. It’s certainly a niche market, with only one entry I can think of – film-maker Maximiliano Contenti’s The Last Matinee.

Also known as ‘Red Screening’ in some parts of the world, it’s certainly a curiosity piece. Apart from a handful of street scenes, all the action takes place inside a rundown cinema in Montevideo in 1993.

“Killing spree”

The regular projectionist is not a young man, and he’s not at the peak of his health either. To save him from working a double shift, his student daughter Ana offers to take over one stormy night, insisting she knows just as much about loading the camera as he does. Realising she won’t take no for an answer, he goes home, leaving her in charge.

What daddy doesn’t know is that a crazed murderer, who keeps a jar containing the eyes of his victims beside him at all times, has targeted the place and intends to carry out his next killing spree on the premises – cue the arrival of a disparate group of people you know won’t make it as far as the closing credits.

Sure enough, one by one, in a variety of grisly, bloodthirsty ways, he bumps them all off until only a boy who has been hiding out in the cinema, a young female punter called Anglea and Ana herself remain. As is often the case in such movies, the killer is seemingly indestructible, and finding a way out of the dilapidated building is not going to be easy…

“Tension”

Contenti has clearly had only a shoestring budget to work with, but that’s perhaps made him more inventive than he would have been had he had a heap of cash to throw at the project. He manages to eke out as much tension as he can from an equally threadbare plot.

That’s not to say that it’s a great film full of scares. The Last Matinee is rather forgettable – its origins may be unusual, but it carries too many stereotypes and well-worn tropes to make it stand out in an over-saturated low-budget horror crowd – but while watching, it’s a decent enough time-passer.

But be warned – whatever you think of the film, chances are you’ll never look at pickled onions in quite the same way again…

Sarah Morgan( Writer )

Sarah Morgan studied film journalism at post-graduate level with the BFI and has been writing about TV and film for PA Media’s newspaper, magazine and new media customers since 1996. She’s also written for a wide range of other publications, both online and in print, including the book Offbeat and Intermission magazine, and is a regular contributor to the Talking Pictures TV podcast. When she isn’t watching movies, she’s collecting and reading vintage crime and horror paperback books or, for her sins, watching her beloved Sheffield Wednesday.

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