<p> Marga is high powered and nasty, a lawyer who\'d gladly push anyone under a passing car if it helped her cross the road faster. While visiting Buenos Aires on business, Marga accepts an offer from a stranger to sublet the apartment she seldom uses: the money he promises makes her eyes light up like the jackpot on the blackjack machine. But before long the question is: will she survive to spend it? </p> <p>The self-absorbed Marga is central to <em>Penumbra</em>, a marvel of modestly-budgeted horror by Argentine directors Adrian Garcia and Ramiro Garcia Bogliano, the brothers who previously helmed <em>Cold Sweat</em> and <em>Watch \'em Die</em>. Since Marga treats everyone as if they were chips on her own board game, <em>Penumbra</em> is a morality tale as well as a carefully curated horror genre pastiche. Complicating the sympathy of viewers are the people Marga encounters who are worse than her, starting with the duplicitous homeless man who harasses her and climaxing with the odd group of strangers who begin to occupy her apartment, a little like the cast of Visconti\'s <em>Conversation Piece</em>. Her bad behavior rebounds on her. No one will aid or believe her. </p> <p>But Marga is no screaming, shrinking violet from an \'80s horror flick. Armed with a Taser and willing to administer a sharp kick to the groin, she\'s a tough opponent, yet she knows fear. It\'s a superb performance by sexy Cristina Brondo, ably supported by a solid secondary cast, an intriguing screenplay (building slowly toward mayhem against the backdrop of a solar eclipse) and cinematography that luxuriates in twilight and film noir shadows. <em>Penumbra </em>is out on DVD. </p>
