Being horror my favorite genre, I am always willing to give national horror flicks a chance and I had heard nothing but good things about "Aterrados", which was surprising, given that Argentinian horror flicks don't get a lot of positive reviews (and for a good reason). Now, having high expectations can be a bad thing, so I tried to watch this film without expecting anything either good or bad, but, in the end, I was somewhat disappointed anyway.
In "Aterrados", we see different supernatural events taking place in the suburbs of an unnamed Buenos Aires town. The first eerie events occur inside the house of a young couple, who find their home invaded by a strange invisible presence. One night, the woman is violently attacked by this supernatural force, resulting in her death, for which her husband is later hold accountable. In a different place, a young boy meets a gruesome death after being hit by a bus, only to rise from the dead and return to his home in a state of decomposition. Finally, a young man desperately seeks professional help after being harassed by a ghost-like creature that wanders around his house during the night. A police officer, a sheriff and two investigators of paranormal events step in to find out what the heck is going on with these cases, given that these strange events took place in different locations, but in the same block, which, clearly, cannot be a coincidence.
"Aterrados" is a film that gently makes the effort to give the audience a quality product and given the low budget, this is very much appreciated. However, Demián Rugna, who both directed and wrote the film, fails to tie all the loose ends of what initially promises to give us a complex story. While the second half provides a nice amount of gruesome imagery and some surprisingly decent special effects, the story falls apart by not giving us solid answers to really understand the reason behind the paranormal events that take place in this particular area. The only explanation that we briefly get from one of the investigators is rather simplistic and unconvincing: apparently, water has something to do with this gruesome mess (um, okay). According to the investigator, water contains microorganisms that keep life and can connect the realms of the dead and the living. Other than that, we don't really know what these supernatural entities are up to and we don't quite get an explanation regarding their nature. At some point, it is mentioned that these forces crave for blood, which provides them with a vampire-like quality, I suppose. Be that as it may, the explanations are unsatisfying. Is there a particular force, entity or presence responsible for everything that happened? In most of these supernatural horror flicks, there's a main antagonist who is after a specific target, like, a single character or an entire family; however, in "Aterrados", there seem to be several forces attacking several unconnected individuals, which creates a very convoluted final result. Ghosts stories are usually annoyingly similar when it comes to give us a climax with an explanation regarding the supernatural events, but I would have gladly accepted a cliché over nothing. Seriously, how hard could it be? Something simple would have sufficed, like: A person was somehow wronged, which resulted in his or her death. Afterwards, the spirit of said person, now residing in an alternative realm, torments the living for what they did. (see? not too complicated).
The characters are forgettable for the most part. Our main "hero" (who appears after the first 25 minutes!) is just really not interesting or relatable in any way. His personal story is pettily revealed towards the last part of the film, but it's difficult to get attached to him, not only because he is a generic police officer in a horror flick, but also, because he shares too much of his "leadership" with the other three bland heroes.
I can overlook the low budget, the amateurish dialogues and the unengaging locations, but the story has to make sense. While some directors manage to get away with a convoluted story that doesn't tie all the lose ends, they provide a strong dream-like atmosphere that makes up for the messiness, which Rugna fails to provide in this particular film. In a film directed by Fulci, the stylish cinematography compensates the lack of a solid plot full of loose ends... Rugna cannot afford to do that, at least in this case.
Though I personally didn't care for it that much, "Aterrados" is really not a terrible film and it manages to stay on the decent side for the most part, staying away from any type of unintended hilarity. Rugna shows a lot of potential by creating genuinely disturbing moments of tension, which is crucial in a horror flick. The gruesome imagery, great photography and good camera work make this film worthy of, at least, a single watch. Some people are claiming that this is the best Argentinian horror flick (honestly, though, there isn't much to compete with) and I've noticed that hispanic horror fans seem overly enthusiastic with this film. This actually makes me happy and gives me hopes that Argentina may produce more horror films in the future. Hopefully, they will be an improvement over this one.
