Sep 5, 20192 min read

Grimmfest 2019 Film Feature - 4x4

Runtime: 88 mins

Starring: #LuisBrandoni, #DadyBrieva, #PeterLanzani

Grimmfest Feature by: Darren Tilby

Synopsis: A high-end 4×4 is parked on a street of a typical neighbourhood in Buenos Aires. A man breaks into it to steal whatever he can find, but when he tries to get out he finds that the doors and windows are locked tight like an armoured bunker. He is trapped. Someone on the outside is in control of the vehicle, and they seem to have a plan.

Grimmfest say: Anybody who parks their shiny new 4×4 in an impoverished neighbourhood is just asking for trouble, right? Or maybe they’re actively inviting it. Mariano Cohn’s fiendish high-concept thriller develops its simple premise into a nightmare of suffocating claustrophobia and cold-blooded cat and mouse cruelty, before pulling a deft shift in focus which places the situation into a wider sociopolitical context. The end result is a nail-bitingly tense, deeply uncomfortable study in petty criminality, revenge, and the breakdown in social responsibility – a narrative in which there can be no winners, only victims. Make sure you are sufficiently hydrated beforehand, folks, because this one will have you sweating buckets.

What I'm Expecting: The synopsis and Grimmfest's write-up for the film make me wonder whether Speed, Dredd and Death Proof had some kind of secret cinematic love child, born out of a strange (but hugely thrilling) ménage a Trois—and this is the result. 4x4 is an Argentinian Spanish-language film supposedly rife with socio-political commentary, claustrophobic atmosphere, and "cold-blooded cat and mouse cruelty" at its core. And honestly, I don't quite know what to expect. It could go in any direction; this one has me intrigued beyond reason. One thing I'm sure of, however, is that 4x4 will stand out at Grimmfest, being much less a horror film and much more a thriller—a highly intense and nail-biting thriller at that.