When a director starts an introduction with the rough statement of ‘I set out to make a horror movie, and I showed it to audiences and they laughed, so I made a horror comedy I guess’ there is a lot of concern that the movie is a genre mishap that doesn’t hit the notes. However, not entirely sure where Javier Ruiz Caldera was disappointed in himself/his movie that it became a comedy, because not only is 5 More Minutes absolutely delightful in its madness and premise, but it is also one of the best horror comedies in recent memory. Not pretending that I am a beacon of horror-comedy standards, but I would say the enjoyment of how hilarious and brilliant 5 More Minutes is is in the same vein as The Blackening –completely different, but it matches its punch for punch in terms of comedy. 5 More Minutes is the horror comedy that audiences need more of.
The movie focuses on married couple Toni (Berto Romero) and Barbara (Belen Cuesta) as they’re trying to escape the city and go to this remote, unplugged, rented property in the outskirts of town to rekindle their relationship and try to save their relationship. Immediately right out of the gate, this is already doomed – how doomed we have to wait to find out, but this premise is overdone and typically never ends well, but Caldera certainly knew what to give audiences to create something fresh and hilariously disturbing. They meet Carlos (Javier Camara), the property manager upon arrival and things are already off to a rocky start thanks to an inopportune encounter with Carlos inadvertently on the way up. However, after 5 minutes of arriving to the property and getting the tour, they’re back outside – back meeting Carlos for the first time, but they all remember everything – and soon after they realize they’re resetting every 5 minutes – and so is everyone once they find a way to connect back to the outside world. What happens when you’re stuck with your rocky partner and the arrogant and unpleasing property manager without any connection to outer civilization resetting every five minutes, well you get 5 More Minutes.
Without spoiling anything, it becomes apparent rather quickly that real life couple Berto and Belen are completely in sync with each other and trust one another whole heartedly. This bleeds into their performance and when Barbara starts suggesting some truly outlandish things (but understandable given the horrific circumstances) Toni is fully on board, and you can only achieve that level of trust with years of a relationship. The fact that they’re together in real life just helps amplify this performance tenfold. Pairing their chaotic energy with the sleaziness of Carlos played excellently by Javier Camara we have characters who perfectly juxtapose each other and bring the utter worst out of each other, but it is their feral cries and terror that lives on their expressions that becomes the highlight of their respective performances.
5 More Minutes will have you leaving the theatre simply begging for 5 More Minutes with Caldera’s film as it is as hilarious and horrifying as it is ingenious. Taking a story that could be so easily overdone and drawn out, and making it something so whole heartedly original, chaotic, and fun is a hard feat but Caldera manages to pull it off easily with a cast that not only understood the assignment but also slayed it at every single moment without exception. Please Javier Ruiz Caldera give us five more minutes.
