Marina, del otro lado del tiempo

MArina del otro lado del tiempo (2000) was the third production from the independent company Producciones Molinar. Marina was originally a theatrical play written and directed by Carmina Lozano around 1980. The play caused sensation because of its use of some very cleaver tricks to move some furniture objects as it they where experimenting the kinetic power of Marina, a gifted child tormented by the memory of the murder of her father that she witness. 20 years later Lozano who was sister-in-law of Rodolfo Rodobertti (the director of the 2 last molinar productions) transform her play in the script for the new movie, but this time with new digital effects. The movie tells the story when Marina (Alejandra Molinar) and her mother (Patricia Rivera) go to a country house guarded by Cristobal (Manuel Ojeda) trying to star a new life. But Marina gets hunted by her own memories and some house ghosts connected with her and another murder committed there almost 50 year ago. To be honest the film is actually well made. Filmed in super 16mm the film has an effective mystery atmosphere thanks to the hi-level photography of Juan Priego. The narrative is well paced and the tension grows nicely thanks to the good story and the top performances of Rivera and Ojeda. Ironically even that some digital effects are good, by the end of the movie some become frankly laughable and ruins seriously the mood, and makes me wonder if the original tricks of the theater days had actually work way better. Beside of that and some technical problems this is a nice independent film and some of the very few productions from CD. Juarez Chihuahua Mexico, the effort must have its recognition as an overall good independent production.

A tormented teen finds that the ghosts living in her new house are urging her on to help solve a grisly mystery involving a secret between her divorcing parents.

Frankly, this is one film I'm a little unsure about since it was the only one I saw without closed-captioning, which the others supplied so I think I missed a lot of what's going on in here, so the story above might be somewhat off from what's actually going on yet it's the best I can offer based on the limited amount of Spanish I've been picking up from watching these films. Even with the story problems, the age of the heroine and the action contained within make it out to be a kid's horror film and it clearly shows it, with the bad CGI for the ghosts not moving at all yet floating within the scene, the disembodied voices and lack of anything gory or bloody clearly have this one intended for the younger audiences, so with the lack of help from the story I really can't say much more about it. Several scenes, including a fine one in her bedroom where the ghosts materialize out of her toys to torment her had the potential to be quite exciting, but again not a lot to say here.

Rated PG: Mild Violence