Spanish Movie Paintball 2009
Cast And Crew
Cast.. Brendan Mackey, Jennifer Matter
Patrick Regis, Iaione Perez
Neil Maskell , Anna Casas .
Peter Vives Newey .. Claudia Bassols and Others.
Director:Daniel Benmayor
Writer:Mario Schoendorff (writer)
Release Date: 15 October 2009
Genre:Action | Horror | Thriller more
Tagline:There's nothing like a brush with death to make you feel alive
Synopsis
Eight strangers convene in an undisclosed location for a paintball retreat. Out of the gate, the game seems to be exactly what they paid for: all-out action in a remotely set battle of wits and wiles. As the game advances and the stakes get higher, it becomes clear that the group is playing a very different game than what they had signed up for. With rules that change as soon as they are mastered, the team sport quickly devolves into an anything-goes struggle for individual survival, and the participants gradually realise that their real opponent may be the game itself
.Tribeca Film Festival: PAINTBALL Review by Simon Abrams,
Based on its loony concept—a bunch of paintball nuts go into the woods for a fun but hardcore game and end up getting picked off one-by-one when the game gets too real for comfort—director Daniel Benmayor and screenwriter Mario Schoendorff’s Paintball (2009) could have been any number of things.
It could have been a misguided and incredibly condescending critique of the self-indulgent and absurd nature of simulated violence or a pastiche ala Severance that winks to its audience at the excesses of its ludicrous premise or even a stupid slasher movie with no real ambition other than being wicked cool and gory. Instead, Benmayor and Schoendorff opted to take a lil from column A and a lot from column C, making a straight-faced thriller with an underdeveloped political subtext that’s as aggressively hard to watch as it is to conceptually to imagine working.
SPOILERS AHEAD.
Ala Hostel, Benmayor dabbles with broad social commentary but makes nothing of it in the set-up to his film. After they’re brought to the woods in hoods that even one of the characters admits looks like that “Abu Ghraib shit,” any hint of a cogent critique of socially attenuated acts of violence drops to the wayside. Halfway through Paintball, we find out that our group of hapless paintballers, featuring the loud and really annoying dude, the only sympathetic guy who happens to be black, the opportunistic asshole, the nervous breakdown chick and the final girl, are being picked off by a “hunter” paid by rich men and women in the shadows to pick them off in order to determine the most suitable candidates for some program we never find out about (I know, shocking, right?). He goes rogue, again for reasons we never are clued in on and starts taking out the players for kicks. If you’re thinking that Friday the 13th would have been a much better film if Jason Voorhees played paintball and killed people because he was paid to do it, Paintball should be giving you goosebumps right about now.
Not so much for this guy. Benmayor can’t decide whether to celebrate or put down virtual displays of death, shooting almost the entire film with a hyper-nauseating shaky cam that denies the pleasure of even the film’s most satisfying acts of gratuitous violence, which, realistically, are what any stupid slasher aspires to be remembered for. He takes a stab at shaming the viewer by rarely showing actual blood but instead showing it indirectly through the “hunter”’s grey night vision or the ubiquitous neon orange paint splatter. But then he has the characters stumble upon a case of special red paintballs and the question of whether he’s trying to be serious or just uptight become irrelevant as it’s clear that Paintball’s too much of either.
One of the shining stars at the Tribeca Film Festival is "Paintball," an independent Spanish film from director Daniel Benmayor. One of only three horror films currently playing at the Tribeca Film Festival "Paintball," along with "Hysterical Psycho," and "The House of the Devil," can now be seen by horror film fans on the east coast. From director Benmayor and screenwriter Mario Schoendorff "Paintball," makes a social commentary on our tribalist society and how the role of violence, in various media forms, still remains relevant to society today. Also, adding in several tricks of the camera, first time director, Benmayor will add a visually appealing landscape that will thrill those fortunate enough to receive initial screenings. Have a look at the available details for "Paintball," here and let us all hope that "Paintball," also shows at the 2009 Los Angeles Film Festival this summer.
The latest entry in the survival horror sub-genre carries the most apt and simple title we've seen in some time: Paintball. This Spanish import, directed by Daniel Benmayor, now has a teaser site sporting a trailer and a photo gallery. Give it a look right here. Filmax will be releasing the film - about a paintball excursion that takes a deadly turn - internationally in the coming months. U.S. release plans are unknown at this time.
