La Influencia
It seemed very lousy to me. It had all the ingredients to make a Spanish horror film about witchcraft, family inheritance and a cursed house with some force, but it ends up being hollow, fake and quite irritating. It did not scare me, its mystery did not interest me and it was not even bad enough to become fun. It is one of those films that seem convinced they are creating a dark atmosphere when in reality they are only accumulating shadows, sound jolts and serious faces.
The starting idea could have worked: a woman returns to the family home, a sick mother drags something sinister with her, a daughter is exposed to that dark influence and the past is full of secrets. On paper there are family, trauma, witchcraft, the transmission of evil and guilt. The problem is that almost everything is presented in the most predictable way possible. The film does not gradually discover horror; it announces it. And it announces it so insistently that any tension disappears before it can be born.
The worst thing is the scares. Not because a horror film cannot use them, but because here they seem to be the only real language. Musical blast, shadow, noise, apparition, artificial silence, another musical blast. More than fear, it produces fatigue. You can see the hand pushing you from behind too clearly. And when horror needs that much volume to work, it is usually because it has not managed to build a real threat.
The atmosphere did not pull me in either. There is the occasional interesting shot, a room with potential and some visual attempt to create discomfort, but everything feels very catalogue-like. The house should feel sick, full of history, dangerous in itself. Instead, it often seems simply like a dark set where programmed scares are placed. It lacks life, texture, emotional dirt. It lacks the feeling that evil has been breathing inside those walls for years.
The witchcraft, which could have been the most interesting part, remains a mixture of clichés. Dolls, symbols, family past, vulnerable child, ominous grandmother, secrets returning… everything sounds familiar and underdeveloped. There is no mythology of its own that hooks you and no internal logic that makes fear grow. The film uses witchcraft as a wrapping for threat, but it never makes it unsettling or especially memorable.
I also found it hard to take the characters seriously. Not because the actors are necessarily the problem, but because the script moves them clumsily. Their decisions seem designed so that the film can keep going, not so that we believe in real people trapped in a horrible situation. There are forced reactions, poorly tuned family conflicts and a constant sense that everything exists to serve the next scare. Without solid characters, fear has no roots.
It reminded me of that kind of horror that believes that having a gloomy house, a child, an unsettling old woman and shrill music already means half the work is done. But the genre needs more. It needs patience, coherence, tension, rhythm and an emotional reason for the supernatural to matter. Here there are many recognizable pieces, but few fit together with real force. It feels like a film made by following a checklist of compulsory modern horror elements.
I understand the criticisms saying that it goes from more to less. The beginning can create some curiosity, because it still seems that something is hidden behind the family and the house. But the more it explains, the less interesting it becomes. The more it shows, the less unsettling it is. The closer it gets to the climax, the more obvious it becomes that it did not have a great card to play. The result is a very clear descent into the conventional and tiresome.
It also does not help that it takes itself so seriously. If it had more personality, more nastiness or even a touch of madness, perhaps it would have been more bearable. But its solemnity makes it heavier. It wants to be dark, intense and disturbing, but often only manages to feel stiff. There is no humor, no surprise, no personal gaze that justifies walking again through such worn-out paths.
In the end, it remains for me a bad, predictable and very unstimulating film. It may have the occasional isolated visual detail and decent production values, but all that is buried under noisy scares, weak characters and witchcraft without real force. It did not seem like effective horror, or powerful family drama, or a dark tale with personality. More like a hollow product, one that tries to influence the viewer through volume and clichés, but leaves almost nothing once the lights go out.
The starting idea could have worked: a woman returns to the family home, a sick mother drags something sinister with her, a daughter is exposed to that dark influence and the past is full of secrets. On paper there are family, trauma, witchcraft, the transmission of evil and guilt. The problem is that almost everything is presented in the most predictable way possible. The film does not gradually discover horror; it announces it. And it announces it so insistently that any tension disappears before it can be born.
The worst thing is the scares. Not because a horror film cannot use them, but because here they seem to be the only real language. Musical blast, shadow, noise, apparition, artificial silence, another musical blast. More than fear, it produces fatigue. You can see the hand pushing you from behind too clearly. And when horror needs that much volume to work, it is usually because it has not managed to build a real threat.
The atmosphere did not pull me in either. There is the occasional interesting shot, a room with potential and some visual attempt to create discomfort, but everything feels very catalogue-like. The house should feel sick, full of history, dangerous in itself. Instead, it often seems simply like a dark set where programmed scares are placed. It lacks life, texture, emotional dirt. It lacks the feeling that evil has been breathing inside those walls for years.
The witchcraft, which could have been the most interesting part, remains a mixture of clichés. Dolls, symbols, family past, vulnerable child, ominous grandmother, secrets returning… everything sounds familiar and underdeveloped. There is no mythology of its own that hooks you and no internal logic that makes fear grow. The film uses witchcraft as a wrapping for threat, but it never makes it unsettling or especially memorable.
I also found it hard to take the characters seriously. Not because the actors are necessarily the problem, but because the script moves them clumsily. Their decisions seem designed so that the film can keep going, not so that we believe in real people trapped in a horrible situation. There are forced reactions, poorly tuned family conflicts and a constant sense that everything exists to serve the next scare. Without solid characters, fear has no roots.
It reminded me of that kind of horror that believes that having a gloomy house, a child, an unsettling old woman and shrill music already means half the work is done. But the genre needs more. It needs patience, coherence, tension, rhythm and an emotional reason for the supernatural to matter. Here there are many recognizable pieces, but few fit together with real force. It feels like a film made by following a checklist of compulsory modern horror elements.
I understand the criticisms saying that it goes from more to less. The beginning can create some curiosity, because it still seems that something is hidden behind the family and the house. But the more it explains, the less interesting it becomes. The more it shows, the less unsettling it is. The closer it gets to the climax, the more obvious it becomes that it did not have a great card to play. The result is a very clear descent into the conventional and tiresome.
It also does not help that it takes itself so seriously. If it had more personality, more nastiness or even a touch of madness, perhaps it would have been more bearable. But its solemnity makes it heavier. It wants to be dark, intense and disturbing, but often only manages to feel stiff. There is no humor, no surprise, no personal gaze that justifies walking again through such worn-out paths.
In the end, it remains for me a bad, predictable and very unstimulating film. It may have the occasional isolated visual detail and decent production values, but all that is buried under noisy scares, weak characters and witchcraft without real force. It did not seem like effective horror, or powerful family drama, or a dark tale with personality. More like a hollow product, one that tries to influence the viewer through volume and clichés, but leaves almost nothing once the lights go out.
Mini Review: It seemed very lousy to me. It had all the ingredients to make a Spanish horror film about witchcraft, family inheritance and a cursed house with some force, but it ends up being hollow, fake and quite irritating. It did not scare me, its mystery did not interest me and it was not even bad enough to become fun. It is one of those films that seem convinced they are creating a dark atmosphere when in reality they are only accumulating shadows,...