Valley of the Dead (film)

Valley of the Dead (Spanish: Malnazidos)^[1] is a 2020 Spanish zombie action film directed by Javier Ruiz Caldera and Alberto de Toro. Set in the latter period of the Spanish Civil War, the film features an ensemble cast of Miki Esparbé, Aura Garrido, Luis Callejo, Álvaro Cervantes, Jesús Carroza and María Botto.

The film premiered at a 53rd Sitges Film Festival, and was set to be theatrically released in January 2021, to be distributed by Sony Pictures, but its release was delayed twice as a result of COVID-19 pandemic in Spain. The film was eventually opened to Spanish theatres on 11 March 2022, and is also released on Netflix as an original film for overseas audiences.

Plot

During the Spanish Civil War, a column of Waffen-SS troops arrives at a small village during a wedding and slaughters the wedding guests. The SS men then put on gas masks and hurl numerous gas canisters containing an unknown substance onto a pile of bloodied cadavers.

Jan Lozano, a Nationalist soldier and corporate lawyer, was saved from execution by his high-ranking uncle, General Lozano, who, in exchange for staving off his execution for assaulting a military judge, orders Jan to deliver a message to a unit at the frontlines. Private Decruz, who Jan had defended as he was also sentenced to death for desertion, is assigned as his driver. Along the way, the two witness a pilot ejected from a crashing aircraft during a dogfight overhead. Thinking they could be one of the Nationalists, Jan decides to investigate, much to Decruz's dismay. Arriving only to find out the pilot dead, they were ambushed and captured by a group of Republicans, led by "Sergeant", and threatens to kill Decruz.

Jan lies to the Republicans and claims Decruz was married in an effort to save him, and they believe his ruse as Lozano and Decruz is being escorted to their encampment. However, as they do so, a photographer was bitten by the pilot, who has reanimated, and turns into one of the infected; both were swiftly dispatched. The group return to their encampment, only to find it in ruins, and are forced to flee, as the soldiers reanimate as zombies and chase after the group, who narrowly escaped by boat, but not before Brodsky was overwhelmed by the infected. Reaching at a small cabin, they find it occupied by a pair of Nationalist soldiers--Jurell and Rafir-- and a nun, Sister Flor, resulting in an armed standoff. Jan manages to defuse the situation, convincing the two sides to form a truce.

Jurrel and Rafir later spots a large horde of infected bearing down towards the cabin. Sergeant orders everyone to flee, while Match cover their escape using dynamite. They came across a large, electrified wire fence and realizes that the SS had fenced off the entire valley. Among the infected stuck on the fence is the zombified Brodsky, whom Jan kills in order to spare Sergeant from killing his own friend.

Jan reveals to the Republicans that the note he was given to, was actually a map written in an invisible ink, with coordinates pinpointing the location of what he suspected to be experiments. The group agrees to investigate the area. Arriving at their location, they finds a lone survivor of the earlier wedding massacre hiding inside the church--Ana, who reveals that her husband shielded her from gunfire and states that the Waffen-SS had taken over the town to conduct various experiments until the entire unit was wiped out by the infected.

Jaime, the Republican unit's commissar, discovers the formula the Germans were using; he plans to bring it back so that the Republic can unleash it on Nationalist held cities and win the war. The other Republican soldiers disagree with his plans, and a standoff ensues, with Decruz briefly held hostage, before Jaime was swarmed and killed by the infected. The group flees via a set of tunnels. In the chaos, Rafir was almost bitten by a zombified Ana, while Sister Flor chooses to sacrifice herself in order for them to escape after she was revealed to have been bitten.

As Decruz goes to retrieve the truck, Jan advocates going to the town of Las Aguilas to find the antidote in hopes of stopping the plague, revealing that his brother is fighting for the Republicans. He convinces the group to go along with the plan, and they travel to the base. Upon arriving, he sees his uncle and an SS commander, whom the former reveals he is fully aware of the ongoing situation and warns that the Soviets are working on a similar bioweapon and pleads Jan to leave the valley, but Jan refuses, and leaves to rejoin the group, resulting in his uncle being murdered by the SS commander.

Upon returning, Decruz reveals he was bitten while retrieving the truck and volunteers to sacrifice himself, managing to blast a hole in the roadblock to allow the group to enter the base. The explosion had attracted a large horde of infected and had begun to swarm the base, slaughtering the Germans and the Nationalist soldiers. Jurrell and Match chose not to follow with Jan's plan and attempts to escape. Rafir is seemingly killed during the attack while supporting Match and he and Jurrell find themselves trapped inside the truck surrounded by zombies. After sharing their personal lives, they discover the truck has a large crate containing explosives, and Match uses the last stick of dynamite to sacrifice themselves, killing many zombies in the ensuing explosion.

The group storms the train car laboratory, encountering the SS commander, who declares there is no antidote. Matacuras shoots the SS officer, only for Jan to be bitten on the hand by a zombie. She immediately cut off his hand, preventing him from becoming fully infected. Sergeant manages to get the train going, but sacrifices himself as zombies close in on him. German bomber planes arrive and pummel the valley, obliterating the base and engulfing the train.

Jan and Matacuras are revealed to have survived, as does Rafir, who managed to kill the infected in time before he was bitten. Matacuras brings Jan back to the edge of Fascist frontlines, and she tells him her intention to slip over the border into France, before bidding each other farewells and go their separate ways.

In the mid-credits scene, a gloved hand moves amongst the wreckage on the train and a guttural scream can be heard.

Cast

Production

Malnazidos is an adaptation of the novel Noche de difuntos del 38 by Manuel Martín Ferreras.^[8] The film was produced by Telecinco Cinema, Cactus Flower Producciones, Malnazidos AIE, La Terraza Films and Ikiru Films.^[9] It was co-directed by Javier Ruiz Caldera and Alberto de Toro whereas the screenplay was written by Jaime Marqués Olarreaga, Alberto Fernández Arregui and Cristian Conti.^[9] Ghislain Barrois, Álvaro Augustin, Cristian Conti, Javier Ugarte and Edmon Rochare were credited as producers.^[8] Shooting took place in Catalonia.^[5]

Release

The film premiered on 8 October 2020, at the 53rd Sitges Film Festival (FICFC).^[10][11]

Initially intended to be theatrically released in Spain on 22 January 2021, the release was postponed to 24 September 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused the shelving of all Telecinco Cinema titles pending for theatrical release.^[12][13] Postponed again, its release was eventually re-scheduled for 11 March 2022.^[14]

Accolades

See also

• List of Spanish films of 2022

References

External links

• Valley of the Dead at IMDb