If revenge is a dish best served cold, then David Hebrero’s Spanish horror film, Everyone Will Burn, is like a bowl of ice cream you can’t touch. It looks delicious. It smells divine. But we aren’t allowed that satisfactory taste to calm the craving the treat churns up in our guts. In other words, this wicked tale of vengeance overpromises and under-delivers. Written by Hebrero and Javier Kiran, Everyone Will Burn introduces us to Maria (Macarena Gomez), a woman still tortured a decade after the suicide of her son and the abandonment of her ex, David (Rodolfo Sancho). Just moments away from taking her own life, she is stopped suddenly by the appearance of a mud-caked teenager, Lucia (Sofia Garcia), who claims Maria is her mother. Soon after, Maria learns of the girl’s terrifying powers, and the knowledge that she has come to fulfill an apocalyptic prophecy with the tired woman at the center of it. The small town that she blames for killing her son is about to know the rage of a woman scorned. As colorful as the contents of a gumball machine and accentuated by Joan Vila’s classical score, there is a captivating elegance to Everyone Will Burn that immediately draws the viewer into this fiery tale of vengeance. Hebrero and Ona Isart’s lush cinematography allows each and every image to pop off the screen, whether it’s the rolling green hills outside the small town, the stunning architecture of Maria’s mansion home, or the harsh fire devouring the bodies of those who cross Lucia. The cursive titles that open the film imply a certain grace, as if Hebrero wants us to drink in the delectable side of revenge and savor it. After all, despite her almost instant acceptance of a frightening little girl with telekinetic abilities and a taste for death, Maria isn’t a mad woman without reason. We’re meant to sympathize with her loss. And by the end, we’ll want justice as much as she does. Referencing prophecy and an event that took place forty years ago resulting in death and chaos spurned by mob mentality, Everyone Will Burn acts as a poignant commentary on the witch trials of old. It rages at the injustice of women and the ignorance of men as Maria is tested again and again by the townspeople. The men ignore her grief. The women challenge her over it. No one seems to understand her or care. Gomez delivers a powerhouse performance as she takes the viewer on a rollercoaster of emotion, pleading for forgiveness from her deceased son in one instance, cackling with malicious delight in the next. Through Maria’s various highs and lows, Hebrero allows the film to play out like a soap opera. Sadness, joy, rage…all are turned up to the extreme as dramatic twists and turns are unveiled. Mother of the boy who bullied Maria’s son, Tere (Ana Milan), could just as well be the villain of a Disney princess film, her detesting of Maria rising to the level of an evil queen. The melodrama of it all works to point out how grief causes us to lose control, raising our emotions to levels we didn’t know were possible. For two-thirds of the film, Everyone Will Burn is an utterly captivating story filled with engaging performances, shocking deaths, and strong themes of motherhood that resonate with profound clarity. Yet, in direct contradiction to the title, Hebrero’s film fails to live up to the promise of what it sets forth through a confused third act far more dumbfounding than satisfying. All of the dramatic kindling ends up creating little more than a brief simmer rather than a raging inferno. It’s almost as if money had run out by the time it came to shoot the finale, the whole thing feels so poorly chopped together. Perhaps it’s the film’s way of saying vengeance is never as satisfying as you’d expect. Perhaps it’s just poor writing. Regardless of a finale that leaves a lot to be desired, Everyone Will Burn is a finely made film that burns with a deep-seeded anger towards the way society treats those who are different. We live in a world governed by mob rule. A so-called “civilization” where people are anything but civil when it comes to those they deem as outcasts. Hebrero’s film is the antithesis to those torch-wielding mobs, one that allows the “monster” to turn the tables on them for a change. It may not quite deliver the cold dessert it makes us crave, but it’s an enjoyable feast of revenge nevertheless. Everyone Will Burn is now on VOD from Drafthouse Films. By Matt Konopka
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