Bacurau review: The spaghetti-splatter-arthouse-sci-fi-horror of the year

Released against The Hunt, the second and superior of this week's riffs on The Most Dangerous Game is the riotous Bacurau. Written and directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho (Aquarius) and Juliano Dornelles, this Bolsonaro-era sci-fi is set in the not-too-distant future.

An opening sequence, in which a woman named Teresa (Barbara Colen) returns to her hometown in rural Brazil for her grandmother's funeral, allows us to meet such colourful locals as a DJ who acts as town crier; stern doctor Domingas (Sônia Braga), who swoops in to drunkenly rage against Teresa's dead grandmother; Pacote (Thomas Aquino), Teresa's ex-boyfriend; self-appointed freedom-fighter Lunga (Silvero Pereira); and the town's corrupt official, Tony Junior (Thardelly Lima), who is so neglectful that the water supply has been cut months before in order to facilitate a new dam in the region.

Is the corrupt politician behind the town's disappearance from Google Maps? Why does no one's mobile phone work anymore? What is that strange object hovering in the sky? Who are those strangers on motorbikes?

Bacurau has more in common with Rambo and Assault on Precinct 13 than one might expect

These sinister goings-on are compounded by the arrival of – be very afraid –  Udo Kier, who shows up as an American "businessman".

The formally and narratively playful Bacurau, which means nighthawk in Portuguese, has more in common with Rambo and Assault on Precinct 13 than one might expect from a Cannes Jury Prize-winning political allegory. Powered by spitting fury and grindhouse tricks, the film keeps the nice and nasty surprises coming.

Braga, Kier and Pereira are standouts in a stellar cast. Pedro Sotero’s lensing is stunning. Not too far into 2020, we are hailing it as the spaghetti-splatter-arthouse-sci-fi-horror of the year.

Opens on March 6th