THE DREADED CURSE

When I heard Cidade de Dudes had received Z-Grade film as their genre, I knew we were in for a treat. While 48 Hours has seen plenty of accidental z-grades submitted through the years, it takes a special self-awareness to craft a film so deliberately awkward it's hilarious. It's a fine line that distinguishes hilarious bad from actually bad, and Cidade de Dude navigates this tightrope with ease, demonstrating a fundamental understanding of z-grade films and their tropes. From over-the-top American accents and stunted, staccato dialogue through to the repetitive, heavy-handed score and pseudo-art-house aesthetic, this film is an ode to all those films we love to hate. Nice work team!

I liked what they did with what could be a disastrous genre if handled wrong. Some on the money acting and some great out of focus shots (not something you normally hear but they worked perfectly for the genre) helped sell the genre.

This was one of my favourites of the heat. Nailed the Z Grade. Noirish aesthetic. Long pregnant pauses and melodramatic expressions. Kooky characters. Had it all. Was cracking up all the way through it.

This was an extremely difficult genre to nail, but if anyone knows how to do it right, it's Cidade de Dudes. Clichés were on-point and loved every moment. Story arc was fantastic!

A lot of cool stuff in this film, and the first z-grade I've had the pleasure of seeing. I love all the small moments of faux-bad filmmaking, like the out of focus shots, the boom creeping its way in, the hammy acting and the bizarre story with an enigmatic ending, I hope the judges and audience will be able to recognize these elements as intentional and not as genuine mistakes!

People always bemoan musical as the hardest genre. I disagree completely. To make an amazing, yet deliberately bad film take a level of ability that few possess. All of the best Z-Grade films are so wonderful because of their misguided integrity and I feel like this film managed to somehow knowingly tap into that. The subject was wonderfully obtuse and the comedic timing was tragically on point. They even got the perfect level of discontinuity. Just terrible, and by that I mean amazing.