Eric D. Snider
(Streaming on Shudder.)
Buenos Aires is rife with supernatural activity in Demian Rugna’s Terrified (Aterrados), much of it centralized to a particular street (perhaps because of zoning?). The manifestations are frequently chilling, as when a man who hears a recurring “thump” sound investigates and finds his wife being flung repeatedly by an unseen force against the walls of the bathroom, or when a deceased boy returns bodily (and muddily) to his mother’s home. Flashbacks reveal how three houses on this block came to be connected by evil, and how paranormal investigator Dr. Allbreck (Elvira Onetto), her associate Jano (Norberto Gonzalo), and a cop (George Lewis) got involved. The shifting narrative perspective keeps things interesting, but while there are undeniably effective sequences, the film is ultimately a mish-mash of horror tropes without a central purpose, a parade of things you’ve seen before repackaged in shiny wrapping. The wrapping is pretty shiny, though.
