La Casa Muda (2010) Horror Psychological

La Casa Muda (2010) - QUICK HIT!! With the English language version of this film coming out this week I thought it was appropriate to review the original before seeing the new version. Translated to "The Silent House" it is a unique flick with a couple of different features not seen all the time. The film making novelty is that it looks like one long take, so you follow the characters around without leaving real time. I remember hearing about this in reading some blog here or there but can remember if it is actually one long shot or it is edited to look like one long shot. There are certainly places in the film where cuts could have been made without breaking the appearance of being in real time. The second feature to note is the skill the writer Oscar Estevez and director/cowriter Gustavo Hernandez have at keeping the story compelling throughout and playing with the reality of what we appear to be seeing in real time.
In the early scenes I was wondering about how they were going to keep the tension but really from the time Wilson (Gustavo Alonso) heads upstairs to investigate the noise his daughter Laura (Florencia Colucci) hears, the film is compelling. Using limited lighting, strong noises and the excellent reactions of Colucci the film is quite tense. You think she is a young woman maybe in her teens. When she hears a scream and a thump as she waits for her father her terror seems really genuine. We get to live her reality as she moves around the house investigating. Her physical portrayal is excellent, holding on to the light so scared she is barely able to hold it up to see in front of her. She is compelling from the start and carries the film forward. It is her first movie credit but she pulls it off like a pro.
The way it seems that the perpetrator(s) are messing with her it seems the idea is to terrify her. She leaves the living room hears a noise behind her, as she investigates that more noises upstairs. Needing the key she investigates only to then hear noise downstairs. She find her bound and unconscious father downstairs and realizes her does not have the key to the door. He must have dropped it upstairs. I won't go through the sequence but it was heartening the way the film kept my attention. I thought I figured the film out early, and in fact to an extent did but the way the story unfolded I totally for got this conclusion by the time the reveal of the plot came. I say nicely done to "La Casa Muda" for that. Seeming to set up a ghost story but flipping the switch was an excellent distraction.
Laura finally does get out of the house she runs and reaches the road. There is this vision of the ghost girl, (Maria Salazar) we have seen throughout and it really is a clue to what is going on. Still though when the owner of the house Nestor (Abel Tripaldi) arrives she is an emotional wreck. He insists in going into the house and checking things out and again we are distracted by the idea that it is just intruders. The fact that we end up back in the house and the scenes with Nestor and Laura are excellent, the flashing of the camera flash as a way of seeing in the dark is very effective scare tactic. The story climaxes as we learn more in this sequence about what we thought the reality of the film is. I liked the way the single shot effect of the film reality interacted. I don't want to give anything away so let me stop there.
I have to say when the turn came and it is a rather disturbing turn I was glad I did not have all the answers. Laura's reality was not what we thought and the unusual reasons for this this were surprising. Well written and executed, it is not the best film but it is a very nice horror film for a quiet night at home. I hope the remake is equally as good.
Rating (5.5) 5.0 and up are recommended Rent It!

Shiver (2008) - Horror

Shiver (2008) - Eskalofrío in Spain, is a strange film that misleads you into scares but is ultimately not what it seems. The film starts with a misleading scene, a teen boy Santi is running to stay ahead of the rising sun. He is in the shadows of the trees with his house just a hundred yards away but there is no shade to stay in from here. He runs out hood up towards the house. He struggles more and more as he gets closer only to burst into flames as he nears the door and safety. He wakes with a start from the dream. So I am thinking looks like a vampire flick. His Mom, Julia is waking him at sunset and he goes off to night school. Yep alternate universe with a vampire protagonist.

Some things are standard though, he like main characters who happen to be in their teen years is an outcast. He is picked on by the larger boys at school, they meanly put his light sensitive face on the copy machine. He has a friend, Leo who stands up for him. After such an episode he and his friend are playing a video game shooting monsters and he reaffirms my belief about the world he lives in by saying 'When I kill monsters I forget that I am one myself.' Not a bad start but then the film does not leave you out there dangling. It quickly pulls you back in another direction. He is not a vampire as we learn with a visit to the doctors but has a skin condition. Extra sensitive to light he needs to avoid direct contact or risks cancer. Mom is apparently finally going to listen to the doctor and move north where the days are shorter and the mountains will further reduce the sunlight Santi has to be exposed to.
A new start for an outcast in his current situation, things are looking up for our young man. They rent a house in a steeply mountainous area, but the music lets us know this is not the happier place the Mom and Son are looking for. The landlord is friendly enough showing interest in Julia. Since she has moved away from her slot machine addicted husband why not a really new start. Of course that music is saying something very different. In their first night in the house, we shift to what turns out to be a neighbors house and he gets up after hearing his nervous sheep. He goes out in a creepy scene to find a ewe slaughter and partly devoured. He sees something off in the distance he can not make out, Wolf? Santi? who knows right now is just the set up anyway. Later we learn this was the third sheep to go down this way. He yells at the locals like they are all supposed to jump up and run out looking for a wolf. Can't be Santi since he was not there for the other two kills.
Santi makes a friend at school, his love interest Angela. She is the daughter of the local police inspector. He also meet Tito a younger boy on the way home from school. The pacing on this part of the film really picks up and I have to say it does well for the story. Tito sees the creature but not well enough to identify it. Santi hears something on his roof in the night and is frightened, and an ominous warning from Dimas' father saying to Julia that this is not a place for her all combine to make a mood of apprehension.
Still good as far as plot. We have the boys at school talking about hunting for the creature Tito saw and Santi goes along. When things go horribly wrong and on of the kids dies at the hands on the little demon looking thing Santi ends up falling on the body. Scared he stumbles onto the road where he is seen by a car, blood covered and frazzled. This is a very well done set up. The new kid who appears outwardly different from everyone is found with the victims blood all over him. hmm I wonder if he will become the topic of rumors? Inspector Cifuetos certainly wants to talk to him.
So there you have the basic plot, there is a creature, a kid to blame for bad things happening and a police inspector trying to get down to the bottom of it. Like I said earlier this movie is not quite what it seems though. Even the stuff we are guessing and are lead towards shifts into something different and unexpected. Like many movie from Spain after the reveal of what is going on we get some sort of exposition scenes showing how the surprise was possible. In the case of this film there is indeed a feral child creature loose in the area. Santi even finds a picture of her in his house. She indeed once lived in the house he and his Mother rent. The trick to the film is how she ended up prowling the woods and eating sheep. I will not spoil it here because I want all of you to get a copy of this film and see for yourselves. There are an ample supply of tense moments and the turn is well done. Now this film could be taken as rediculous by some and the abilities of the feral child are a bit to well developed. It is strange but that is what this movie is all about so enjoy.
Rating (6.8) 5.0 and up are recommended