Plot
Brothers Pedro and Jamie/Jimi discover that in their small Argentinean town, their neighbour Uriel is now a “Rotten” – someone who is possessed by a devil like creature waiting to be born.
Discovering that the “cleaner” who was supposed to come exorcise the demon has been brutally killed, and the government won’t send another – they along with Ruiz (the landlord of where Uriel lives – attempt to transport him elsewhere.
Driving hundreds of kilometers away, when they get far enough, they discover that Uriel has escaped – and now they fear the worst.
Direction
Directed by Demián Rugna an Argentinean film maker.
Cast
Starring Ezequiel Rodríguez as Pedro, Demián Salomon as Jaime, Silvina Sabater as Mirtha and others within the Argentinean film/television community.
Breakdown
Starting with a fairly unique opening – two brothers – who we slowly learn names are Pedro and Jamie (or Jimi at times) – hear noises in the night – and discover parts of a dead body the next morning. They are neither shocked or disgusted by this, so it leads the viewer to understand that this is not uncommon to them. They go to their neighbour Maria Elana’s house where she informs them of her sick son Uriel is now a “Rotten”.
In this world there is a devil possession which causes this over time. A cleaner was supposed to come, and it is evident that the cleaner was killed before he could perform an exorcism. The brothers, along with Maria’s landlord Ruiz take Uriel hundreds of kilometers away – to keep their small town safe… but alas Uriel escapes before they arrived at their destination.
I liked the idea that the government knows about the devil possession, but decides to do nothing about it. It added a depth of ‘realism’ to a supernatural story.
This… is where the film starts to falter…
Pedro travels to his ex wife’s house. Here we learn he is a dad of two young boys, his ex has remarried and had a daughter with her new husband. Pedro has not paid child support at all, and he is… our protagonist??? When he is there, he inadvertently lets the family’s dog sniff his ‘infected’ clothes, and the dog – brutally attacks the young girl. This was a brilliant scene – brutal – shocking and quick. Her dad finds the dog and kills it, and thankfully the daughter returns to her mum… unharmed???
This is where the notion of what the possession is… doesn’t make sense. Because people are killed (via car accidents, the aforementioned dog attack etc) and return like nothing has happened (think the alien invasion in The Faculty). And then later become mindless zombies who eat brains of their own child (in another truly graphic scene… dry retches did occur).
There are some other brutal and well shot moments too, one in which Ruiz discovers that one of his goats has been infected, so he shoots it dead – only for his very pregnant wife to do what she can to stop the infection from spreading beyond them (IYKYK).
Following the dog attack, Jamie takes his brother and nephews to his ex’s house because she was a cleaner (what luck!) once and now they have to go to the source to stop the infection – find Uriel.
The final act, is quite contrived, and it almost felt like the writers had run out of ideas of how to finish this organically. The rules, the mythology, even the way the infected changes from scene to scene.
The open ending in which the ‘devil’ is born – and the brothers have truly gone to hell and back that I don’t even know how to fully describe it in written form….
There are just too many unanswered questions… such as was Jair (Pedro’s non verbal autistic teen son) infected all along? Why seven rules of the infected? What will happen next? Where did the devil go?
I wanted more explanation of the possession, and it to be more fluid and make more sense. It seemed it just kept chopping and changing just to make the scenario that the characters are going through to be scarier (which at times it is). One thing it has going for as well as it is not afraid to go against the norm and kills off animals and kids!!!
Overall
A solid premise, with some great direction and acting – is let down by a clunky ‘mythology’ and ideology of the possession.
The third act is odd, and the open ending will leave you wanting more, and asking too many questions. Not a fail, but not great – so go in to this as you see fit.
3/5
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