Fase 7 (2010) Online

A block of flats is quarantined off as a result of a deadly virus that is sweeping the world. The inhabitants quickly succumb to psychological deterioration as paranoia and claustrophobia set in.

This Argentinean epidemic movie is pretty impressive. Its setting is necessarily limited but the film-makers make the most of it. The narrative is powered mainly by a decent array of characters, well played by the entire cast. The dramatic tensions in Phase 7 come not so much from the virus but from the interactions between the neighbours. As time goes on the microcosmic society of the tower block breaks down and primal instincts begin to take over. The scenario is not unlike one you would imagine J.D. Ballard coming up with, with its look at social norms deteriorating rapidly as they are tested under unusual conditions. The movie benefits too from a nice moody soundtrack that recalls the work of John Carpenter. There is at least one very well executed – and unexpected – gore scene too. In fact, the movie moves into some quite tense thriller territory in the final third. So overall, it tries to make the most of its basic set-up and deliver some suspense and atmosphere along the way. Phase 7 is a very worthwhile psychological sci-fi thriller.

I still remember the time when the influenza pandemic made us all paranoids. This is a microcosm sample of that time. A few neighbors isolated in quarantine fighting each other for survival. Great gags, performances and music with moments of extreme stress. It is great to see Argentinian cinema renewing and betting on risky products. Ironic and somewhat bizarre at times, Fase 7 is a fantastic story that might not like everybody, though. But the discerning viewer can not deny that seldom has been so great production on this land and from now on we should not doubt about our filmmakers' abilities. This is an Opera Prima with a stomping debut that it's well worth seeing!

I saw this film as part of the "Imagine" film festival 2011 in Amsterdam. The story gets very close to a post-apocalypse situation. An apartment building is quarantined due to an unnamed disease. Apart from the initial appearance of health care personnel, and some helicopters we see and hear circling above the building, there are no interactions with the outside world. What we see happening is completely contained within the apartment building.

Initially I was afraid that the story would focus too much on the seven month pregnant couple with their internal struggles, tensions and mood changes. I was relieved that this was not the case at all. Dramatic developments came from interactions with various kinds of neighbors. Most of them were to be considered potentially hostile. This is not unusual when it comes to survival issues, harvesting food and weapons, and suspecting others from spreading the disease that started the quarantine.

When leaving the theater, I gave an "excellent" score for the public prize competition. As an after burner, the film makes you think how you and your neighbors would act in such a situation. It gives an extra meaning to the name of this festival.

So imagine if in Shaun of the Dead, Liz was 7 months pregnant, they'd just done their monthly supermarket shop and instead of going out, they'd decided to hole up in her block of flats. And the zombies don't bother to attack (there are no zombies in Phase 7, but it has the feel of a zombie film). But the rest of the apartment block goes a bit mental. That would kind of be along the lines of this film. It's funny (most the humour is pretty subtle but there are a few real laugh out loud moments) and it is quite bonkers but in a really enjoyable way. It's maybe not fair to compare it to SotD, it's not quite in that league, but it is a really enjoyable film with some great fun performances that's worth checking out if you get the chance.

I've lately been finding myself repeatedly impressed with foreign "horror" films, such as 'Black Water' and 'The Reef' from Australia and 'The Dead' from England, set in Africa, and to this I'll add Argentina's 'Phase 7'. I think it highlights how formulaic and risk-averse Hollywood cinema has become. When I watch foreign films with 'real' characters you can care about, I think "that's what's missing from newer American films!" And to the reviewers who complained about Pipi's violent mood swings, you've never lived with a pregnant wife or girlfriend, pal!

As a Stormtroopers of Death fan back in my youth, I was on board the moment the menu came up with S.O.D.'s signature tune chugging away. Coco and Pipi's neighbor, Horatio, is just the kind of guy you WANT living next door when the world ends. I laughed out loud when Coco has to admit he has no idea what Horatio's military hand signals mean, when they are up on the roof. These foreign films are treading on such well-worn cinematic paths, yet they seem so fresh to me. Well worth seeing. And I've been wondering since I watched Phase 7, about the young couple and the Chinese being the only survivors into the 'new world'.....could be a message there....

