O Diário

After reading the 8 reviews here, I agree with pretty much all of them, it's a well crafted suspenseful movie with a very original and thoughtful storyline. It explores several themes, such as the idea of the future having already happened and the idea of trying to change "fate." It also comments on how children are treated as objects to be possessed by divorced parents with their wishes not being appreciated. It also explores trauma as the cause of psychological damage and deviant behavior. I didn't like the ending and sure while it's not pleasant, it's consistent with the endings in many horror thrillers but maybe in this case it also is necessary to explain the idea that the future has already happened and there is no changing it, just in this case somehow the future is being sensed by the mother by some supernatural energy. Maybe this is her own trauma from the whole experience as the future derives from the past and the past derives from the future as it is all already set and it would be a paradox to change it. It's obvious though that the mother causes the accident on an impulse, maybe due to her sheer horror when she senses that her daughter is some kind of monster as she doesn't seem to express any emotion that her father just died. Overall it's a well thought out story, great atmosphere, acting, if maybe a bit slow at first while it builds up to something that makes some sense, and sure much isn't explained which caused some here not to like it so much. The English dubbing is excellent and I wonder if this was accomplished with AI taking the actors voices from Spanish and speaking for them in English. It was extremely natural so there was no issue there. It was worth the watch, but maybe it could have been better developed and ended on a happier note...

Was it the child, the mother or the father?

Or were there more monsters?

Guess from the perspective of parenting, the parents unconsiously capable created a monster. The mother had help from the psychiatrist . The farther was at the least unsympathetic.

Or ... are we (i.e. The viewers of this movie) the monsters, because we make the assumptions about the intentions everyone had before things happened; good, bad or simply coincidences?!

OK, bad things happen, but what actually happened?! Was it intentional and truly that horrifying?!

I don't think so.

I guess that's why this movie wasn't categorised as "horror".

The gore is mild and not at all overly explicit.

Anyway, the supernatural aspects are also very intriguing.

There seems to be predestination, BUT there's not or was there?!

Causality and synchrinosity intertwined?

Anyway, for me there was much more to this story. It was mind bogling, entertaining and very interesting.

Have fun watching this intriguing movie!

The acting is excellent.

This is the first movie I've watched that came from Mexico. Glad with Netflix & ready for more where this came from.

El Diario is a Mexican psychological thriller bordering horror that is available on Amazon Prime and original languages Spanish.

It is a film that revolves around an eight year old girl whose parents are divorced and living with new partners and she has to live with them both as per custody rules.

The main character however seems to be her mother who buys a new house that seems haunted. She finds a box that contains a diary and everything she reads, comes true.

It gets a bit spooky and intense as the premonitions mix with reality and the child seems to be spun in the middle of it.

The movie explores problems related with changing family dynamics, intimacy, jealousy, mental health, emotional irregulartion and the mental health of young children.

El Diario kept me until the end and although I was confused how exactly El Diario (The Diary) worked, it was interesting.

Wow! A lot better than I first thought.

The film is only 82 minutes long and offers a unique and original story.

They had done a very good job with limited resources and time, to maintain the mistery and creepines from begin to end. It is also very realistic and the decisions made are correct.

The film has a great way of storytelling and the actors did a fabulous job at keeping the audience intrigued.

You can't expect a child actress to pull off such powerful scenes with too much ease. And she has been precise with how much emotions she has to show, she does simply a great job!

The Diary has a very low ratin by the way, and is a must-watch for horror an psycho fans!

Normally for movies such as this we are force fed stupid people making extra stupid decisions that defy common sense.

But here we are dealt a hand that is pretty much devoid of these cliched stunts that are used to pad the run time of this genre.

Although part of this plot was exposed midway through as to who was what and where. It writing and direction didn't falter and kept me focused.

It also took a supernatural/psychic/fortune telling turn, with less gore and more psychic tension with the child playing her role well. There was a bit of misogyny with the father forcing a relationship between the daughter and his new girlfriend. So he did a great job of selling the father as somewhat stubborn/pigheaded. Although the graphologist was a reach with some of her observations, but I am not an expert, so she might have been on point.

Maybe not for everyone, since it is not a gore fest and some of the scares won't send you out of your seats, but I did enjoy it.