Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Luciano Onetti, Nicolas Onetti
Starring: Agustin Pardella, Carlos Portaluppi, Mario Alarcon, Agustin Olcense, Maria Eugenia Rigon, Paula Silva
We're in the midst of a wave of South American films determined to address the continent's dark days under the rule of military dictatorships. From Brazil we've gotten The Secret Agent and I'm Still Here; from Chile 1976 and El Conde; and from Argentina Rojo, A Common Crime and Azor. It's from the latter that we now get 1978, but the Onetti brothers have departed from the norm by using the horror genre to highlight this dark chapter in their country's past.
FIFA loves nothing more than cosying up to dictators, and in 1978 soccer's governing body ignored protests and went ahead with their decision to allow Argentina to host the World Cup, despite the country being under the control of a fascist military junta that was abducting and murdering thousands of its citizens. Argentina went on to win the tournament, with the dictatorship using this success to their advantage. It was the first great example of what we now call "sportswashing."
The Onettis set their supernatural thriller on the night of the World Cup final, much like how Neil Marshall had the action of Dog Soldiers play out during England's famous 5-1 victory over Germany in 2001. 1978 even borrows the final shot of Marshall's film and it has a similar premise of soldiers battling supernatural entities. The big difference between the two movies is that here the soldiers are the villains and it's the ghouls we end up rooting for.
And what villains they are! A group of paramilitaries, whose plain clothes give them the look of less stylish Italian mobsters, have abducted students they believe to be part of a communist organisation. After enduring brutal torture, one of the students gives up the address of the house from which they're operating. The paramilitaries head to the location and bring back the rebels they find there, including a heavily pregnant young woman.
Much like From Dusk Till Dawn and Sinners, 1978 is split into two distinct halves, eventually turning into a horror movie after a more grounded first half. It's the first half that is more successful in this case. The paramilitaries are a truly heinous bunch, the sort of seedy little men who thrive when empowered by fascism. Rooted in true life horrors, this portion is disturbing and unsettling, particularly in our current era when fascism seems to be waiting in the wings for its moment to re-emerge.
The second half, when it's revealed that the torturers haven't simply abducted a bunch of students but rather a cult intent on bringing Satan into the world, should be more engaging than how it actually plays out. The Onettis do such a good job of making us hate their villains that we've worked up an appetite to see them get their just desserts by that point. It's baffling then that their deaths largely occur offscreen. The Onettis are clearly on the side of the students, but it's odd how they detail their torture in grisly detail while denying us the pleasure of seeing their torturers suffer a similarly graphic demise.
The nature of the supernatural shenanigans that are ultimately unleashed is largely left ambiguous, which makes for a somewhat frustrating watch. The movie appears to borrow the Galaxy of Terror/Event Horizon shtick of having characters hallucinate that which most terrifies them. It's never made entirely clear if this is indeed what's playing out though, but it does lead to a clever critique of Catholicism when a priest working with the fascists has a horrific vision of a post-crucifixion Jesus coming for his sins.
The Onettis don't seem clear on what exactly they want to do with their film's supernatural elements, and at one point a clunky time jump has the effect of making the viewer wonder if a reel is missing. 1978 has a winning setup, one that feels primed for our current political moment, but ultimately the Onettis are unable to blend the supernatural with real life horrors in the satisfying manner of Sinners.
1978 is on UK/ROI VOD now.