I just came out of the cinema, had dinner with a girl, and we started talking about Fase 7, we are both Argentinian, she didn't like it, i thought it was very good. Daniel Hendler is a very good actor, who I've seen in other Argentinian movies, he acts really well and is always funny, even without trying. At some point it resembles the movie QUARANTINE, but with a totally different approach, im not saying it is a masterpiece, but you really won't be disappointed. Yayo surprised me in a very good way, here we are used to see him perform in some funny sketches, in Fase 7 he is hilarious but you really can not tell he is an amateur in the movies. Anyway, if you are guy, you will probably be at the edge of you seat waiting to see what happens next, or the next part where you will laugh, if you are girl, please don't try to overthink it, don't relate it to the society or anything like that, just seat back and enjoooooy.

You know, in the last few years, it seems the foreign cinema is out to show Hollywood what it's all about. There have been great French horror films in the last two years (Prey and La Horde come to mind) and now there is Phase 7 (Fase 7) from Argentina.

The movie centers around the lead character Coco and his wife, who are expecting a child. We learn that the wife is 7 months along. The story opens with them stocking up on groceries like they always do and bickering a little. They see a huge rush of people come in and furiously start shopping but don't really think anything of it.

When they return to their condominium building and begin sorting groceries, they receive a call during dinner that one family member is to go to the lobby. Coco goes down and is informed that the building is in quarantine and the Ministry of Health will have people come and check on them.

Coco and his paranoid maniac friend Horacio band together as the residents of the quarantined building begin to turn on each other for food and because they think someone is infected.

Coco is a slacker. An oaf, who is decidedly pacifist, and is content to let his pregnant wife change lightbulbs. When Horacio arms him and gives him a bio-suit, he is clumsy and twice gets knocked silly by wall-mounted concussion grenades.

The violence gets bloody at the end with a surprise twist. I won't give this one away, so you'll have to watch the film. I saw it with English subtitles that were pretty spot-on, but it was nice to be able to practice my Spanish a bit as well.

All-in-all, this movie should be destined to be nominated (and maybe win!) an award or two, and is one of the better foreign films I've seen this year. Hats off to everyone involved. You had my attention for the whole movie and I actually enjoyed it! Thank you!

While indeed the topic of a world-wide virus that kills everyone is a threadbare because so much bad movies that are based on it (so much!), this very one film is EXCELLENT, in the line of REC, a must see movie you like the genre.

I first caught it on I-SAT (www.isat.tv), an Argentine cable channel that specialize in non-mainstream productions, one Wednesday at 1:30 AM and since the characters where suited in bio-hazard suits and spoke in Spanish, rioplatense Spanish actually, and one of them with cordobés accent, I think the movie was actually related to El Eternauta (meaning Eternauta 'ethernal astronaut', a well known sci-fi and political comic of Argentine's seventies) soon to realize it was a totally different story.

The best think of the film are without doubt the acting and the oppressive atmosphere created by a well taken camera viewpoints and background music and the special effects were pretty cool too, I absolutely buy that everything on the movie was actually happening, the guns shooting, the sick people, the dead bodies, everything.

I'm giving ten stars to this movie because it actually hypnotize me to the point of stop zapping, sit down, sharap and watch and for the euphoria I feel for the next hour after the movie ended.

This is a great movie that will have you in a tense suspense for more than an hour and I hope you enjoy it as I did! BTW, this is definitely not a chic movie, so if you are a woman (little girls may still enjoy it) and you don't like it please don't rate it down, this movie it isn't for you.

The plot: A goofy slacker and his pregnant wife attempt to survive a pandemic after their apartment complex is quarantined.

Phase 7 doesn't bother being coy about its influences. It's basically the plot of Rec, music from John Carpenter's minimalist synth scores, and style of Shaun of the Dead. By itself, that sounds enjoyable enough, if you're into high concept, low budget B movies. However, it's really well done. I'm a bit surprised that the rating is so low, though I can understand why some people might dismiss it as derivative.

