Terrified (2017) Fantastically scary if hamstrung by poor worldbuilding (Review)

A neighbourhood going to hell, quite literally, proves surprisingly scary in the chilling Argentine horror. When considering your first step on the property ladder, how many people enquire as to whether the house is a conduit to another dimension full of lanky, naked demons and octopus armed hell beasts with murderous tendencies? After watching Terrified, this may change. Seemingly normal homes on the leafy outskirts of Buenos Aires play host to disturbing activity in a somewhat messy tale of suburban horror that suffers from an overload of ideas and an unnecessary CGI but does not let up in its efforts to deliver chills with some fantastically scary set pieces.

The film opens with housewife Clara (Natalia Señorales), plagued by ominous noises coming from the drains in her kitchen. Husband Juan (Agustín Rittano) blames the neighbour, whose recent refurb is causing excessive noise at unsociable hours. Too quickly, Clara meets a supernatural grisly end and Juan is blamed, ending up in an institution. It’s there that he is visited by an ageing gang of paranormal investigators who not only believe his story but are keen to investigate further. Juan’s noisy neighbour turns out to be Walter (Demián Salomón) who is suffering himself from nocturnal terrorism at the hands of a tall pale figure who appears at night, moves his furniture around and watches him sleep. Later, across the street, recently bereaved mother Alicia (Julieta Vallina) is distraught as the exhumed and decomposing body of her late son sits at the kitchen table with a bowl of cereal and a glass of milk, having left muddy hand and footprints all over the house upon his return.

Called to the scene, Commissioner Funes (played by a frazzled Maximiliano Ghione) ropes in ex coroner Jano (Norberto Gonzalo) to advise on the boy’s body and it’s here that we get the only real character work in the film, juxtaposed with the horrific backdrop of a dead and possibly reanimated child, it’s creepy and effective. Jano is no stranger to the paranormal and after running into a colleague on the street investigating Walter’s case and subsequent disappearance, they team up with a third paranormal researcher as geriatric ghostbusters, taking residency in the affected houses and hunkering down for the night. The action comes thick and fast, with a confused and terrified Funes wildly trying to process events as things get out of control as the being’s make themselves at home and the team are forced to fight for their lives.

Writer and director Demián Rugna wastes none of the 87 minutes of this film, packing action into pretty much every scene. It’s a wild ride – there’s chills from the start and the pace doesn’t slow. Where this becomes a problem is the lack of world building – we start this film in the middle with no idea of how it began and no idea how it ends, even at the film’s completion. Characters such as Funes, Alicia, Clara and Juan, suffer from a lack of character development to such an extent that when for example Clara is dispatched early in the film, while gory, it lacks an emotional punch because we simply don’t know who she is. The film points us towards Walter as the first to experience the paranormal upheaval, but why did it start? Did he do something to warrant it? Is the street built on an Indian burial ground? Perhaps Rugna plans a sequel or prequel that will answer some of these questions, perhaps it was a conscious decision not to reveal that, but the addition of a good character writer would have rounded the script, without adding hours to the run time. The story itself is very intriguing – we’ve seen this Poltergeist-like haunted neighbourhood trope before, but these entities are bloodthirsty and out to kill as opposed to scare.

There’s a trippy nature to the apparitions and we’re told not to believe everything we see meaning we can’t be sure the horrific event’s Funes is witnessing are genuinely happening or not. There is however reliance on CGI for the monsters and this film is crying out for better visual and practical effects to bring them to life. In fact, Terrified could sit quite nicely in the Cloverfield universe, albeit on a smaller scale, given the nature of what’s suggested briefly as an explanation for the incidents. Hollywood horror favourite Guillermo Del Toro has been lined up for a remake and I think in his capable hands, this film could really be elevated – it won’t take much to move this from quirky horror to box office blockbuster.

I was pleasantly surprised that this wasn’t a gore-fest (a valid genre, not my favourite) as the Blu Ray box artwork suggests, so never judge a Blu-Ray by its cover, I guess. This film barely scratches the surface of what’s possible in this story, but if a Hollywood remake is in the works, I hope they give as much weight to substance as style – this film would flourish with both. 

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