Cold Sweat

D: Adrián García Bogliano; with Facundo Espinosa, Marina Glezer

What happens to monsters when they get old? It’s hard to think that torturers just hang up their tools and retire. So when Roman (Espinosa) and Ali (Glezer) wander into the wrong house in search of Roman’s missing ex and run into a pair of aging secret policemen with a taste for creative mutilation, it’s an explosive combination. Literally. The ex-cops spend their twilight years painting women with unstable explosives: One move at faster than a snail’s pace, and the friction will blow them apart. Director/writer Bogliano adds the nitroglycerine tension of The Wages of Fear to Argentina’s recent history of death squads and turns it into a wickedly clever twist on The People Under the Stairs. Not only is his use of chemistry gruesomely ingenious, but he finds a convincing and tense way to make two doddering coffin dodgers into memorable screen villains.

Thursday, March 17, 11.30pm, Alamo Lamar B

This article appears in March 18 • 2011.

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The Chronicle's first Culture Desk editor, Richard has reported on Austin's growing film production and appreciation scene for over a decade. A graduate of the universities of York, Stirling, and UT-Austin, a Rotten Tomatoes certified critic, and eight-time Best of Austin winner, he's currently at work on two books and a play.