PIC of the Week – Terrified

PIC of the Week – Terrified

Article series by Ray Schillaci

RLJE Films in association with Shudder have released something to scream about…Demián Rugna’s Terrified or as I like to call it – F**kin’ Terrifying! I believe I first heard about this Argentinian frightener from writer/director Issa López (Tigers Are Not Afraid) from her Twitter feed, and later from Freddy Beans from Ain’t It Cool News. Between the two of them, the film sounded more like a dare than just a casual watch. The word is, uniquely frightening, and I have to say the hype is real. Rugna’s film is all the creepiness of Carpenter’s The Thing and Stuart Gordon’s Re-Animator without an ounce of humor, leaving your nerves jangled and your palms sweaty.

How’s this for a premise?: Police and a paranormal investigator probe into a haunted neighborhood. When I say haunted, I don’t mean your average ghostly specter a la Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak. No, those apparitions looked like part of a more elaborate Disney ride. Demián Rugna’s ghastly visions are hard to imagine, and the havoc they create leaves you gasping.

Several stories are weaved into one, beginning with a women who swears she hears voices in her drain threatening her life. A man hears noises and experiences movements from under his bed. A mother has her recent dead adolescent come back for dinner, sitting quietly, waiting. For what, we’re not sure. These are just some of the creepy goings on that will deliver unsettling shivers and have you cowering when you actually witness the cause of it all.

To give you a good idea of what you are in for, we’ve seen lots of movies with something haunting our bed. From Nightmare on Elm Street to Poltergeist. In Terrified, what we catch under the bed is so subtly shocking and eventually nightmare inducing, that we’re not even sure how far this film is going to take us down the rabbit hole of horror. To go any further would be a disservice to this excellent film and to your surprising scares.

The MPEG-4 AVC, 1080p picture comes in a handsome 2.35:1 aspect ratio. This is a dark film, but black levels rarely blend. There are excellent levels of detail with this blu best standing out when we catch a glimpse of what is under the bed. There are the graphic moments, but even the blood is appropriately dark. Even daylight scenes give an appearance of a dull fall season adding to the dread of it all.

The audio comes in both Spanish and English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. This is a foreign film, so do yourself a favor and opt for reading subtitles, because dubbing (at least for me) is more likely to hamper the scares than reading English subtitles. Terrified relies just as much on its sounds as it does with its visuals. Even the subtlest sound gets under our skin. Then when the true bumps in the night rock your room you will be jumping off the couch and looking behind you. Your girlfriend or wife may never forgive you.

I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again, some of the best horror out there is foreign; REC, I Saw the Devil, Train to Busan, High Tension, and the list goes on. It is well worth reading the subtitles, it does not hamper the viewing experience (unless you cannot read). Latin horror and horror/fantasy has really stepped it up over the years since the introduction of Guillermo del Toro. Fine examples are Álex de la Iglesia’s Witching and Bitching, Issa López’s Tigers Are Not Afraid, Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza’s REC, the franchise it has spawned and Paco Plaza’s chilling Veronica. You can now add Demián Rugna’s Terrified to the list of notables that will not only have you thinking about it long after it is over, but also keeping you up all night with the lights on.

Currently, Shudder, Amazon and VUDU are streaming this film. But, it can also be purchased on Blu or DVD. For all you horror hounds, this is well worth adding to your ghoulish collection.

Lowest Price – $14.99 – Amazon

Visit Ray’s blog at themonsterinmyhead.com