Rabies (2010)

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

It's not just an unlucky day when a hockey-masked killer shows up for work.I usually don't do too much research before seeing movies and following, writing my reviews; I like to go in as cold as possible and have the review all from my experience. But, while looking for something else, I stumbled upon the fact: this was Israel's first horror movie. Wow. First swing and the rookie hit a grand slam.I did know this was a slasher movie going in and the movie sure starts that way. Lately, I've noticed, most (intelligent) filmmakers who want to carry on my favorite horror subgenre: the Slasher and even more specifically, the Slasher-in-the-Woods, have been adding enormous twists and subplots to spice up the decades old formula. This Rabies film has to be taking that fresh start to the extreme max.As stated, this movie starts off with the Slasher-in-the-Woods tropes but quickly evolves into probably more than half a dozen subplots and characters all over the same wooded area and all with their own issues. Really bad issues. It would be one thing just to label each as stereotypical characters and simply state their conflicts and motives, but these two filmmakers, simultaneous directors and writers: Aharon Keshales, Navot Papushado, adhere to my favorite movie experience: Show, Don't Tell.I felt each and every person's plight and drive to achieve their goal. I also felt very little innocence here…in any of them. That, within itself, isn't usually a good thing – when there's barely a good character in film to root for, but I still felt for them and wanted, well, for some of them to reach their goals.To state the two movies this truly reminded me of would be too much of a spoiler, but I enormously recommend any horror fan, Slasher-lover or not, to see this. Heck, any movie fan that can tolerate some extreme gore at times due to the overall fantastic storytelling, make-up and acting.***Final thoughts: This is the spoiler-zone, so stop reading if you hate spoilers as much as I do. You've been warned. The two movies I saw here most in my mind was Very Bad Things and definitely, a 100% serious Tucker and Dale vs Evil. If you liked those movies, namely the latter, you'll probably like the dead-serious take on them here.

And you know what they say about the first impression. It's the one you can't undo. And Rabies does not disappoint. Well it might not give you what you expect (given the title and what you think of that), but if you keep yourself open minded you will get an experience that is unique. And not because it is an Israeli movie, but because it has characters in it, that you care about.Horror movies tend to get that wrong and just try to deliver the kills and thrills. But this one has "real" people in it. You can relate to some of them or not, but you will get to know them. That's the reason why the movie Rabies comes up in so many "Top 10" lists (mine included for 2011, when I saw it at Frightfest).Defying expectations, I can really only recommend this to you. Watch it when you can

First of all it's worth pointing out that the title of this film doesn't really have any bearing on the content. When you hear that this is a film called Rabies set in the woods, you would be forgiven for thinking that it's going to be a Cabin Fever clone. But in truth Rabies is a much more ambitious film than that. It basically has a group of disparate people brought together one day in the woods where a psychopath traps and kills people. However, where the film differs from most of this type is that the maniac is probably the most irrelevant character in the whole film. Instead he is the catalyst for a series of events leading to all the other characters independently committing all manner of violent acts. There's barely a story here and none of the characters are very well-developed but the slightly chaotic narrative is certainly a bit unusual.As far as I'm aware, this is the first horror film from Israel. Maybe even the first in the whole of the Middle East. So I suppose it's quite important in that respect. It's by no means a great film but it isn't especially derivative and it does have some good jump moments and occasionally effective humour. Worth seeing for horror buffs.

I caught this hilarious film by accident during a film festival in Portugal. There were films from Korea (I Saw the Devil, Bedevilled), Serbia (Serbian Film), Spain (Kidnapped), USA (Splice) and only one film from Israel. Later i learned that it's the first slasher film from Israel. Boy, What a great surprise. the kind you look for in film festivals. It starts off like your typical slasher film and than it goes against all genre conventions: The murderer; The Virgin; The Last survivor. Everything is upside down in this horror comedy. It reminded me the originality of the first "Scream" movie (not the other two, they were not so good). Great Actors (also good looking), beautiful cinematography ( a slasher film shot entirely in day light-genius!!!), bad-ass soundtrack. I guess the crowd was delighted as me because they were roaring and clapping their hands every time somebody got slayed. A few days later i read that the film got the "Critics Award". Very much deserved. best film in fantas 2011.