★★★☆☆
Three deserters find something worse than war in a frontier farmhouse: a slow-burn “what is this creepy guy up to?” that builds to a divisive reveal.
Ian SBF made his name in Brazilian comedy, co-founding Porta dos Fundos, the country’s YouTube juggernaut, which makes this grim historical horror an unexpected swerve, and a largely successful one. Set amid the War of the Triple Alliance around 1870, a conflict that claimed some 400,000 lives, it follows three Brazilian soldiers who desert the front and stumble on an isolated frontier house occupied by a mysterious farmer and a silent young woman.
The refuge sours fast: their host proves a violent, racist creep, the walls carry occult symbols, and the promise of safety gives way to something worse than the battlefield they fled. SBF, who also edits, keeps the first half in a register of mounting unease, the pleasure being the slow-burn “this is going nowhere good, but what exactly is this creepy guy up to?” dread, before the reveal tips it toward the supernatural and the gore turns extreme. By the end the threats come from all sides, nobody is safe – and nobody can be trusted.
Luiz Carlos Persy is the standout as the farmer, and the craft belies a reported fifteen-day shoot: Vinicius Brum’s photography and the immersive sound design punch well above the budget. The lurch from psychological to supernatural in the back half is where opinion will split, and the ending will divide. But the mystery is compelling, the performances are strong, and there’s a real social charge underneath. If you like your period horror to take its time before baring its teeth, it rewards the wait.
The Flesh Itself played at Tubi FrightFest in London.