DESCENDENTS

ALL I  CAN SAY IS, WOW!!!

This 2008 Chilean film release -- back home they call it Solos, which I think translates as something like "onlies" -- is about the finest statement of piscatorial love you could hope to find on a budget like this.  It couldn't have cost more than a buck ninety-eight American to film this one.  It's a very simple story of a grubby, starving, lonely child fleeing some sort of rundown military/medical facility where her mother was KILLED, and EATEN.  She wanders through these bleak, chilly-looking landscapes with the sky a funny shade of orange and almost everyone dead.  The few people still walking around are either wearing gas masks and camouflage or, well, they're FLESH-EATING ZOMBIES. 

What does this have to do with piscatorial love?  YOU MAY WELL ASK.

Well, this little girl -- Camille, as in "Courage, Camille!" -- is immune to whatever makes people into the WALKING DEAD.  And somehow, the zombies know she is not only immune, but as a group they refuse to KILL and EAT her.  Why?  She has special marks on her neck.  Three on each side.  Long, gory-looking slits that make her look as if she tangled with Freddy Krueger. 

There are other children like her.  They are all safe from the zoms, although for reasons NEVER MADE CLEAR they are not safe from the military. 

Another thing nobody makes clear is how Camille's mom, born without the slits in her own throat, can know all this.  BUT YOU AND I KNOW, DON'T WE?

Throughout the story, Camille keeps having flashbacks to the instructions her mom gave her.  Go to the sea, she tells her daughter.  There is a giant Octopus there and he will protect you.  It's all framed in fairytale terms, and illustrated with children's crayon drawings that tell Camille what to look for.  

And Camille finds these other kids, and they all head for the sea.  (That couldn't be a hard job in Chile.  Unless they really screw up and head East by mistake.  Even that wouldn't matter if they're far enough South.  But I like to think a KID BORN WITH GILL SLITS can smell the saltwater a long way off...

I won't ruin the ending for you.  JUST WATCH IT.  THAT'S AN ORDER.

Bring a whole box of hankies.