Fantastic Fest 2011

Co-Director Navot Pupushado and Co-Director Aharon Keshales live in person!

A brother and sister, Ofer and Tali, run away from home in the dead of night. As they enter the forest near their former home, Tali falls into a trap set by a homicidal maniac. As Ofer goes to get help, he comes across a group of young people whom he begs to help him. Unfortunately, the two teen girls with said group have already run afoul of a corrupt police officer who is now out for revenge. Meanwhile, a park ranger witnesses a man carrying a body through the forest, a dog is murdered, oh and large areas of the woods are littered with abandoned landmines. Basically, just a bad day to go to the park.

A country that has long been silent in the genre filmmaking world, Israel gives us an astonishing horror film that examines the violence inherent in each and every human being. We do have a serial killer in the woods, but rather than opt for the conventional and assigning him the role of the solitary evil in the woods, Rabies suggests a larger, more insidious threat lurking just below the surface. There is something else in these woods, something invisible that possess just as much of a menace as one psychopath.

Rabies is an extraordinary tale of intertwining stories. There are elements that play out like cautionary tales, and yet most of the events and encounters are the results of utter chance. The characters in this film are united by their one shared fatal error: entering these woods on this day. This in conjunction with the story device involving the landmines seems an interesting commentary on the random, but continuous violence inextricable from Israel’s history. Rabies uses familiar, but well-articulated, horror tropes to exorcise some of the demons of Israel’s national identity. (Brian Salisbury)