BELOW ZERO : Wednesday 14th July 2021.

With Greater Sydney in COVID lockdown once again, and as a result all cinema's closed until July 30th at least, once again I'll be reviewing a few of the latest feature films released recently onto Netflix. One such film that I watched from the comfort of my own home this week is the Spanish action thriller 'BELOW ZERO' (or 'BAJOCERO' in its native language) and is Directed and Co-Written by Lluis Quilez in only his second feature film outing following 2014's 'Out of the Dark' with Julia Stiles, Scott Speedman and Stepehn Rea. Quilez has however, received much critical acclaim winning seventeen awards with another six nominations from around the awards and festivals circuit for his short films, mostly for 'Graffiti', 'Avatar' and '72%'. 'Below Zero' was released to Netflix back in late January this year.

And so the film opens up with a hooded man whose identity is hidden from us, pursuing a younger man in the pouring rain in the dead of night. The younger man is trudging through the mud and can barely walk. He slumps down on the bonnet of a parked car only to be beaten heavily to the face and head by his assailant, who then points a gun at his head and demands to know the location of a missing body. He is then chained up and dragged backwards through the rain and mud, knocked semi-conscious and thrown into a shallow grave where the hooded figure promptly buries him alive. 

We then cut to a busy street where also in the pouring rain in a vehicle sits a man, his wife and his young daughter while they wait for roadside assistance to come and repair the blown tyre of their car. Being impatient the man gets out of the car and replaces the wheel himself, while his daughter looks on and his wife has gone on to work. Later that day, that same man, Martin (Javier Gutierrez) arrives at the Police precinct where he works and he is detailed to transfer six criminals from one prison to another later that night by driving a prisoner transport truck with his assigned partner for the journey, Montesinos (Isak Ferriz) together with a pilot vehicle containing two other Police Officers. 

Following a lengthy strip search of the six prisoners to check for any concealed weapons, lock picks, or other personal items that aren't permitted, they are all handcuffed and escorted to the truck, where they enter one by one and are each individually locked up for the duration of the journey in their own cell. Initially the journey starts out well enough with the two vehicles taking the back roads so save on travel time, that takes them along a winding woodland route. Gradually the temperature drops and the fog closes in making visibility treacherous, and Martin looses sight of the pilot vehicle in front. Over the radio he repeatedly asks the Police Officers to respond but their radio is silent. Shortly afterwards the transport truck is brought to an abrupt halt by a spike strip laid across the road to deliberately disable the vehicle. 

Montesinos exits the armoured truck leaving Martin inside the cab, to check out the unfolding situation. Further down the road he notices the Police car on its side, but before he is able to get to it he is gunned down by a sniper hiding in the woods. When Montesinos doesn't respond to Martin's radio call, Martin ventures outside. He first comes across Montesinos lifeless body laying in the road and then sees the lights of the Police car and goes to investigate but not before being shot at by the same sniper. Making it to the Police car and using it for cover, he notices the two Officers inside both dead. The sniper continues to take pot shots at Martin with a bullet narrowly missing him but grazing his ear. He is then shot in the leg but makes it back to the truck and enters the prisoners compartment. 

In the meantime, one prisoner, Ramis (Luis Callejo) has been able to free himself from his handcuffs using a make shift lock pick he had concealed inside himself and in so doing releases the other prisoners, who all ultimately overpower Martin despite his best efforts to quell their uprising by pointing his gun at them, whose magazine was empty having fired off all the rounds at the mystery sniper in the woods earlier. The assailant climbs into the cab and speaks to those prisoners and Martin over the loudspeaker, saying that he is only interested in one prisoner and if the others can get out of the truck then they are free to do so, but he has no way of getting in. The prisoner that the assailant is interested in is a young man named Nano (Patrick Criado), who instantly recognises the assailants voice as Miguel (Karra Elejalde) a former Police Officer who is crazy and he has no idea what he wants with him. Nano, in an attempt to preserve his life, swallows the only key that would have allowed all the prisoners to exit the truck through a hatch at the rear of the transport vehicle. The other prisoners offer to slice open Nano to retrieve the key, but Miguel says that he wants him alive. 

