Rabies (2010) Horror ish

Rabies (2010) - Kalevet (original title) From Israel this wonderful surprise of the most deadly type rambles its infectious happenstance through the lives of its unsuspecting characters leaving all it touches infected. A beginning with urgency leaves us wondering if this is a slasher film. An incestuous(?) couple Ofer (Henry David) and Tali (Liat Harlev) are in a bind. Having run away together Tali has somehow gotten trapped in a locked pit. Ofer leaves to find help before whomever set the trap comes back and we hear a off scream grunt ending the scene. Is Ofer alright, is this the standard Slasher film and we will now see Tali become the next victim. Well guess what this is not your average horror film. It is a slick and clever adventure in how things can go wrong when small things go wrong. Things fall apart when the first event is triggered,
The characters instead of rising to the occasion seem to be infected by the situation and each spirals out of control in unique ways. The cast of characters is defined early in the film. The forestry ranger, Menashe (Menashe Noy) who is out in the park checking on the standards of the place. He and his dog Buba leave his love coworker to do the rounds, Neither he or the dog have great luck, coming across, the "killer", The man in overalls (Yaron Motola), carrying Tali away from the trap he set. Now I call him the killer but to be clear although he seems to be abducting Tali he at this point has not been seen killing anyone. Our killer himself is shot by Menashe with a tranquilizer he gets off two shots, leaving Tali unconscious and the man in the overalls wanders away before also passing out. 
  Ofer stumbling out of the woods is struck by a car, in the car are four tennis players, Two guys , Mikey (Ran Danker) and Pini (Ofer Shechter) who are friends and two girls, Shir (Yael Grobglas) and Adi (Ania Bukstein) are now pulled into the events in the woods. The two guys head into the forest with the injured Ofer to save Tali, not knowing at theis point she is already gone. Shir and Adi stay behind to call and wait for the police.  Neither of these groups will have a good day. Without giving too much away because this is a movie you should see for yourself, they are just so unfortunate in their luck. The guys because of secrets between them and the girls because they are so unfortunate to get the two cops they got to respond to their call.
  The cops Danny (Lior Ashkenazi) and Yuval (Danny Geva) are not great people and their arrival on the scene sets in motion events that so quickly get out of control in the most amazing way. Danny self involved trying to patch things up with his wife via the phone is distracted from the lecherous behavior of his partner Yuval. The latter pushes the buttons of the young women, eventually sexually assaulting Shir and pushing her friend Adi over a line she can't come back from. All eventually end up in conflict is wonderfully unexpected ways. 
 Ofer after leaving the other two guys to fight out there issues in the woods stumbles across Menashe carrying Tali to a trailer they keep in the woods. He mistaking the forestry agent for the killer makes a valiant attempt at saving her from Maneshe. Things again are so wrong in how they play out and these three characters story lines finish up in smoke and fire.
I was very pleased with this entry such a sneaky clever film turning happenstance into disaster at every turn. Writers, and co directors Aharon Kedhales, and Navot Papushado do a great job creating a plague of characters that can only melt down and not rise up when things go wrong. The deaths in the film are creative and at times unexpected and the editing also done by the pair is exceptional at keep the attention moving between the charactes making the story unfold with ease and pace. So I recommend this film and look forward to there latest film Big Bad Wolves which had quite a bit of buzz when it was making the rounds.
As I have done so far this year; I am doing as an experiment my Twitter account @Soresport is dedicated to following and being followed by people in and behind the scenes. Then I am also hoping some of them follow me back. I do fear that Twitter has become too much of a promotional tool for people in film to actually get those follow backs but hey its an experiment.