Hello, Hive moviegoers! Today I bring you the review of an Argentinian movie that was released in November last year (2023) and of which I had very low expectations, because horror and suspense movies are not necessarily my favorite. I was really surprised with this movie, I leave you with the review, I hope you like it a lot.
TRAMA // PLOT
The film takes place in a rural area of Argentina, where two brothers (Pedro and Jaime) live. They work in the countryside and one morning while they go out to investigate where the shots they had heard the night before were coming from, they notice a dismembered body. Due to some notes that the deceased had in his notebook they realize that he was going to get rid of a "envichado".
Here in the movie in particular, "envichado" is the name given to people or beings possessed by an evil force, which we must take into account since it is often confused.
The "envichado" is a certain Uriel, who is the son of a poor lady who lives in the middle of nowhere. I refer to her as "poor" because she has to deal with the virus of evil that her son carries, which is practically rotten in life.
The man is bloated, full of fluids, full of sores and all the time he is oozing that pus inside him. This particular scene is very unpleasant and I recommend watching it with discretion and in case you are very disgusted, do not watch it.
Something I noticed here is that apparently the whole town already knows that there is a possibility that the "envichados" exist, well, some people do not believe much in this kind of things; however in the film we are made to understand that the people are aware that the evil presences and that evil exists. They take the whole story of the "envichados" so seriously that there are even people specialized in killing them safely.
Killing the "envichado" safely is important here, because you can't just kill these beings in any way, and for this, there are some rules that I will tell you later.
The people in the town treat the possessed as if they had a virus and therefore must be careful when eliminating it, because like any virus, it can spread. Among the rules that exist to deal with it, the most important of all is to NOT KILL THEM WITH FIREARMS, not sure why, but it is something that is constantly repeated in the movie. I will talk about the others later.
Some are very clear about this rule and for that reason, the brothers together with their boss, decide to keep him as far away from the town as possible, since they can't kill him.
PERSONAJES // CHARACTERS
Pedro, played by actor Ezequiel Rodriguez; is a humble man, divorced and with a very bad relationship with his wife, who lives with her new husband (Leo), his daughter from the new marriage and Pedro's sons, Santino and Jairo, who is autistic. Pedro is seen to be an impulsive person, who does not know how to make decisions and besides that, we realize that he has been a bad husband and a bad father.
Although the film does not portray Pedro as a good person, his goal here is to get his family out of that place because he wants to keep them away from evil.
To her bad luck, the evil she was trying to keep away from her family is closer than she thinks, because unfortunately it has already arrived at her house. This is where one of the most shocking scenes of the entire film appears, as we see how the family dog tears the girl apart. This scene is important because we realize what definitely cannot be done to ward off evil.
Unfortunately, Pedro's ex-wife, her husband (Leo) and the girl die because of this event. Pedro, in desperation, decides to take his whole family away from the village: his two sons, his brother and his mother.
- No utilizar luz eléctrica.
- No estar cerca de los animales.
- No llevar nada que haya estado cerca de un "envichado".
- No lastimarlos.
- Nunca llamar a la maldad por su nombre.
- Nunca dispararles con armas de fuego.
- NUNCA OLVIDAR LAS REGLAS.
The grandmother, together with another character that I will tell you about later, is the one who clearly explains the rules that must be followed in order to deal with the "envichados" without becoming infected.
- Do not use electric light.
- Do not be near the animals.
- Do not carry anything that has been near an "envichado".
- Do not hurt them.
- Never call evil by its name.
- Never shoot them with firearms.
- NEVER FORGET THE RULES.
In their attempt to get out of town, Pedro and his family take refuge in the house of Mirtha, a lady whose husband was something of a "healer" or exterminator of "envichados". Mirtha is an important character here, since she provides too much information necessary to put an end to all this.
In Mirtha's house many shocking things happen, which I am not going to tell you because the idea is not to tell everything and it would be better for you to see them and feel the impact.
CONCLUSIÓN // CONCLUSION
As the anguish grows, Mirtha and Pedro go in search of Uriel, the "envichado". Mirtha suggests that it is necessary to kill him, evidently in a safe way to put an end to the evil that has spread too much through the town, so they start looking for him and arrive at a rural school, where the "envichado" has supposedly taken refuge.
Something curious that Mirtha says here is that "evil likes children and children like evil" and that is why this being is taking refuge in that place, it should be noted that all the children there are dead. The film uses children very well to generate a disturbing atmosphere, since they are used as guardians of evil.
In the end, Pedro allows himself to be tricked by the children, who want to take them away from there because they know they want to get rid of the "envichado", but Pedro allows himself to be manipulated and because of him (basically) they end Mirtha's life with hammer blows.
Due to the desperation, Pedro manages to kill the "envichado" with blows and when he does it, from him emerges a child completely covered with blood, who, before leaving, will mark him with his blood on his forehead.
The film does not end here, because Jairo, Pedro's oldest son is "possessed" as well as a boy who appears at the beginning of the film, who is the brother of Uriel "el envichado". This boy confesses to Jaime (Pedro's brother) that he was the one who murdered the "healer" in the "Healer" found dismembered at the beginning of the film.
Pedro returns home, takes a bath, but realizes that he cannot remove the mark on his forehead. He quickly realizes that his son ate (literally) his mother and after that, he goes out and laments. The ending is open to interpretation.