33/42
terrifying, melancholic, suffocating fantasy thriller with hints of ghost story
Synopsis
It follows the child Emma on her journey to learn how to communicate with the spirit of a girl, Uxoa, who has been trapped in a hermitage for centuries, so she tries to persuade Carol, a skeptical medium, to help her. Supernatural thriller being filled with scary deeds , thrills , chills and lots of scares ; however , some confusing and inexplicable , the reason for some creepy events are never well explained. The film portrays a fictional story of social reality that plagues a small town . It opens with an apparent historical prologue involving the plague, a chapel where the infirm were penned up and a regiment of beaky bird-men , but this turns out to be a pageant recreation as part of a small town's annual festival, . when the chapel is thought to be haunted by little Usoa is opened for a brief spell.
This is a haunted movie that contains restless horror and sinister atmosphere when the threatening beings show up
It follows the child Emma (Maia Zaitegi) on her journey to learn how to communicate with the spirit of a girl, Uxoa, who has been trapped in a hermitage for centuries, so she tries to persuade Carol (Belén Rueda) , a skeptical and fake medium, to help her. The latter has literal scars from a childhood when her perhaps-real medium mother seemed more interested in a local little girl ghost than her own daughter . . . .
A tense, mystery movie full of thrills, suspense, chills, red herrings, creepy twists and turns
Step by step the mystery begins to unfold until its surprising finale, resulting in a sentimental ghost story with serious, brooding undertones in the mode of The ̈Orphanage ̈ or ̈Pan's Labyrinth ̈ but with its own distinctive female focus. It's an attractive drama whose interest wanes as the effective glut of its tiresome accumulation of supposedly terrifying elements increases. While ̈Cerdita ̈ focuses on pure terror in ̈La Ermita ̈ there are several things that confirm Pereda as a key figure in current horror and fantasy genre. One is her frontal entry into genre cinema: she bets on fantasy without hesitation, adding some personal drama. It deflates as the footage goes on and prevents us from talking about a game like 'Cerdita' .
It turns out to be an adequate and decent movie , but not notable
. . . Nevertheless, Pereda manages to make a more than worthy film but inferior to the previous one . Pereda has a great eye for the gothic, relishing the trappings of Spanish horror while not really making a horror film .
It won 2023: Sitges Film Festival: Official Feature Film Section (out of competition) and 2023: Goya Awards (Spain): Nominated for Best Special Effects
Stars Bethlehem Wheel giving a nice acting in her usual style, she is an actress expert on mystery and horror films , such as : Julia's Eyes , The Orphanage , You Will Not Sleep , During the Storm , The Pact, Orbit 9 , and The body In fact, Belén Rueda is the closest thing Spain has to a horror heroine, or a 'Scream Queen' la colonmena (Spirit of the Beehive).The motion picture was professionally directed by Carlota Pereda who is clearly a talented writer and filmmaker As a female drama with tones akin to the genre, it is the second solid presentation card for Pereda's talent. Her first film was the much better ̈Cerdita ̈ which takes as its starting point the winner of the Goya for Best eponymous short film by Carlota Pereda herself, winner of the Goya for Best Short Film in 2018 and also starring Laura Galán Rating: 5.5/1
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