Ahh, a breath of fresh air! Can you feel it too? You the one about to read some movie info in order to make the best decision: see it or not? Of course you have to see it! Even its name is on point, as it seriously delivers a massive quantity of fear and panic.

I can't go into too many details with this one as I fear i might ruin it for you, so just understand that it is a big step up from your average horror/supernatural, with lovely elements from both worlds, combined into a small gem.

Aterrados is proof that Latin countries are starting to develop better horror than our casual Hollywood productions, because if you put this next to Silent House (Uruguay) and a big list of Mexico and Spanish movies, well, the future looks bright and world wide.

Cheers!

Right, even with my interest and love of the horror cinema, then I had actually never heard about the 2017 movie "Aterrados" from writer and director Demián Rugna. But as I stumbled upon the movie in 2022, of course I opted to sit down and watch it. Especially since the movie's cover was rather interesting.

And I will say that Demián Rugna definitely started the movie out in a rather interesting manner, and managed to maintain the movie as mysterious and sort of ominous, although I will say that the movie peaked about one fourth into the play time, then it started to slide downhill and losing momentum.

I actually drifted off at a point, as the storyline had lost its appeal and interest to me. So writer and director Demián Rugna didn't really managed to land what was otherwise a movie that was off to a great start. And I just turned it off with only 12 minutes before the movie ended. But by that time I was bored senseless and struggled to keep going.

Visually then "Aterrados" was fairly straight forward. There were some nice special effects and make-up effects here and there, and the movie definitely had a nice atmosphere to it. But it wasn't a particularly memorable or outstanding moment in horror cinema.

It should be said, though, that the acting performances were good, despite of the storyline failing to find footing and appeal with me. I was not familiar with the cast here, at all, and that is something I enjoy in movies. Just a shame that they had so little contents from the script to work with.

Ultimately, then "Aterrados" is not a horror movie I would recommend you waste your time, money or effort on. I found it to be a disappointing experience. And as such, my rating of "Aterrados" lands on a mere three out of ten stars.

Living in a suburban Argentine block, a group of residents fears the location has become infested with supernatural phenomenon and call upon a series of experts to help them battle the entities, only to find that they are far more dangerous and deadly than imagined and must try to stop them.

There was quite a lot to like with this one. One of the strongest elements present here is the fact that there are some utterly terrifying and downright chilling moments present throughout here. The first instance of this, with the discovery of the bloodied wife in the shower being thrown violently and viciously against the walls while no one else is there to physically move her, makes for a strong and brutal opening to this that brings out some really fun encounters. A scene through a left-on video camera showing the demonic figures looking at him while he's unaware is equally chilling, while the dealings with the recovered body in the house bring about some fantastic chills. The centepiece of the film, though, is the absolutely stellar and chilling final half that has plenty of fantastic elements throughout here. With the investigations going on in the different houses, the main encounter with the detective assisting where they find the different items on the blacklight and then getting injured through the attacks of the demonic figures lurking unseen in the furniture causes this plenty of creepy moments, so much so it proves realistic enough for one character to be driven out of the area. Combined with the fantastic tactics of thumping or pounding behind walls, finding various beings trapped behind dimensional barriers and the increased supernatural activity to really get some chilling moments throughout here. As well, once it moves past the jump-scares and the supernatural entities, there's still a lot to really like here. A major theme of the film, the continuation of life after death and the embrace of the supernatural world, gives this a sense of class and respectability than the usual jump-scare factory that this also pulls off. The investigation of the house, not only with the body that appears at the dinner table but the later paranormal experts who begin taking pictures of the incidents around them that provides the kind of setup that's later turned into a rather fascinating extreme with the full-on revelation in the final half about the demons' true intentions. These here help this one over its minor flaws. This one doesn't have much holding it back. It's largest problem is that this doesn't really make any sense with how everything is tied together in the finale which has very little about it that's worthwhile. This revelation comes out of nowhere and has no build-up at all, being dropped at the very last minute before the ending credits appear, reeking of simply being placed here for shock value to get one more lame jump-scare as a result. Some of the CGI for the demons aren't that impressive, but otherwise, there's a lot to like about it.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Violence.