Raindance Film Festival review – Un susurro invocó mi nombre (The Devil Whispered My Name)
Somewhere in the backwoods of Argentina, five young folk who have just left school decide to celebrate in age-old fashion with an Ayahuasca ritual – taking drugs by a riverbank, though the most enthusiastic stoner in the gang pooh-poohs the suggestion that this ought to be done under the supervision of a shaman (‘they’re only for Yankees and Europeans’). Naturally, it doesn’t turn out well.
The next morning, dazed Carla (Biana Mitnik) – who is about to leave for Buenos Aires to be a ballet dancer – finds herself with bloody hands and mouth while her stay-at-home, just-pregnant best friend Maria is gruesomely dead with arcane symbols carved into her. Ten years later, Carla (Clara Kovacic) is still high-strung and prone to visions, reliant on medication and psychotherapy to get through the day – though she’s also just landed a dream gig dancing in Paris. Daniel (Antonio Kassab), her former sort-of boyfriend, calls her to say that their Ayahuasca pal Gabriel has just hanged himself – which Carla knew because she had a psychic vision of the dangling body. Under these circumstances, it’s obviously a terrible idea to go home for the funeral – but Carla is guilt-tripped into it, and shows up in her weird home town where everyone either blames her for past tragedies or resents her success in an airy-fairy field they think is ridiculous … though the now-basement-dwelling Vicente (Andres Malakkian) druggie, who has found religion, believes that their ritual brought something evil into the world which now runs the town. Carla keeps making or being manipulated to make bad decisions and the neighbours show even creepier sides – opaque contact lenses, a tendency to bite, other symptoms of possession. At one point, the survivors finally do consult a shaman – and that doesn’t turn out well either.
Written by Emilia Cotella, who also co-directed with John Mathis, this is a South American take on the evil small town genre. Kovacic, picking up from Mitnik, is an interesting, wary protagonist – she already doubts everything she sees, so a family chewing down on a raw sheep or a spot of levitation aren’t that shocking to her … but this is one of those genre films where audiences are liable to lose patience with a heroine who consistently opens the door with the tiger. No, don’t accept the offer from your dead friend’s suddenly forgiving mother (Maria Jose Sorbello) to spend the night in their out-of-the-way farm. Yes, it is worth driving to the city in this storm rather than sticking about for another day. Indeed, ditch the funeral altogether and go to Paris.
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