Written and directed by Iván Zulueta, the main thing to bear in mind when watch Rapture (AKA Arrebato) is that the creator spent a long time in the grip of heroin addiction. If you didn't know that when the film started then you should have a suspicion when the film ends.
Essentially all about a film-maker who has been sent a slightly mystifying gift package, Rapture shows José (Eusebio Poncela) thinking back to a couple of past encounters he had with a young man named Pedro (Will More). While nothing major seems to happen in those encounters, the two people clearly have a strong connection that they're initially unaware of. They both seek something. And it becomes clear to José that Pedro may have actually found it.
Messy and disorientating throughout, yet not as surreal and impenetrable as it could have been, Rapture may be wearing a number of items from the horror genre wardrobe (the puzzle loaded with potential danger, the unknown fates of certain characters, the growing obsession), but it won't be one that people necessarily seek out when they want to watch a horror movie. I would definitely allow it to carry that label though, especially if you've ever known the pain of watching someone held tight in the life-sapping grip of addiction.
Poncela gives a fantastic performance, convincingly pretending to be carefree while he starts getting that particular unscratchable itch that is about to set his whole body on fire. More is allowed to be a bit more relaxed and enigmatic, which is important as everything builds to a quietly disturbing and haunting third act. The two main female characters are played by Cecilia Roth and Marta Fernández, and both of them do well as they stay alongside men who have their heads turned by something that the ladies cannot compete with.
The most impressive thing about Rapture is the way it really delivers an obvious story of someone who becomes an addict, and ends up searching for what will ultimately lead them to oblivion, without having it all play out as literally as it so easily could. There's still a sense of hopelessness, and you see characters starting to push aside everything else as they chase the one thing that now gives them solace, but it's an entirely convincing journey through drug addiction without ever putting a standard drug at the heart of things. And that must have been a hard choice for Arrebato, considering the life he lived. It's also the right choice, and it helps the film to hold up very well even now, almost fifty years after it was first released.
8/10
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