Cemetery of Lost Souls – review

Director: Rodrigo Aragão

Release date: 2020

Contains spoilers

The version of this Brazilian horror film, entitled O Cemitério das Almas Perdidas in the Portuguese, was somewhat different on Tubi as suggested on the IMDb page, which lists it as being 2hr 14mins as opposed to the streaming service's 1hr 34mins. Whether the timing is wrong on IMDb or whether 40-minutes have vanished is unknown. However, given the God-awful dubbing I really do want to see the Brazilian original release. Don’t get me wrong, however, as bad as the dubbing was (and it was) I still enjoyed this flick.

writing the grimoire

It starts with a blind monk, Cipriano, writing in a grimoire as a satanic choir sings and a demon whispers to the monk. A group of monks/knights approach the monastery. We then see them looking down on a man who seems to be being boiled in blood (presumably the satanic monk). The leader of the knights looks at the grimoire when a monk (Renato Chocair) comes to him with a jug and then slits his throat, blood spattering the book. We never get this monk’s true name as when asked he takes the original’s name and calls himself Cipriano.

incongruous

We then see him on the hold of a boat heading to the new colonies. The boat is in a storm and in trouble but Cipriano says that they need not die that day but they will need blood. One of the passengers comes behind another and slits his throat. Cipriano draws sigils on the inner hull in blood and speaks an incantation. He calls upon the demon to withdraw to Hell and take the storm with it, and the storm calms. They reach shore and, as they look up, they see a Gothic castle on a mountain top.

placing the coffin

As incongruous as the castle might seem, a slice of European Gothic in Brazil, it does transmit the nature of the film and is no more incongruous than a castle at the end of a pastel suburban scene in Edward Scissorhands. The film, however, flips to a sunny scene with a young boy running through a clearing, flying a kite. The kite becomes caught in a tree behind a cemetery gate. He climbs to pull it down and falls into the cemetery. He comes round and sees a parade of people carrying a coffin into the cemetery. They leave it just inside the gates – people emerge from the crypt and open it, dragging the bound, living occupant off. The boy passes out.

more like a haunt

He wakes in the clearing and a girl is there but the scene turns dark and he is surrounded by bodies. He wakes again and is in a water run-out in the cliffs above the sea. A long nailed hand comes from the dark and pushes him. He wakes again, an adult in a truck with other performers in their travelling show and we are in the present. The show might be described as a freak show but given the performers all wear costumes, it is actually more like a mobile haunt. They have their first show, after setting up, scaring the locals. However a woman and her cronies come along and accuse them as being in league with the devil. They fail to convince them otherwise and, before they can leave, they are captured – bar the ring master who is murdered – and taken in coffins to the cemetery.

Renato Chocair as Cipriano

Cutting back in time again we meet Aiyra (Allana Lopes), a young woman about to go through a rite with her tribe. She is rendered unconscious by the shaman when the Portuguese attack and slaughter her people. When she comes round in the bodies, Cipriano assumes she has returned from the dead and has her brought to the crypt below the castle. It is clear that he sexually abuses her and this does not sit well with the coloniser Joaquim (Caio Macedo) who teaches her Portuguese and then goes to a nearby (cannibal) tribe to arrange her rescue.

vampires

Trapped by the natives, a desperate Cipriano draws inverted crosses in blood on his companions heads and feeds them blood also. This turns them into (essentially) vampires – though, as we see them later, they look a bit more zombie, but they are essentially immortal and the blood regenerates them to their living form and even can make them younger. Joaquim steals the grimoire and uses the incantations to seal the gate and prevent them from passing through it. Cipriano grabs the book through the gate but Joaquim manages to rip essential pages out and the vampires are trapped behind the gate.

Aiyra turned

And that’s the story – a monk (it has been suggested Jesuit) who turns evil, uses black magic and becomes a vampire. Cipriano turns Aiyra also and the vampires have a deal with a nearby village that they will provide them with victims and in return they won’t lure and eat their children. The lore that ties them into vampirism, beyond the feeding on flesh and blood to remain young and their apparent immortality, is within their destruction. They avoid sunlight and one is left by the rest to burn in the sun.

feeding blood

I liked this. The story was a bit convoluted in places and the transitions between past and present weren’t overly smooth but it kept me entertained and interested despite the really bad dubbing. I can’t overly comment on acting because of said dubbing. There had clearly been a bit of budget blown on the film and it looks good in some parts. There’s quite a bit of splattered gore, especially later on, and the colonisers are really drawn as irredeemable (bar the honest Joaquim). I enjoyed this one and really want to see the original language version. 6 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.