KM 31: KILOMETER 31

One evening, while driving along the Desierto de los Leones road in Mexico, Agata hits a child at the 31 km mark; after getting out of the car to help, she realizes the child's body has disappeared and is herself hit by a car that does not stop. At the same moment of the accident, Catalina, Agata's twin sister, senses what happened and immediately goes to the 31 km mark with her boyfriend Nuno. Agata loses her legs and falls into a coma, but her sister, Nuno, and Omar, Agata's boyfriend, suspect that something strange is happening on that stretch of road and begin investigating, uncovering a terrible crime from the past. The Spanish are good at making horror films; they have proven this in the past (De Ossorio and Franco, for example) and continue to do so today, especially thanks to Julio Fernandez's Filmax, which is producing some of Europe's greatest talents (Jaume Balagueró, for one). The Spanish are also skilled at making ghost films, rich in neogothic suggestions or full of representative originality. It is therefore difficult to understand why the Mexican-born Spaniard Rigoberto Castaneda directed 'KM 31' looking blatantly towards the Eastern ghost film, when he had famous examples (and perhaps even more valid ones) at home. The overused Asian ghost movie, after the success of 'The Ring' and 'The Grudge,' has become ubiquitous, with its rhythms, symbolism, and stories. Resentful and vengeful ghosts, disturbing women with long black hair and white dresses, naked and milky children ready to appear from behind at the least opportune moment—these elements, which would seem to be the ingredients of any 'The Grudge,' have been adopted tiredly in 'KM 31' as well. We might say, however, that the complete lack of content originality in 'KM 31' is not its main flaw, also because some situations that exploit the J-horror effect appear effective and sufficiently suggestive in this case. What is more disturbing, however, is the great lack of care in the screenplay of the entire film: Castaneda himself writes a completely insufficient script that, in addition to the well-known clichés of the genre, brings to the stage evanescent characters (and I'm not just talking about the ghosts!) and a general sense of confusion that makes the viewing even difficult. We know only a traumatic event related to the death of their mother about Catalina and Agata (both played by Iliana Fox)...the usual and well-known trauma destined to mark a life, in short. On the other hand, the other characters are superficially glossed over, making them mere puppets in the hands of events, especially the disoriented Nuno, played by Adrià Collado; characters further disadvantaged by bad and particularly heavy dialogues. Castaneda has also shown that he does not have very clear ideas, and, as a reflection, neither will the viewer at the end of the viewing. Indeed, in the story, characters and events are thrown in a somewhat terrifying manner that are then not explored or completely overlooked; moreover, the main story itself seems to fall into too many holes that make it difficult to fully understand it. The film begins by focusing on the 31 km mark, that haunted stretch of road and the numerous accidents that occur there, but after a while, attention begins to shift to the forest, the river, the sewers, thus losing the suggestion linked to the haunted place. The psychic link between Agata and Catalina is then immediately introduced, but except for a few nightmares of the latter, the thing is not developed at all and soon abandoned. There is talk of a lookout from the afterlife, of a tragedy that occurred in the previous century, but this aspect is also not well cared for and seems only mentioned to provide some superficial explanation for the succession of events. However, Castaneda must be recognized for good work with the camera, made of suggestive movements and perfect framing to emphasize the impalpability of the events, often functional to charge the scene with tension. It makes one smile the mention at the beginning of the film 'Based on real events,' given that the viewer is then immersed in pure unreality. It still deserves half a pumpkin more.