Bela Kiss Prologue Review (2013)

A story of the notorious serial killer: Bela Kiss

This movie is based off a real life serial killer named Bela Kiss who ran amok in Hungary back during WWI. Apparently his wife became unhappy after a move to the country and started spending a lot of time in nearby Budapest, having fun and cheating with random men. He snaps, kills her, stuffs her in an oil drum and hires a housekeeper to take per place.

Fast forward a few months and he now has a collection of drums stashed around his property. To avoid suspicion he labels them all as gasoline and tells his housekeeper that he's simply stock piling gas in preparation for the big war. His crimes were discovered shortly after he was drafted off to the war and the military came to confiscate his gas for their trucks. Of course, instead of gasoline they found dozens of dead bodies. All of his victims were pickled in alcohol and drained entirely of blood. And because there was no sign of the blood he was labeled a vampire. They never did find Bela. There's a lot of rumors and supposed sightings, but in all likelihood he died at war.

Fast forward 100 years and you have Bela Kiss: Prologue.

This movie follows a group of young bank robbers who, after a clever bit of redirection, find themselves at some kind of weird but swanky no tell motel where they plan to hide out. As our young group of outlaws settle into their new surroundings you see flashbacks of Bela Kiss and his history. As the story unspools it becomes clear why they're at this particular hotel and what their connection to Bela is.

This movie is visually stunning, especially the flashbacks which are very dreamlike. The cinematography and editing are both excellent which make it enjoyable to watch. Not to listen to, but to watch.

The script is painfully simple. It's the kind of script that holds your hand and walks you through every detail. It's the kind of script where you could drink yourself stupid and still keep up. It's the kind of script where everyone in the movie is just kind of walking around stating the obvious.

Nothing really happens for the first hour of this movie. And little happens for 30 minutes after that.

The ending ramps up significantly and has gives you everything you'd expect from a horror, but it's all in the last 20 minutes. The last 20 is awesomely bloody and worth the wait. I went into this expecting a movie like Hostel which explains my impatience. Had I realized it was more of a slow burn mystery I might have been able to appreciate it more.

Worth Watching?

Overall, it kind of felt like a very high quality TV movie that was a little too long and dramatic to hold my attention.