Turno nocturno

"Turno Nocturno" is the new film directed by Rigoberto Castañeda, who shows tremendous maturity as a director. The script written by Rigoberto Castañeda himself is based on Eulalia "La Planchada", a nurse who worked at the Juárez Hospital in Mexico City and whose urban legend is that her ghost continues to haunt the facilities of that place. Castañeda also uses the theme of sexual harassment at work, machismo and misogyny to tell the story of the nurse protagonist. Paulina Gaitán gives a very good performance as the protagonist, giving a character that recalls Sissy Spacek's performance in "Carrie." The character of Eulalia, the ghost, has elements that pay tribute to Freddy Krueger from "A Nightmare on Elm Street", making her appearances very dreamlike. The film takes place in 1979 and the costume design and art direction are magnificent, achieving a realistic seventies aesthetic. The atmosphere is spooky and takes advantage of the filming locations in the hospital. The cinematography manages to have good shots and lighting that pays homage to the giallo subgenre in one particular scene, with the colorful "Suspiria"-style lighting being notable. The music composed for the film is good, especially that retro theme made with synthesizers that pays homage to the compositions of John Carpenter and Wendy Carlos. The film handles several subgenres of horror cinema, at times it has scenes of psychological horror, also of supernatural horror and opens the debate to the public to give their own opinion at the end of the film about what happened in it, we also have elements of the slasher subgenre with our villain in turn carrying out a vengeful massacre with several sharp weapons in the last minutes of the film, as well as elements of rape and revenge, and splatter cinema, achieving bloody scenes made in the old school style. The retro essence is perfectly captured throughout the film. As I mentioned, Paulina Gaitán gives an outstanding performance as does the rest of the cast, which includes Tony Dalton, Patricia Reyes Spíndola, Enoc Leaño, among other well-known actors. "Turno Nocturno" is an instant horror classic.