Voces
I liked it, even though it starts from very familiar elements. A family arrives at a new house, a child begins to hear things, a dark past, sound jolts, shadows, paranormal experts and that domestic horror machinery we have seen many times. But here, unlike other recent Spanish horror films that disappointed me a lot, I felt the story did have pulse, atmosphere and enough nastiness to keep me inside it.
It does not seem especially original to me, and I do not think it invents anything within the genre. In fact, it plays with very recognizable clichés: the isolated house, the presence that seems to communicate, the adults who at first do not want to understand what is happening, the investigator who arrives when everything has gone wrong, the mixture of family trauma and supernatural threat. But a horror film does not always need to reinvent the wheel. Sometimes it is enough to use the tools well, create tension and make the scares carry some weight. And here, in general, that worked for me.
The best thing is the atmosphere. The house has presence, the spaces are well used and the film knows how to build a fairly constant sense of threat. Not everything depends on the easy jump scare, although it has them, but on a discomfort that keeps growing. There are corridors, rooms, sounds and silences that help you feel that something does not fit. I like it when horror does not only show things, but makes you watch the screen expecting something to appear even before it appears.
The family opening also worked for me. Rodolfo Sancho and Belén Fabra convey well that mixture of exhaustion, concern and bewilderment of parents entering a situation that escapes them. The film is right to begin from something recognizable: a move, a new life, a sensitive child, a house with too many corners and a family tension gradually contaminated by the inexplicable. That helps the horror not be just decoration, but a crack opening inside the family.
The child is key, because in this type of story everything can collapse if you do not at least believe his fear. Here I felt the film uses his fragility well. The voices are not simply a screenwriting trick; they work as an intimate invasion, as something entering where adults cannot reach. There is something very effective in the idea that danger does not begin with a spectacular apparition, but with a sound no one should hear.
I also liked the arrival of Ramón Barea and Ana Fernández, because they bring that Spanish-paranormal-investigator air that could have been ridiculous and yet has quite a bit of charm. It is true that it recalls the Warren model and a very codified kind of haunted-house horror, but the film carries it with conviction. It does not mock them or turn them into caricatures: it uses them to open the story and give it a sense of investigation, ritual and confrontation with the hidden.
The harsher side works better than I expected. There is violence, sadness and a fairly unpleasant substance behind the mystery. It is not just a house making noises: there is pain, loss and something rotten in the past. That more painful dimension gives it more force than other soulless scare products. When the film connects the supernatural with a human wound, it gains intensity and stops being just a catalogue of effects.
That does not mean it is completely successful. Sometimes you can feel too clearly its desire to please a broad horror audience, and that is why it does not always avoid cliché. There are moments when the sound pushes too hard, others when the apparition is prepared in a very obvious way, and some explanations could have been better measured. I also understand those who see it as somewhat chaotic or too dependent on references. It has personality, but not enough to fully escape its models.
Even so, compared with other recent Spanish horror attempts, it seemed much more effective to me. It has craft, rhythm and direction that understands the genre. I did not feel I was watching an empty product merely repeating formulas; here there is a desire to scare, to entertain and to build a story with a certain pain underneath. It may not become memorable, but it is easy to like and holds interest.
In the end, it remains for me a notably enjoyable Spanish horror film. Conventional, yes, but well made; full of familiar resources, but used with more strength than usual; imperfect, but quite effective. I liked it because it pulled me into its house, made me listen to its noises and left me with the feeling that, in a genre full of imitations, at least here there was atmosphere, tension and a story with a dark heart.
It does not seem especially original to me, and I do not think it invents anything within the genre. In fact, it plays with very recognizable clichés: the isolated house, the presence that seems to communicate, the adults who at first do not want to understand what is happening, the investigator who arrives when everything has gone wrong, the mixture of family trauma and supernatural threat. But a horror film does not always need to reinvent the wheel. Sometimes it is enough to use the tools well, create tension and make the scares carry some weight. And here, in general, that worked for me.
The best thing is the atmosphere. The house has presence, the spaces are well used and the film knows how to build a fairly constant sense of threat. Not everything depends on the easy jump scare, although it has them, but on a discomfort that keeps growing. There are corridors, rooms, sounds and silences that help you feel that something does not fit. I like it when horror does not only show things, but makes you watch the screen expecting something to appear even before it appears.
The family opening also worked for me. Rodolfo Sancho and Belén Fabra convey well that mixture of exhaustion, concern and bewilderment of parents entering a situation that escapes them. The film is right to begin from something recognizable: a move, a new life, a sensitive child, a house with too many corners and a family tension gradually contaminated by the inexplicable. That helps the horror not be just decoration, but a crack opening inside the family.
The child is key, because in this type of story everything can collapse if you do not at least believe his fear. Here I felt the film uses his fragility well. The voices are not simply a screenwriting trick; they work as an intimate invasion, as something entering where adults cannot reach. There is something very effective in the idea that danger does not begin with a spectacular apparition, but with a sound no one should hear.
I also liked the arrival of Ramón Barea and Ana Fernández, because they bring that Spanish-paranormal-investigator air that could have been ridiculous and yet has quite a bit of charm. It is true that it recalls the Warren model and a very codified kind of haunted-house horror, but the film carries it with conviction. It does not mock them or turn them into caricatures: it uses them to open the story and give it a sense of investigation, ritual and confrontation with the hidden.
The harsher side works better than I expected. There is violence, sadness and a fairly unpleasant substance behind the mystery. It is not just a house making noises: there is pain, loss and something rotten in the past. That more painful dimension gives it more force than other soulless scare products. When the film connects the supernatural with a human wound, it gains intensity and stops being just a catalogue of effects.
That does not mean it is completely successful. Sometimes you can feel too clearly its desire to please a broad horror audience, and that is why it does not always avoid cliché. There are moments when the sound pushes too hard, others when the apparition is prepared in a very obvious way, and some explanations could have been better measured. I also understand those who see it as somewhat chaotic or too dependent on references. It has personality, but not enough to fully escape its models.
Even so, compared with other recent Spanish horror attempts, it seemed much more effective to me. It has craft, rhythm and direction that understands the genre. I did not feel I was watching an empty product merely repeating formulas; here there is a desire to scare, to entertain and to build a story with a certain pain underneath. It may not become memorable, but it is easy to like and holds interest.
In the end, it remains for me a notably enjoyable Spanish horror film. Conventional, yes, but well made; full of familiar resources, but used with more strength than usual; imperfect, but quite effective. I liked it because it pulled me into its house, made me listen to its noises and left me with the feeling that, in a genre full of imitations, at least here there was atmosphere, tension and a story with a dark heart.
Mini Review: I liked it, even though it starts from very familiar elements. A family arrives at a new house, a child begins to hear things, a dark past, sound jolts, shadows, paranormal experts and that domestic horror machinery we have seen many times. But here, unlike other recent Spanish horror films that disappointed me a lot, I felt the story did have pulse, atmosphere and enough nastiness to keep me inside it. It does not seem especially original to...
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