Friday, October 23, 2009

Shiver (Escalofrío)

(2008) ***1/2

Shiver begins with Santi - a teenage kid who would like nothing more then a normal life. Unfortunately for him, he has a severe reaction to sunlight

and as such is destined to live at night, with his one friend, playing video games. He begs his mother to move somewhere that he can have a life - and since his doctor urges her to do the same, she agrees.

They move to a remote little town in a deep valley in the mountains of Spain.

The town is surrounded by forests, another plus for Santi as what little sunlight gets to the valley is often muted. The forests, however, are not safe. One of Santi's schoolmates, Jonas, has an odd experience while walking home and thinks there is something out there. At the taunting of some bullies, Santi, Jonas and Tito decide to investigate. Not all survive the venture into the woods and Santi becomes a prime suspect in the killing. Things go from bad to worse and Santi is forced to try to find what's out there in order to prove his innocence.

I'm kind of skimping on too much detail because a big part of the movie comes down to the whole, "What the F is in the forest" question. Suffice it to say, this had some really tense moments that had me firmly gripping desroc's arm. The scenery in the isolated town is beautifully shot - the production designer was Pilar Revuelta who worked on Pan's Labyrinth. The kid playing Santi does a great job in portraying a teenager who is determined to find an answer, but who is also scared shitless. His Mom is played by this woman

(Mar Sodupe) who I think is beautiful. All in all, an excellent choice for my THIRD (ha!) movie.

4 comments:

Johnny Sweatpants said...

Well, well, well. Look who comes crawling back? If it isn't the Brain herself gracing us with her presence (and so on and so forth).

Interesting pick! I'm generally put off by movies where someone is falsely accused and has to prove innocence but Shiver sounds like it has much more going on.

AC said...

yay dcd! glad you got some real shivers out of the experience. will desroc write this one up as well?

Octopunk said...

As one underperformer to another, you're doing just fine and you don't have to prove anything to these jerks.

This sounds cool AND I've never heard of it. Nice! I just hope the thing in the woods is better than in The Village.

Catfreeek said...

Nice choice, I watched this one at some point this past year and was pleasantly surprised myself by it.

Malevolent

 2018  ***1/2 It's 1986 for some reason, and a team of paranormal investigators are making a big name for themselves all over Scotland. ...