There’s an “aha” moment deep into Scherzo Diabolico when you’ll discover the lead character, Aram (Francisco Barreiro), is not quite the vicious monster you think he is. It’s at or around the same point you can start making a case that this latest from Spanish-born, Mexican-based horror director Adrián García Bogliano is more than just a gruesome exercise in exploitation. Unfortunately, it’s too little too late for both. This kidnapping tale gone awry, while not without one or two moments of genuine electricity, is just too nasty for its own good.
Barreiro’s Aram is a working stiff middle-manger, stuck putting in overtime hours without overtime pay. His wife disrespects him, his young son can’t relate to him outside of superhero costumes. In his spare time he researches how to put people in sleeper holds (practising on his senile father) and stalks a teen girl. He’s also sleeping with a gal from the office who doubles as a prostitute, but whether their relationship is more than professional is ambiguous. Barreiro, a little pudgy and sporting a dorky moustache, doesn’t really look like a threat, which is why his kidnapping of the young girl comes as a bit of a shock. In time we’ll discover that the girl is the boss’s daughter, and his schemes are more career-oriented than sexual. Or … are they? It’s a little hard to tell.
The film’s title comes from a well-known piece for piano, one of a number of known tunes that play on Aram’s inexpensive “best of the classics” CD. Recognition of the piece later acts as a trigger that sets the violated schoolgirl on her trail of vengeance.
Scherzo Diabolico’s third act takes a welcome turn into black comedy, and its unexpected moments of violence will likely inspire huzzahs from midnight audiences. One particular image of gore is basically abstract expressionism. Yet these moments of dark fun are wildly at odds with the psycho-sexual torture of the earlier scenes. It just doesn’t feel right to have a good time.
Bogliano’s previous picture, Here Comes the Devil, similarly played with humour and horror, but did so in a surreal supernatural context. This would-be Coen brothers caper doesn’t have enough originality to merit rallying behind such questionable subject matter.
