Sometimes, a really good horror movie can lay most of its cards on the table from the start, and still pull you into a nightmare. Unlike most fright fests that tend to wait on revealing their macabre devices and villains until you’ve worked yourself into a frenzy, the 2017 criminally underseen, Spanish-language Argentinian offering Terrified tells you, “This is the creature and were going to show you what you’re supposed to be afraid of, and defy you not to be.” Directed by Demián Rugna (When Evil Lurks), Terrified is a well-crafted, well-shot, and well-acted chiller that pulls absolutely zero punches. Working on a shoestring budget, Rugna uses an elite blend of practical effects with some digitally enhanced images to fully immerse his audience in a relentlessly paced, pulse-pounding movie that is currently available on Prime Video.
What Is ‘Terrified’ About?

When the people of a middle-class Buenos Aires neighborhood start to experience a series of bizarre and frightening supernatural events, three paranormal investigators (Norberto Gonzalez, Elvira Onetto, George L. Lewis) and a local cop (Maximiliano Ghione) are called in to decipher what kind of vengeful spirit they are dealing with and determine what it wants. They are particularly interested in how the corpse of a young boy who was just buried has freed himself from his grave and walked into the kitchen of his old house, sitting down at the table with a glass of milk. It’s a brilliant piece of subtextual horror that is far creepier than any run-of-the-mill quick-cut jump scare.

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“Ba ba ba dook dook dook.”

The boy sits motionless, looking like Reagan (Linda Blair) from The Exorcist. As Jano (Gonzalez) and Commissioner Funes (Ghione) slowly approach the dead boy, the tension is through the roof. The audience keeps waiting for the boy to move, but Rugna plays it in a different way that is equally effective as a timely jump scare. Meanwhile, a creature emerges nightly from beneath the bed of a man across the street. It is a restless spirit that seems to kill indiscriminately with a bloodlust. Renowned paranormal investigator Dr. Mora Albreck (Onetto) begins to study the habits of this malevolent being that is determined to rid the house of its owners, but discovers that this entity is more destructive and angry than anything she has witnessed.
Demián Rugna Is a Master at Slowly Building the Fear in ‘Terrified’

Image via Aura Films

Don’t get us wrong, there are plenty of jump scares that Rugna uses to maximum effect in Terrified, but it’s really a combination of several secondary elements that puts the fear of God into the viewer. A haunting orchestral score takes an already macabre tone and elevates a sense of perpetual dread. Rugna uses an ambient sense of impending doom with his musical choices. Eventually, the purposeful but relentless pacing of Terrified starts to wear you down, leaving you emotionally raw. And once he has you in a viscerally vulnerable and darkened state, he delivers a perfectly timed smash cut to some horrifying imagery as the spirit takes them out one by one. In a traditional horror movie, the audience has a sense of when the jump scares are going to happen. Like just after a cat has scurried away, explaining the bump in the night the characters thought they heard, or when a refrigerator door is wide open, and you know that something or someone will be there when the door is closed. Rugna uses his jump scares judiciously, often employing them in moments that are completely unexpected and with characters you feel are not the target of the spirit. It enhances the overall level of fear once you realize that no one is safe and can be taken out at any time. Terrified is not only an illustration of great Spanish horror, but also a significant step forward for the foreign language film category. Just eight years removed from its release, Regna’s parallel development of both an ensemble of interesting characters and mind-warping visuals rivals the work of international masters like Fede Alvarez, John Carpenter, Ari Aster, and Wes Craven. Check out this little-known movie on Prime and enjoy both the jolting reveals and riveting creature effects.

Terrified

Release Date

May 3, 2018

Runtime

88 minutes

Director

James Merendino

Writers

Demián Rugna

Producers

Andrea Kluger

Maxi Ghione

Police Commissioner Funes

Elvira Onetto

Mora Albreck