Phase 7 isn't overly concerned with traditional horror movie tropes, though it does toy with them. Instead, it focuses on social satire and black comedy. There are very few infected people, but, unlike movies such as Rec and 28 Days Later, the effects tend to be a bit more subtle. Similar to The Signal, people tend to become more extreme in their behavior, though you're often left wondering if people are infected or your average crazy neighbor. In the end, I think the effect is the same, and this is one of the themes of the movie. There's a bit of gore and violence, but it's sparingly used. If you're looking for a vicious bloodbath, you're sure to be disappointed. Most of the scenes are played for humor, rather than tension or horror.

I liked the characters quite a lot. Most of them were flawed in some major way, but they were all fairly likable despite it. The ways that they react to each other and the situations were quite often rather amusing, even if it did play out a bit predictably at times. If you like Shaun of the Dead, Re-Animator, Army of Darkness, and other comedy/horror movies, you'll probably enjoy Phase 7. If you're looking for something original or gory, maybe you should try a different movie, however.

The production of this movie was great. For the exception of one very unrealistic firefight scene, if you watch the movie you should know the one i'm talking about without me spoiling it. Now the effects, and actors were great, but it's time for the bad. The writing in this movie was just the worst of the works. The worst thing is that throughout the whole movie the wife is acting like a total b!tch towards her husband as if he's coming in late from bars every night. I don't exactly know if it was written for her to act this way, or if it was the actor herself that made it seem this way. Either way it bothered me throughout the entire movie. The second bad writing part is of the husband. With just half the sh!t he sees in the movie a real person would have spoken the truth to the women they were married to, but not this guy he doesn't share anything with her until he has to. Again even after he does share her attitude still seems that of a wife whose husband keeps coming in late at night from bars. So the whole thing about this is that the husband and wife seem not to care about the epidemic even after people start dieing. Which is just the worst writing for a family of two about to have a child. Everyone knows that any right minded pregnant women would be taking every precaution to keep her child safe, but in this movie the family seemed to be as worried about getting the virus as dead people are of getting fat. It makes as much sense as the sentence I wrote just before this one. 5/10 stars and it only did that good because the production was actually well done.

This exciting, low-budget Argentine film by Nicolas Goldbart revolves a young couple, Coco (Daniel Hendler) and Pipi (Jazmin Stuart) living in a small, high middle class apartment complex in present-day Buenos Aires City. Suddenly, the whole edifice where they live is under quarantine due to a strange high-mortality epidemic that affects the lungs of its victims. Thus, Coco and Pipi find themselves prisoners of their own apartment. The same goes for their colorful neighbors. All residents, the local sanitary authorities declare, must remain in their apartments until the quarantine is over. None knows how long would that be. Soon food supplies start to run short. Internet is down; so is television. Things take a turn for the worse and the disease becomes a global pandemic. Authorities everywhere –we learn-- are overwhelmed in a matter of days or perhaps weeks. As millions of thousands of people begin to die worldwide, a state of complete chaos and anarchy follows. A maximum stage alert (Phase 6) is declared by the World Health Organization. Yet things get even worse. The apartment complex mirrors society as a whole as the desperate and paranoid neighbors start making alliances and turning on each other with deadly intentions . . .

Main character more pitifull than fun. Too slow to not be boring and sometimes it even leads nowhere. Some nice camera shots and light (car park scene) and interesting characters but it fall as flat as a zombie heartbeat. Cut at least 30 min out of it you got a good short movie though.

well i would regretfully say that the other users rates it so high that it is standing at 6.5. so useless n lame movie. all the time i was wondering there will be some action, good thrilling scenes will be there for which people has rated it higher than it deserved. so boring and useless movie, neither it was thrilling nor action nor drama, i dunno what director was trying to create!! from start to end, the leading character coughs and makes the viewer think that he would be infected or show some worse symptoms but.. so many characters were fitted in the movie but all were useless. i think producer had wanted to waste his money that is why he put so many useless characters in the movie.. if u have a good time to waste then please waste it somewhere else than watching it..

