No estamos solos

While I usually prefer watching English speaking films (cultural indoctrination and conditioning since childhood, not completely my fault), foreign films have the distinct advantage of usually having a different and unfamiliar atmosphere, making even all too often made before films feel new and exciting. Sadly, this is in my opinion the only good aspect of We're Not Alone, which is another usual and ordinary imitation of a default storyline.

The plot itself isn't bad, but is far from original. A new house, supernatural occurrences witnessed by only certain members of the family (whom the rest of the family doesn't believe, of course), a vengeful ghost, a priest with past experiences involving the house, all sound and feel familiar because they are in fact familiar, we've seen this before. The attempt to add a small exorcism part (lasting around 10 minutes) feels forced and unnecessary. Altogether, this film feels like a botched attempt to make an already used storyline feel new.

However, this isn't to say that We're Not Alone is bad, as with lowered expectations it could be quite enjoyable. I personally liked the ghost's design, the relatable characters and the above average acting. But I would completely understand anyone who didn't feel like it was their job to look for good parts in a film, and without consciously looking for those - we're looking at a disappointing experience.

Well since we is not singular some may argue that the premise itself is wrong (someone like Sheldon from Big Bang Theory for example). Moving on and not looking or nitpicking on the not alone part of the title, the movie is solid in its horror. It's also cliche and does the scares sort of by the numbers, but it never missteps when it comes to that.

Now that doesn't mean that the movie is great and as said only kind of uses things people with some Horror movie knowledge will know. So don't expect many things that surprise you. From the behaviour over to the dialogue over to the scares. While initially I didn't feel for the characters, I have to admit they have a sort of likeability, if you let yourself into them. Also the child actor is decent for a horror movie like this.

If you never saw an exorcism movie before then you might enjoy this one more, but since there are tons of those movies you got that feeling that you all saw it before and also much better versions. It's a bit low budget, besides one or two freaky scenes the rest is slamming doors, exploding light bulbs, moving and falling objects, nothing really scary if you ask me. The acting wasn't bad, but the story felt like déjà-vu. I'd rather watch the classic The Exorcist again than this one but if you're interested in watching a Peruvian version just give it a shot, just don't get too high expectations.

I've been on a Netflix horror movie bender of sorts lately, so eventually I stumbled onto this. I like to watch movies from countries I haven't seen movies from before and Peru fit that nicely, so despite a horrible rating, I decided to take a look, just in the interest of seeing how Peruvians deal with the subject matter.

And they really don't do anything interesting here. It's just an exorcism movie that follows the usual tropes of the genre. It feels like a generic horror movie made to make a quick buck. I dislike this very much in general. You shouldn't Americanize your movies. Trying to compete with American's on this isn't a good idea.

The mood is definitely good and that is the most I can say for this movie. The story isn't very compelling and there is nothing really original about this. Things move quite quickly, but that doesn't seem to hamper the movie too much. Not that it serves the movie either.

I guess this is a very low recommendation for those really interested in the genre, but nothing more.

Freakin' hell, this was scary! Like most haunted house films, this one is cliched, as well, but done so much better than other films of the genre. The film has a constant eerie atmosphere, and unpredictable, too. Marco Zunino is great as the caring father, and Zoe Arevalo great as the daughter. The visual effects are subtle, but incredibly effective. This film was really great.