Aterrados
Director: Demián Rugna
Writer: Demián Rugna
Cast: Maximiliano Ghione, Norberto Gonzalo, Elvira Onetto, George L. Lewis, Julieta Vallina, Demián Salomón, Agustín Rittano, Natalia Señorales
Part of: /slash Filmfestival
Seen on: 23.9.2018
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Plot:
A young couple, Juan and Clara (Agustín Rittano, Natalia Señorales), have issues with their neighbor Walter (Demián Salomón) who seems to be renovating his flat at all hours. But things quickly become stranger than just late-night banging. And it doesn’t stay the only strang occurrence in the area. When police man Funes (Maximiliano Ghione) is called in, he in turn brings in three paranormal experts (Norberto Gonzalo, Elvira Onetto, George L. Lewis) to investigate with him.

Aterrados has a great set-up, but once it is done putting everybody in place for the showdown, it kind of lost its steam, and I lost my interest. That being said, it starts off so well, that it makes the rest of the film definitely worth it, too.

Aterrados starts without many preliminaries. It really doesn’t need to build tension, it just throws you right into it. The shit hits the fan from minute one and that with some incredibly good ideas that are perfectly set in scene: the breathing in the pipes and the scene with the camera bring more to the table in 30 minutes than many horror films bring in their entire duration.

And the child that returns to its family was at the same time creepy and done with such a nice sense of humor, it would have been enough to become its very own horror film. That these two stories (get thrown together might be a bit much. It is possible that this was the reason that I started to lose interest once the four investigators (three paranormal, one police) take on the two houses in teams of two.

It’s not that those house investigations were badly done. They had still tense moments, cool effects and haunting stuff I haven’t seen before (the cutlery was a stroke of genius). But I realized that what kept me most occupied at that point was how hot Ghione is. And while I appreciate a good gushing, it is a bit disconcerting when that’s my take-away during the show-down of the film.

In the end, I did fall asleep for a bit and I have to say that I regret that – the film didn’t deserve it, I was just too tired. I’ll definitely try to catch it at some point to watch it again and to catch up what I missed. Maybe the second time round, the film will come together for me a bit more.

Summarizing: Strong, at least in the beginning.