Nostalgia Kinky

Cleopatra Records has released the 2024 Argentinian horror anthology Portraits of the Apocalypse on DVD as part of its ongoing movie line. Created by three individual filmmakers on a shoestring budget, this 75-minute feature comes available to watch in both its original language as well as an English dub. It is available to order from Cleopatra or from MVD.

Among cinema’s great sub-genres, the horror anthology is an ideal format for both new and seasoned filmmakers. It is a wide-open field that includes everything from art-house masterpieces like Spirits of the Dead to campy cult classics like Creepshow. This collection of like-minded films has indeed produced some serious cinematic bangers, but it has also produced a whole lot of junk. Portraits of the Apocalypse falls somewhere in the middle.

Portraits of the Apocalypse is, fine. For anyone that’s seen their fair share of these collections, this will rank neither amongst the best nor the worst. However, when one considers that this film was made for under ten grand and that the shorts here are essentially ‘one-day wonders’, this is, again, fine.

Two of the filmmakers behind Portraits of the Apocalypse, Nicanor Loreti and Fabián Forte are established enough to have features under their belts. The third director, Luca Castello, is a newbie with just one short previously on his resume. The stories presented here are very loosely connected, but not in the clearest way. Portraits of the Apocalypse mainly succeeds as a minor technical showcase for each director; each showing they can make a competently shot film cheaply and quickly.

Portraits of the Apocalypse’s greatest asset is its brevity. This is a breezy, and bloody, quick afternoon watch. While the Cleopatra DVD contains no extras outside of some basic promotional material, it does contain the essential Spanish language track with English subtitles.
The English dub of this is to be avoided.
While it would have been nice to have some bonus material highlighting the origins of the film, as a no-frills DVD this Cleopatra release suits Portraits of the Apocalypse just fine.

-Jeremy Richey, August 2026-