'Arrebato' is the first film by Iván Zulueta, who happens to the creative guy behind the psychedelic album art of Contrabando (1968), a power-pop classic by Spanish band Los Brincos. When you peep the cover art, you're sure that the creative genius is not an ordinary person. The result of the thought process is Zulueta's feature as becomes one with the medium, enjoys the ecstasy and immersing oneself in this trip. It is a tremendously subjugating work, a suffocating, claustrophobic to film during drug abuse. The contextualization (late 70s) and the hypnotic setting adds to the terror as the characters are victims of their own personal demons and constantly fuelled by sex, heroine and paranoia. A visionary junkie in the super 8 era, narrated as an epistolary story by Lovecraft, this gem is an experimental exercise in metacinema. Zulueta achieves moments of great artistic inspiration, supported by a suffocating, depressing cinematography that highlights the gloomy environments that the characters in the film inhabit. I could say that it is like a Spanish David Lynch with Bava-esque atmosphere, while the plot development and twists predates Cronenberg's Videodrome (1983) and Vernon Zimmerman's Fade to Black (1980). It checks all the boxes in transmitting the despair, generally unpleasant, in a credible and distressing way.
This might sound very clichéd, but ARREBATO (RAPTURE) is not a cinema for everyone. Be cautious as it will put you off.
