Follows a nearly 100-year-old man who, on his final night on earth, fights for redemption from his life’s misdeeds.
At 92 years old, veteran performer Pepe Soriano returns to the screen to star in this unique horror double feature. Like “The Father,” starring Anthony Hopkins, “Nocturna: Side A – The Great Old Man’s Night’s” lead character is an elderly man full of regrets during his final day battling dementia. Writer/Director Gonzalo Calzada uses this emotional subject matter as a Trojan horse to unleash scares for a mostly genre-defying experience.
Similar to Billy Pilgrim in ‘Slaughterhouse-Five,’ Ulysses’ (Pepe Soriano) dementia has him unstuck in time. Like Vonnegut’s protagonist, the nonagenarian’s fractured memories incoherently bounce him from past moments of blissful childhood to the present where he is unable to recognize himself in the mirror. After Ulysses’ landlord, Daniel informs him that his apartment was robbed by burglars, his wife Dalia believes the building’s owners want them out to increase the rent. Calzada frames the apartment using off-kilter angles with claustrophobic perspectives through windows and peepholes.
While drifting off, Ulysses is woken by a woman named Elena soaking wet and banging on his door. After the startling encounter, Daniel informs the elderly couple that their upstairs neighbor Elena has fallen to her death. As the night drags on, Ulysses will have to confront his past in order to move on – otherwise, he will be trapped to haunt the apartment for eternity.
“Nocturna: Side B – Where the Elephants Go to Die” is told from Dalia’s perspective and provides more backstory on the ghosts roaming the building’s halls in “Side A.” Calzada employs super 8 film which materializes onscreen in a phantasmagorical aesthetic. At times the cinematography is alienating but interesting nonetheless. There’s some Lynchian imagery of distorted figures with epileptic movements and flashing bulbs recalling “Twin Peaks: The Return.”
“Nocturna”’s themes of isolation and existential dreads is very relatable after three years into a pandemic. Soriano’s performance is remarkable but the music is occasionally overwrought and cheesy. And I respect the ambition, but the screenplay was grueling at times.
Available on Digital January 18th, and on DVD as the “The Nocturna Collection” February 1st
