They
are still in the state of Rio, but villagers residing on the other side of
those iconic mountains live in a whole different world from the cosmopolitan city of Rio de
Janeiro. Yet, many of their hardscrabble problems are maybe not so different
from that of Rio’s famous (and feared) favelas. Regardless, it is always bad
news when the BOPE (the cops from the Elite Squad movies) show up. In
this case, villagers hope they will finally capture the notorious “Necrophil
Brothers” who are terrorizing the countryside, but the assignment will get
complicated and horribly personal for Sgt. Teo in Marcos Prado’s Macabre,
which screens (virtually) as part of the (online) 2020 Brooklyn Film Festival.
Teo
needs to redeem himself, because he is responsible for the death of an innocent
civilian during a favela operation. His captain promises to sweep the incident
under the rug, if he captures Inacio and Matias, who murdered a dozen women and
subsequently desecrated their bodies. Teo should have an advantage because he was
raised in this mountainous community, but he left on bad terms with his family
(and nearly everyone else).
As
Teo launches his investigation, it becomes immediately apparent one of the
brothers is just as guilty and sadistic as he has been made out to be. The
culpability of the other is a little murkier, but locals do not want to waste
time with such fine distinctions. Unfortunately, their next crimes will strike
closer to home for Teo, re-igniting long-simmering tensions and resentments.
Macabre
is
a gritty serial killer thriller in the James Patterson tradition that also
incorporates the social commentary of the Elite Squad films and their
brethren. Both the favela incident and the hunt for the Necrophil Brothers are
based on real life BOPE cases, but in real life, the former event happened much
later and involved different officers. However, screenwriters Lucas Paraizo and
Rita Gloria Curvo fuse them together quite seamlessly. Of course, that means
they really put the screws to woeful Sgt. Teo as a result.
Renato
Goes broods hard and seethes with ferocity as Sgt. Teo. He is intense, but tragically
human. Guilherme Ferraz nicely compliments him as Corporal Everson, who helps
move along the investigation and also provides some key social commentary (he tellingly
observes he and the accused’s parents are the only Brazilians of African
heritage in town). Flavio Bauraqui looks almost spectral playing Sebastiao, the
brothers’ abusive, voodoo-practicing father, but the twitchiness of Osvaldo Mil
(the investigative auditor in The Mechanism) as Father Augusto
reinforces some tiresome clichés.