20 minutes in, bad enough. Smart one minute and stupid the next describes the pregnant girlfriend...unbearable. Maybe if I was fluent in Espanol I would rate this higher, but despite language it still has the same idiotic character flaws of pieces of crap like Halloween. "OMG, why would I think rationally in a situation such as this?" Because your in a B-flick that, if I had to guess, got decent ratings because it's not in English. A kind of "Well, they don't know that the 'I'm stupid and your stupid but somehow we will live' plot is stupid." I recommend the first 20 minutes and ask...are you irritated yet? But, hey, I can't truly bitch because I couldn't make it that long. So, allow me to offer up this suggestion, If you enjoy READING clichéd and just plain shitty stories then this movie may be for you. I found that having to read the Spanish didn't distract me one bit from the stupidity of the plot.

Coco and Pipi are at the supermarket. She's very pregnant, he's grumpy at best. People are running like anything away from the supermarket as they check out. They arrive home, after seeing others rushing, some with as many groceries as they can tote.

There is some plague in Argentina, Mexico, USA, Canada, UK, Spain, and other countries. Air flights are canceled; some chain stores are closed. One couple in their apartment building was detained by the health authorities for testing. Armed people in hazmat suits inform them that their building is quarantined. A quick total indicates there are 16 people in the building, plus a live in maid. They are closed off with plastic at first. Coco's cough causes some concern.

Coco inventories the refrigerator and the rest of the kitchen for rationing purposes. The health folks drop by to give a physical checkup of everyone. Zanutto visits them to borrow a power adapter. They read a lot and play board games. At the beginning, at least, the water and power stay on.

The level of the outbreak rises. There is not enough street traffic and police to keep the streets safe at night. A couple of the other tenants have lowered themselves to holding up other tenants using a hammer. On the other hand, Horacio gives them light bulbs, some extra breathing protection, and a pistol, which Coco hides rather than tell Pipi. The alert level rises again, to 7, whatever that means. Horacio meets Coco to give him direct instructions about using the hazmat suit. They meet with Lange, Guglierini, and one other to discuss Zanutto. It turns out the three bachelors are running out of food.

So, we have an exercise in the politics of scarcity. Horacio is a survivalist, and a mason, of sorts. He has no intentions of putting up with the bachelors' thieving ways, and he gives Coco some instruction on how to booby trap his apartment to repel intruders.

Will the thieves get what they want? Well, no. Zanutto has quite a surprise waiting for them.

How does it all pan out? Will the plague be ended? Will some of the tenants survive?

------Scores--------

Cinematography: 8/10 There was the occasional soft focus plus large scale darkness.

Sound: 10/10 No problems.

Acting: 8/10 Daniel Hendler, Jazmin Stuart, Yayo Guridiand, Federico Luppi were all quite good.

Screenplay: w/10 Fails as a comedy: no belly laughs, no chuckles, no "isn't that the truth?" moments. As SciFi, it was a wash, since there were no SciFi elements. As a gore fest, it was a bit weak. As drama, it was reasonably strong. The shock of people acting differently under different rules is pretty strong, as is the sight of blasted bodies to those who have never seen them. Much of this movie was about ordinary people dealing with these challenges.

Starts slow, not really impressive, but after a while it gets where it suppose to!

Fortunately for me I speak Spanish, so I was able to capture the "cultural-mood" that many times is so important, and the best part is that I didn't give up on the film! (Originally I started watching it dubbed in English, and it was "killing" the narrative)

The atmosphere goes from being irrelevant to be quite suspenseful, and the characters are extremely convincing, each one of them reflecting what all of us really are, different minds, and for better or worse unprepared for what it may be an apocalypse's real scenario, and this is why the bad reviewers couldn't grasp, a smart and well developed argument.

Two weeks ago I lost power; I found a flashlight and several candles, but no matches! And that is where I identify with Coco (Daniel Hendler), and I waited and my mood was the same as if there was light, but what if electricity has never come back? What if things go from bad to worse and I don't have a choice but going berserk on my neighbors or them on me?

