Terrified

            Want to see a really scary movie? I can’t tell you how many times I have been disappointed by that recommendation. But the Argentinian film Terrified directed by Demian Rugna is the real McCoy. And then some.

            The film is available on the streaming site Shudder and just came out on Blu-ray. I’ve been reading about it for some time. It’s has been gathering excellent reviews and reactions since it played the festival circuit a while back. And now I hear Guillermo del Toro is planning a remake. But try and hunt down the original because it will haunt your dreams. I have seen this film multiple times and it seems to get better, and creepier, each time.

            I refuse to spoil the film because the way it plays out is so skillfully disturbing. Suffice to say, for the most part, it takes place on a street in Buenos Aries where neighbors are experiencing a series of bizarre, supernatural events.

            A married woman is hearing sounds emanating from her kitchen sink drain. Her husband is disturbed by the loud knocking he hears through the wall from his neighbor’s house.

            A man has trouble sleeping, fearful that something malevolent is hiding underneath his bed.

            A mother’s tragedy is turned into a living nightmare.

            Several paranormal investigators decide to camp out overnight in the different houses that seem to be the most troubled but live to regret this decision.

            What works so well is the way the movie taps into all these childhood fears- something sinister hiding in a wardrobe, under the bed, lurking in a crack in the wall. The Japanese horror movies of the 90s (like Ju-on: The Grudge, The Ring, Pulse) were great examples of subtly zeroing in on this kind of dread to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand. But Terrified is pared down and basic- it exists to scare the shit out of you.