31 Days of Halloween 2018: Terrified

2017, Demián Rugna (The Last Gateway) - Shudder

This one, known as Aterrados in native Argentina, did all the horror blogs with rave reviews. It was no where to be found on the pirate sites, so I was glad that horror-Netflix-analog Shudder had it listed once October started. These small, special purposes coattail riders are starting to remind me of those small, specialty video stores every moderate sized city had. As long as I don't have too many of them, they can represent a typical Friday night spending $20 on three movies and snacks.

Unfortunately, I was severely disappointed with this.

We begin with a family haunted by noises from the drain which escalates instantly into the death of the wife and the police interrogating the husband. Enter three characters claiming the roles of supernatural experts, but how and why, we are never told. But they are drawn to the neighbourhood where things have been going wrong, and only the latest is the unfortunate young couple.

The primary "haunting" is the neighbour of the couple. He has been hearing and see things for ages. And in the only real win of the movie, that creepy thin guy is enough to make most people wet their pants. If not for anything, the movie gained accolades from this scary element. Alas the movie investigates other things, other creepy factors and ends up diluting its mythology with... well, inexplicable mysteries from other dimensions.

If the movie wanted to go down that path, it needed to step back and explore it wholly. But it got mired in the jump scares and setup creepiness without actually tying them into the story or the explanations. It was like the creepy pictures on so many horror movie walls, of rough sketches Scotch taped in horrific mosaics of monster faces and symbols. Sure, they are cool to look at, but only  the artist really knows what it all means.

So, if you don't care if a horror movie is tied together, and just want to see some incredibly creepy set pieces, by all means watch this one. It will make you lift your feet off the floor and turn on some lights.