With no alternative, Miguel changes the punctured wheel of the truck, and drives off with the prisoners and Martin still locked inside the compartment at the rear, with Martin handcuffed to a security door keeping Nano company separate from the remaining prisoners. Ramis tries to reason with Miguel over the radio, but to no avail, so Martin attempts to communicate. Miguel still remains adamant that his interest only rests with Nano, and the others still have time to find a away to escape, but time is running out. Meanwhile, prisoner Pardo (Miquel Gelabert) is dead having being burned to death when Miguel poured petrol into his cell through a grate to allow for air flow, and set it alight, and Mihai (Florin Opritescu) was bludgeoned to death with a fire extinguisher by Nano while trying to escape, leaving four prisoners now. And the there were three as Rei (Edgar Vittorino) succumbed by being impaled head first onto a bolt he was attempting to undo in the luggage compartment under the floor of the truck in a bid to find an escape route, when Miguel forces Montesinos (who had come round but is badly injured) off the road in his car and abruptly comes to a grinding halt. Miguel goes to investigate and finds Montesino bleeding out behind the wheel of his car having crashed headlong into some boulders by the roadside. He dies from his wounds while Miguel looks on. 

Miguel then drives the truck as day breaks onto a frozen lake. He gets out and with his shotgun blasts holes through the ice close to three of the wheels, knowing that in a matter of minutes the ice will crack and the truck will sink to the icy depths below. Miguel gets out and walks to the shoreline. As the truck gradually begins sinking the four remaining occupants begin panicking as water starts rushing in. Martin pleads with Ramis to release him from his handcuffs using his makeshift lock pick. As the water levels rise Ramis drops the lock pick and Golum (Andres Gertrudix) swims down to retrieve it. When he resurfaces Ramis successfully frees Martin from his cuffs, but in the meantime Golum dies from the intense cold as his body shuts down. Martin says he knows a way out through an escape hatch in the roof, as the truck sinks to the bottom of the lake. He, Ramis and Nano make it out of the truck and swim to the surface in the bitter cold early morning air. 

By the lakeside Nano heads off in the opposite direction to Martin and Ramis, with Miguel looking on from a distance. Ramis and Martin bid their farewells to each other as the former walks away a free man with designs of opening a beachside bar on a tropical island somewhere. Nano heads off in the direction of an abandoned lakeside village as Miguel follows. Martin gets his bearings and heads there too. Miguel is positioned in a deserted barn taking shots at Nano who is cowering behind a wall. 

Martin stealthily makes his way up to the barn and confronts Miguel who reveals that he lost his daughter to a vicious rape/torture/murder, that her body had never been found, and that Nano was responsible. A fact that he learned from killing his best friend Chino (Alex Monner) in the opening scene of the film. Martin tries to tell him that it's not the way the law works, but Miguel states that the law failed him and he knows how the law works having been a Police Officer himself. The pair fight, and Miguel gets away eventually pinning down Nano and demanding the whereabouts of his daughter. Martin arrives and separates the pair. Nano rises to his feet and says he will never tell where the girls body is, effectively admitting to the crime. 

At that and with a Police helicopter approaching, Martin at the last minute decides to depart from his law-abiding beliefs and tortures Nano by shooting his hand clean off with Miguel's shotgun to extract the location of the disposed body of Miguel's daughter. As the Police arrive en masse by car and helicopter, Martin stands to his feet and raises his arms while Miguel still on the ground, smiles secure in the knowledge that he can locate his daughter and give her the funeral she deserves, while Nano spends his life behind bars. 

I have to say that I enjoyed 'Below Zero' more than I had anticipated. Sure, its never going to set the world alight but as far as engaging story lines go, solid performances, and enough blood and gore to keep fans of such genre films entertained, there is much to like here. The film could be described as a mix of 'Con Air' staged on the ground, the hugely successful Spanish series (also on Netflix) 'Money Heist' and almost anything that Liam Neeson has starred in recently, especially 'The Grey', 'Cold Pursuit' and the upcoming 'Ice Road' - you throw all of those into a blender and out pops 'Below Zero'. There are some questionable moments in the film that are used to propel the story along and for these it's best to let them slide without getting too bogged down in the story to interrupt what is essentially a taught, suspenseful, bloody and violent action thriller that is well worth searching out. The film is overdubbed into English. 

'Below Zero' warrants three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-