Director: Emilio Portes
Year: 2019
Country: Mexico
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Black Magic; Exorcism
Plot:
Following reports of strange activity, a police officer in Mexico begins investigating the series of tragic accidents on small children around the city and discovers a connection with a special religious prophecy about to come to pass and must confront the Satanic figures controlling the situation.
Review:
For the most part, this was an incredibly enjoyable and chilling genre effort. Among the more engaging elements featured here is the fact that it manages to mix together the rather intriguing storylines present. The idea of integrating the black magic and superstitions with a more realistic approach, with the paranormal team arriving to investigate the different areas of the city with their high-end equipment and tools alongside the need for investigating the series of strange incidents that are afflicted with. This is all handled in a rather fun manner with the different manners in how they're connected to the main cop and spreading out to the other activities around the city, adding a truly chilling storyline setup that starts the film off nicely.
With that setup in place, the film begins to hit its stride with the escalating series of encounters shown throughout here. Starting with the outright shocking and brutal attack on a children's nursery and to follow it up with the aftermath of the school shooting, there are some great scenes here that establish a fine mystery to start with. Escalating from there to the children's swim meet and then the incident at the movie theater with the abduction followed by the suicide bomber attack, there are several truly chilling scenes here that showcase the initial power of the evil forces they're dealing with. With the crazy revelations that emerge with the temptation sequence in the abandoned house, there's plenty to like here as this one remains enjoyable for the most part.
There are some flaws in the film. The main issue befalling the film is a serious and abrupt change of tone that emerges once the film moves into the final act. With the temptation sequence playing out in the abandoned house in the abandoned village, the idea of a Jesus statue coming to life and speaking demonic threats to the characters is just wholly silly and ludicrous compared to a more measured and vicious tone that had come before. The scene is wholly out-of-place in the film and stop it dead in its tracks away from the chilling and realistic religious work into a cliched, overblown possession film that may have plenty of strong violence and gore but feels like a tonally different movie after that point. This is massively underwhelming and really lowers this one the most.
Just as bad is the final half hour which is a typically over-the-top and generic exorcism scene that runs through the generally expected scenes that are expected to be found in this kind of film. From people peaking in multiple demonic voices at once, spouting off ludicrously vague threats about their fates in the afterlife and the supernatural attacks on those helping and concluding with the levitating body and it just feels tired to include this in the film. With this section of the film making it feel far longer than it should be as the film approaches the two-hour mark because of that, it feels tacked on in the worst way and really ends up holding this one down as well.
Overview: ***.5/5
While the first half to this one manages to get plenty of solid and chilling work, the second half dive is somewhat of a letdown enough to really bring this one down when it really didn't need it. This is still enjoyable enough for those looking for something dark and chilling or enjoy these kinds of dark supernatural efforts while those put off by the flaws here should heed mild caution.
This review ran as part of our remote coverage of Cinepocalypse Festival 2019.
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