Rabies, the first ever Israeli horror film, is a whole lot of fun. It’s a slasher film unlike any I’ve ever seen before and yet it still had it’s fair share of problems. First off let me state that I would hardly consider Rabies a horror film. I watched it alone at night and I still never jumped or felt any sort of fear what so ever. It does have a fair amount of gore which I guess defaults it into the horror genre but to me this is more of a gory comedy thriller than anything else.
I found myself laughing quite a bit during the film because of its well written dialogue and pretty original horror movie moments. I don’t want delve into what made the plot of the film so unique because that would ruin it but I will say that it puts an interesting spin on the stuck in the wilderness slasher flick. It has a fair amount of randomness as well which I feel that most good horror movies do.
My main problem with the film was that there were still way too many predictable horror movie conventions mixed in with its inventive moments. To me there is nothing worse than to be able to predict a horror movie cliché coming from a mile away. If not for these few painful moments Rabies would have probably been one of my favorite films of the year so far. As it stands Rabies is still a whole lot of fun. It is more of a group with beer horror movie than an alone on the couch horror movie but I did enjoy it. I will say that I have high hopes for Israeli horror films in the future.
Showtimes for Rabies:
Thursday, July 21, 10:00pm (Castro)
