The 279th review overall!
Happy Halloween everyone! For my last review of October I wanted to say thank you to all the new people and those who have been with me from the beginning who liked and read my thoughts and ravings all throughout this month. It has been greatly appreciated and just know, you all have a special place in my heart. Picking the last movie is always difficult because it’s Halloween, you want to end on a high note. In years past I went with obvious choices, but I wanted something new and spooky because like they say, “It’s Halloween, everyone’s entitled to one good scare.” So, I rolled the dice and came up with...
Terrified (2017). Shudder
Terrified is a good name for this movie because it’s easily the scariest movie I’ve seen in years. The movie begins with a woman in her kitchen, it’s kind of hard to tell but she’s hearing voices coming from her sink. When her husband comes home she tries to explain to him why she won’t go in the kitchen. He tries to give explanations about what the voices may actually be but she’s adamant they’re real and they’re coming from the sink. So he asks, “What are they saying?” She looks at him and says, “They say they’re going to kill me.”
A chill went down my spine and it only got scarier from there. She wakes up that night to go to the bathroom and then pounding wakes up her husband. When you find out the source of the pounding, my jaw literally dropped. I was not expecting at all for this movie to start off so strong, so fast. The crazy thing, this wouldn’t be the last time my jaw dropped or I recoiled from what was happening on the screen, not by a long shot.
After three incidents in this neighborhood, the one involving the couple, one incredibly chilling incident involving a dead child, and one man who is being stalked in his own home by... something, that’s when three paranormal investigators get involved. This may sound like it’s moving into formulaic territory, but it is not. The second you think you may know what’s going on, something changes, and it’s drastic and it’s jarring and it’s always scary. It’s incredibly hard to have three different “hauntings” in the movie and have them each be unique and scary all at the same time. The dead child one, nothing big happens, but it’s so unnerving and the tension is so thick, it’s hard to believe what you’re seeing.
The three investigators and a cop nearing retirement plan to stay the night in each of the houses to get some answers. They go over the qualifications and the setup is very sciencey, so you think that maybe they have this handled. It doesn’t take long before you realize these people are way out of their depths. It does something really cool with vantage points and how you can see different things, including one moment that made me audibly gasp. I was watching this in bed while my wife was sleeping and I have no idea how many times I scared my dogs because I was jumping. The last time I can remember being this scared during a movie was the ending of the The Ring and this movie had multiple moments like that!
The movie has plenty of jump scares, but they’re all well done and not the usual simple loud noises meant to startle you. As unique as this story is, so are the scares. After doing my The Descent review I talked about how the high expectations I put on it and the extremely glowing reviews actually hurt my enjoyment of that movie. I know I run the risk of over hyping this because someone is bound to watch it and come up to me pounding their chest saying it wasn’t scary. But I am more than happy to take that risk. This movie is terrifying in a way I haven’t felt in a long time.
I mean, it starts off with a bang, literally, but then it slows down a bit so you can meet the characters, but even the slow bits have standout moments that put me on edge. When things start happening though, good Lord do they happen fast, it really caught me off guard the incidents and there’s one part involving the older woman investigator calling out to the cop that had me staring, jaw agape trying to push back against my laptop. It was extremely well done.
I should warn you, this is an Argentinian horror film, so the entire thing is in subtitles. I, personally don’t mind reading the dialogue, but I know many people are put off by it. To them I say, you’re missing out. The characters are likeable, the story is great, I can’t understand what they’re saying, but the way they emote and their body language conveys their emotions better than words ever could. Another thing I enjoyed is that you’re spoon fed nothing! I watched it and still have no idea what that thing is and what it means, but I’m actually OK with it. I love the mystery and this is one that’s better unsolved. The ending, while a tad cliche manages one last jump scare, but it’s earned and it’s kind of cool. I’d avoid watching the trailer though, it gives away a little too much. But seriously, go watch it, it’s fantastic.
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