There
have been some colorful serial killers in Latin America, like “The Ogress of
Colonia Roma” in Mexico, “The Rainbow Maniac” in Brazil, Dorángel Vargas (“The
Hannibal Lecter of the Andes’) in Venezuela, and Fidel Castro & Che Guevara
in Cuba. However, Zacarias Ortega (also of Venezuela) can top all of their body
counts put together, except maybe not Castro and Guevara. He claims to have
killed under many names including the titular media-created moniker in Carl Zitelmann’s
The Lake Vampire (trailer here), which screens
during this year’s Dances with Films, in Hollywood, CA.
It
is a heck of a mystery. A rash of severed heads have been discovered, but
rather disturbingly, their missing bodies were drained of blood before they
were decapitated. It is exactly the sort of lurid case that could be failed
novelist Ernesto Navarro’s next book. However, the killings attributed to the
so-called “Devil of the South” are not the first time this M.O. has been
encountered in Venezuela. Retired police detective Jeremias Morales has
investigated at least two other serial killings that employed the same
technique. During the course of those inquiries, Morales starts to suspect
Zacarias Ortega and Ramon Perez Brenes are indeed the same person, especially
after his suspect tells him so directly.
Lake Vampire is a super-creepy
fusion of a real-life blood-sucking serial killer with some darkly fantastical
speculation. It is also one of the most adept films at employing flashbacks for
dramatic purposes. Zitelmann hops back to at least three prior time periods,
but he always maintains temporal clarity and justifies each rewind with some
juicy revelations. Slyly, he preserves a great deal of ambiguity regarding the
killer’s true nature until the big climax, but his sinister vibe signals
something unnaturally infernal is afoot.
Regardless,
the procedural stuff is smashingly effective, thanks in large part to Miguel Ángel
Landa’s understated but quietly driven performance as Morales, sort of in the tradition
of Morgan Freeman in Se7en, but much
more existential. Abilio Torres nicely mirrors him as the younger Morales seen
in considerable flashbacks. Plus, Eduardo Gulino chews the scenery Hammer-style
as the various possible incarnations of Ortega.
Whether
you decide to classify Lake Vampire as
a serial killer film or a vampire movie, it is arguably one of the best of
either sub-genre to come along in a good while. Granted, the final-final
conclusion is a bit of a letdown, but that is par for the course. What matters
is how the film gets there—and Zitelmann takes us on a really twisty
rollercoaster ride. Unusually smart and unsettlingly eerie, The Lake Vampire is very highly
recommended for thriller and horror fans when it screens tonight (6/11), as
part of the 2018 Dances With Films.
