MOAR HORROR: ¡Viva españa!

As you're all already aware, I'm on a quest for wet-your-pants-keep-you-up-at-night horror that reaches beyond the borders of this fair country of ours. To begin with I kept my search confined to Asia since it was with their cinema that I'd had the most success. Recently, however, I've branched out on the recommendation of several reputable sources into the Spanish offerings. And as it turns out, the Asians aren't the only ones showing us up in terms of teeth-chattering fear.

Of the three I watched, "The Devil's Backbone" was my least favorite. It's the story of a young boy, Carlos, left at a dilapidated orphanage during the Spanish Civil War. Being the newcomer, he's pushed around by the typical playground bully (Jaime) then chased out of the storage room by Jacinto, the caretaker, who shows unreasonable amounts of rage when that place in particular is explored. That stress is exasperated even more when the ghost of a former orphan, Santi, begins making his presence known during the night, making ominous statements about their inevitable death.

Perhaps I had my expectations too high after hearing it lauded over and over again but I simply didn't care for this, at least as a horror movie. The story was compelling (if unoriginal) and the setting of war-torn Spain unique, but in the end I wound up finding the side-stories more interesting than the main murder-mystery/revenge plot. It's hard for me to recommend this because of that. Perhaps if it had been presented as drama with a side of the supernatural, rather than straight-up horror,I wouldn't have been so bored. As it stands though I was expecting more fears and less tears and consequently found myself disappointed.

"The Orphanage" is a film I've wanted to see for awhile and, thanks to Netflix instant viewing option, I finally got the chance last week. Laura and her husband, Carlos, have purchased the orphanage that she grew up in with plans to reopen it as a home for special needs children. As the renovations wind down, their son, Simon (himself an adopted child with special needs) begins talking about an imaginary playmate named Tomas who seems to have spilled a few family secrets. Though unsettled, Laura believes it's only because of the displacement that Simon feels resentful and continues moving forward with the orphanage. But when Simon disappears during the grand opening party, Laura begins to see and hear things that make her suspect Tomas might not be imaginary after all.

Like "The Devil's Backbone," this film would be better billed as a drama with supernatural elements rather than straight horror. "The Orphanage," however, is much more fulfilling in both realms and I didn't feel nearly as disappointed when the credits rolled. The build-up to the climax is steady, with enough jump points to keep you tense and the big reveal in the last thirty minutes, while not wholly original, was still fitting and shocking in its own way. The story wraps up nicely (perhaps too much for my tastes, but not "badly") and it's probably the first horror movie that left me with the warm fuzzies. It's hard to say anything bad about it as a whole because it's an incredible film - but only an above-average piece of horror. Watch it for the superb acting and the intriguing plot but not for its effective scares because those are few and far between.

I'd stated previously that I was watching the handicam-style zombie flick "[REC]", thanks to generous Youtuber ShinRyuAniSuni (as far as I've seen, a subtitled version is unavailable on DVD). This is the original film that US filmmakers remade and released in the states as "Quarantine" (which I haven't seen and therefore will not comment on). In the same vein as "The Blair Witch Project," "[REC]" is presented as "found footage" documenting the outbreak within an apartment complex of a mysterious disease that causes the afflicted to go batshit crazy and crave the flesh of the living. Angela is a local reporter with her own reality-based news program called "While You Sleep" and finds herself and Pablo, her cameraman, shadowing two firemen (Manu and Alex) as they respond to a call about a trapped woman in need of assistance. Upon arrival, they find the police and a crowd of neighbors convened already in an unsettled state with very little information on what's going down. Things go bad when the aforementioned woman attacks a police officer (taking a huge chunk of his neck off in the process) leaving him close to dead. But it's only when they find out that they're sealed into the building by the outside law enforcement and unable to leave that the chaos really erupts. Given very little information and understandably pissed off, Angela insists that Pablo keep filming as slowly the truth unfolds about what exactly it is that's being contained inside the apartment.

The premise of this film (and so many others like it, including it's American counterpart) is a familiar one that, sadly, gets screwed up again and again and again. Rarely are "shaky-cam" or "found footage" flicks executed in such a way that they're not only terrifying but believable. More often than not, they're filled with unrealistic acting or bad special effects, or worse - over-explanation. As much as it get's mocked nowadays, "Blair Witch" set the bar by having underplayed scares that were subtle enough to hold a ring of truth. Couple that with the absence of ambient music to build tension, three very clueless "actors" and an ambiguous ending (without any resolution to answer your questions) and the effect was (in its' day) unnerving to say the least.

"[REC]" follows suit beautifully. The creators feed you just enough information on the "who, what, when, why and how" to keep you satisfied while still withholding enough details to ensure you're afraid to close your eyes at night long after you've left the theater. In a setting such as this, the introduction of one lone cameraman heightens the tension as you're only allowed to see what he sees, when he sees it. Because of this the gore and violence, while revolting in their manner (the first attack from the lady is particularly gruesome), are quick and not gratuitous by any means. Again, they give just enough to shock you but not enough to overdo it. All of the actors are phenomenal in portraying real people caught in an unreal catastrophe and reacting to the events as I think anyone (in their right mind) would. And while the entire film was full of tension and well-built suspense, the last ten minutes pack a pretty awesome punch that, again, is frightening in its believability. I guarantee that I'll watch "[REC]" again (it only took me two days to force it on my best friend, Amy) and it'll still scare the ever-loving buhjeezus out of me.