Written by: Jaume Balagueró, Luiso Berdejo, Paco Plaza
Directed by: Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza
Starring: Manuela Velasco , Ferran Terraza , Jorge Serrano-Yamam
Rated: R
Watch the trailer
Plot
A television reporter, cameraman, and emergency workers find something terrifying in an apartment.
Verdict
I was expecting a good horror movie. I was disappointed. I don't like found footage as the visuals are usually inferior. The cinematography could have been much better to increase tension. The potential fear was mitigated because I couldn't tell what was going on. The story isn't bad, but this feels like the low budget way to tell it.
Skip it.
Review
I like horror movies for their ability to create a mood usually on an extremely low budget, though I don't like the propensity to sidestep reality.
This had potential, and while it's found footage with a plausible reason, the camera work is bad, bad even for found footage. It had potential to create great shots and bungled many opportunities. Even being hand held the framing could have been so much better.
Horror movies have to balance what they show with encouraging your imagination, but a bad image on screen doesn't encourage anything.
I watched this with subtitles. I never listen to a dubbed version because the inflection is never good. I tried the dub, but it was, of course, terrible. It always is.
This doesn't take long to jump off with an attack. This was one of the better scenes because it really developed the tension, but I couldn't help but think how much better it would be with better blocking and less shaking. With hand held style movies, it's difficult to get a good looking still. The visuals make this less scary, though it has plenty of blood as compensation.
After the first round of violence, this slows down way too much. The reporter does a round of interviews since no one can leave the building. Armed guards block the exits and the health inspector is involved. This would have been a good time for character development. Instead of slowing down just to fill time, show the reporter helping someone, just to make her character likable. Or make her mean, so we root against her at the end. Either option is better than what we got. Mostly she just asks the cameraman, Pablo, if he got the shot or if he saw what happened. Pablo is terrible at blocking shots, so the questions are probably justified.
This became a zombie movie, which was disappointing. Especially since 28 Days Later (2002) did this better. This could have been more mystery-horror than a tired trope.
The end, while tense, stretched credibility with an explanation that just seems like the writers couldn't come up with a good ending so just threw a few ideas into the script with the hopes that one might work.
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