The easy unpredictability of a person is one of the most important arguments of this obviously low budget movie, and regardless of that, becomes more impressive than a multimillion production; the witty, the irony, the moody the bitchness, the black humor, everything adds up to deliver without sexual or raunchy situations, and this is something that every filmmaker should consider, is about the real moviegoers, and not the airheads, and adding up a great actor such as Federico Luppi, ("Pan's Labyrinth", "Machuca", "The Devil's Backbone", "Men with Guns", "Cronos"), is a great bonus, as always no spoilers, but my opinion to those who did not like it is: watch the whole thing, or give up on good movies and stick to the Transformers franchise!

Drama? Comedy? Apocalyptic horror? Yes to all three. This has all the elements needed to make a great story. It will appeal to horror fans - 2nd amendment enthusiasts - doomsday preppers - conspiracy theorists - gun enthusiasts - even pregnant ladies!!!!

This story is about the swift decline of society due to a flu pandemic - is well written - well acted - good special effects - with a cheesy enough score to remind you of the best of grade B drive in movies. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

First - the relationship between the star of the show Martin and his pregnant wife is great - he's so not ready for an apocalypse - and for the first 25% of the movie they are "Business as usual - what's all the fuss?" (a la Sean of the Dead). He pulls typical husband stunts like not checking the light bulb he just bought, but he recovers from that blinder with the use of a black light in his apartment which gives them all a 70's neon glow.

One thing you'll learn is when the apocalypse comes, look for a friend like Horatio. Talk about some body who is ready!!! He made me want to run to the Kroger's store and gun store before the end of the movie. (Can you say Michael Gros in the first Tremors? - Horatio has a better stash of weapons.)

But the highlight of the movie is the writing and the humor. The neighbors trying to convince their other neighbor that they "just want to talk" as they wave a meat tenderizer around. The Health Inspector who is obviously on his last legs. Martin in the astronaut's outfit - turning his face light on when they are stalking Zanutto. ("TUrn it off, you schmuck") Martin not knowing he had a pistol and not a revolver. Dialogue worthy of Sean of the Dead type humor.

And the liberal use of the term "dickhead" is hilarious, and quite applicable.

Plus definitely enough ineffective gun play that I thought was watching the gun fight on this week's Breaking Bad. How it is possible to shoot that many shot guns, pistols and assault weapons without hitting anyone is pretty amazing.

All in all - something for everyone (unless you are a Nichols Sparks fan). Highly recommended. The Argentinians hit a home run with this one.

DonB

COMMENTS: Coco (Daniel Hendler) and Pipi (Jazmin Stuart) are a naive, happy couple who do normal kinds of things, like go to the grocery on Saturday morning. This Saturday morning is different however. On their way back, people begin swarming the streets in a panic. An epidemic has broken out and if the media is to believed, it's becoming worse by the minute. Monitoring the situation from home, Coco and Pipi's evening is interrupted by floodlights and loudspeakers. Their building's been quarantined and the emergency respondents are cordoning it off under a huge plastic tent, as if the tenants are termites to be exterminated. They find themselves sealed into their own apartment complex, forbidden to leave. They can only watch from their windows as the outside world turns to bedlam around them.

Bedlam is not confined to the outside for long. Inside, resources dwindle, utilities are cut off, and fellow residents get cabin fever and panic. Coco does his best to keep his head, protect Pipi, and hold down the fort.

It's not easy. It turns out that doomsday scenarios aren't necessarily like fast-paced action movies. Caught in the doldrums, Coco and Pipi are stuck waiting, waiting, waiting... Instead of excitement and contingency, the experience for the group of tenants is more about nagging spouses, running out of lightbulbs and toiletries, and putting up with annoying neighbors, i.e. each other -for awhile that is.

As the situation outside increases in severity, tension mounts. Pipi unwittingly works against Coco by innocently leaking critical personal information about their situation to an untrustworthy neighbor. Tenants fraction into factions. Coco must decide whether to go along with the prevailing group or stay out of it. The situation inside the complex degenerates further when under the auspices of moving a possibly infected neighbor off their floor, it becomes clear that the do-good members of the "apartment association" cell are out for their own gain. One thing leads to another and they attempt to force their way in on a fellow resident to loot his provisions.

