CEMETERY OF LOST SOULS is a Brazilian Horror film which had the potential to be excellent but lets the audience down in the last third.
The movie intertwines two story lines, one set during the time of the Portuguese Conquistadors, and one set in the present. In the historical story, a Jesuit Priest who stole a Grimoir (Black book of magic) leads a group of seafarers to the new land (Brazil) where they encounter natives and promptly massacre them. Subsequent events carry the fate of his group into the present, when a traveling theater troupe specializing in horror shows is a little too successful in convincing the local population that they are in a pact with the devil.
The strongest aspects of this film are the highly polished visuals. The production design is very atmospheric and many shots are simply beautiful. The story itself, drawing on Brazil's colonial history and touching on issues of race and superstition is also quite good, rich with interesting subplots that contribute to the overall picture, all the while offering a few twists here and there. The narrative is occasionally non-linear but this does not distract too much from understanding.
Regrettably, in the third act the film devolves into a splatterfest which at times borders on the silly. Even though there is plenty of bloods and guts in the earlier parts, it feels like this act belongs to a different film, as the story itself basically reaches the climax about half an hour before the movie ends. The few twists offered at the end of the film to tie everything together therefore fall flat.
Had the movie maintained the high quality of story development throughout the last act, it could have been spectacular. As it stands, the strengths of the movie only partially compensate for this major shortcoming.
For non-Portuguese speakers, the dubbing may also be an issue: the dialogue itself is fine, but the sound design of the voices does not match the acoustics suggested by the visuals well, and this took me out of the movie several times. If I had a choice, I would have preferred subtitles.