The bodies begin to pile up. Residents are dying, but is it from a hemorrhagic plague, or are they being murdered? Sadly, Coco's best option seems to be to join forces with his paranoid but gregarious, survivalist upstairs friend Horacio (Yayo Guridi). He's a nice guy, but maybe insane. Horacio's apartment turns out to be a high-tech, reinforced bunker complete with an armory of automatic weapons, electronic surveillance equipment, maps, and stacks of classified government information. Horacio wants Coco to join forces with him, and offers him a CBR protective suit and a firearm. Then he invites Coco on patrol with him through the darkened stairwells and corridors of their massive apartment building. The neighbors are up to some monkey business of their own and these nightly sojourns through the edifice's labyrinthine passages turn out to be enlightening in an upsetting and disturbing kind of way. Maybe Horacio isn't so paranoid after all. He seems to know an awful lot about what's going on, more than anyone else. But can Coco trust him? Blackly comic but subtly so, Phase 7 combines suspense, grim social commentary, and unsettling insight into human nature in a thriller format which is interrupted by moments of horror. Artfully shot and well paced, Phase 7 makes dramatically good use of camera angles and framing. Lighting is alternately glaring and sterile, and gloomily claustrophobic. This emphasizes the film's thematic contrast; the delineation between the bright, logical, outside world of society, authority and officialdom, versus the insular, isolated, inner world of sanctuary and retreat. Yet as the film goes on, we begin to detect a double meaning; authority is questionable. Society is reasonable strictly on its surface, and only so long as everything is going well. Safe refuge, once cut off from the outside world, can quickly degenerate into an insular den of suspicion, irrational fear, and schizophrenia.

It's the cinematography that accomplishes this. Our sickening epiphany arrives not just from Phase 7's dialogue and action, but from a dual interpretation made possible by the very lighting and camera work itself. Ultimately, Phase 7 is about masquerade; how things -people and situations -can turn out to be something very different from their daily representations.

In Phase 7, Coco discovers that he can't trust anyone or anything other than his own judgment and instincts, but the trouble comes from not knowing for sure whether his personal interpretations are sound. Under the circumstances, with little reliable input to go on, and multiple variables and potential explanations for what's happening, every course of action is a gamble. Coco must do his best to make the right choices to deliver himself and Pipi from myriad dangers which mount behind every turn of their complex's twisting stairwells, foreboding cavernous parking garage, and eerily dimmed corridors.

Clearly the movies about the end of the world and global epidemics have saturated theaters, some time from North America, through Europe to reach South America. Phase 7 does not look nor intended to be a lot more of, since we are surrounded by family and neighborhood relations around the quarantine of a building, caused by the global epidemic that plagues the general population. Coco a sleepy and sometimes awkward man is taking complicity with his neighbor, who is fully prepared for this kind of apocalyptic scenarios, while 7 months pregnant pipi, coconut couple remains ensconced in his apartment, completely ignoring coconut scans with his neighbor Horacio through the building. Zanutto, another neighbor of coconut, is clearly the veteran stereotype that leaves no doubt of brutality when shooting in cold blood to other neighbors who came to claim him for alleged Zanutto symptoms presented; eventually come and go shotgun Zanutto by Horacio him and for his, accompanied by a coconut increasingly takes the weight of the situation. Gradually being dead most condo owners in an atmosphere of survival. When there is no more that Zanutto and Horacio with coconut, is a kind of final duel between the two sides, where every action is delimited on the end of the frame, not tell.

Positives: the relationship coconut and pipi, is almost a radiograph to current relationships with differences of character and decisions. Makes history entertaining and takes the pressure of the plot, for the situation that we are experiencing. Maintains a dark thriller that sometimes keeps one alert, but only at times. Negatives: some loose ends. Slow start to reach the climax of the story, perhaps one a bit more than usual so dynamic that exists. Character semi achieved with little justification for their actions. The end deflates a bit, but the plot does not give more.