Oftentimes, the best horror movies are the ones that leave the scares to our imagination. Films likeJawsandThe Blair Witch Projectwere successful partially becausethey either kept their monsters hiddenor didn’t show them at all. When a horror movie does show its monster a lot, it can lessen the fear for the audience because instead of us imagining something way worse, we’re shown a creature that can’t live up to the fear we conjured up in our minds.
The 2017 Argentinian film,Terrified, fromDemián Rugna(When Evil Lurks) breaks this rule becauseinstead of keeping its monsters in the dark, it lets us see them fully. Rather than this being a detriment, the phenomenal effects involved produce creatures somehow even more horrifying than our imagination.One scene inTerrified, in which nothing really happens plot-wise, is one of the scariest moments in modern horror.
The Plot Is the Weakest Part of ‘Terrified’
Set in Buenos Aires, after several people have supernatural occurrences, paranormal investigators are calledin.That premise has been done many times, but it’s in the execution whereTerrifiedtruly finds its power. It’s a visual film that’s about setup and follow-through. Rugna creates an uneasy atmosphere, lets the tension build, then it explodes in a shocking visual. It never lets up, and you can never guess how long the setup will last. Will Rugna wind up the jack-in-the-box for a few seconds or for a few minutes before the scares spring forth? Not knowing is integral to the experience.
From ‘Evil Dead Rise’ to ‘When Evil Lurks,’ Kids Are Now Fair Game in Horror
Recent horror films are proving to be less afraid in depicting the deaths of their child characters.
This is done perfectly in the very first scene, where a woman named Clara (Natalia Señorales) is talking about hearing noises coming from the drain in the kitchen sink to her husband, Juan (Agustín Rittano). She later leaves the room andJuan begins to hear a loud knocking in the walls that won’t stop. He gets angry, thinking it’s a disrespectful next-door neighbor, but as the suspense mounts and the knocking continues, Juan finds the source of it in a jolting reveal.
The Creature Effects Make ‘Terrified’ Unforgettable
Terrifiedcontains top-notch, mostly practical effects, with a few well-done CGI ones as well. This combination is necessary because this is a movie that’s going to show you everything it’s got. While some of the better horror films hide their monsters, the genre is filled with frustrating examples that attempt to hide and show at the same time. If you’re a fan of the genre, you’ve seen the lazy examples. A character is in the dark, the music telling us that they are getting closer and closer to the monster in the dark, only for it to pop out for a quick jump scare.It’s the cheap jolt that ends up getting usrather than what we’re actually seeing.Terrifiedis unforgettable simply because it doesn’t give into this.Rugna shows his monsters often, and their designs and reveals are so jaw-dropping that they’re literally some of the best effects I’ve seen in recent horror.
There are several monsters inTerrified.There is one that hides under the bed and crawls out at night when the human above it is asleep. There’s another that crawls out of the wall. And in a well-executed long shot, we get one that’s exposed as it gets nearer to the camera, slowly bringing it into view.The scariest monster of all, though, is the corpse of a little boy who was hit and killed by a bus.His design is so impeccable that it looks like a real corpse in front of us and not some made-up dummy.
‘Terrified’ Has Multiple Well-Earned Jump Scares
Terrifiedknows how to do the jump scare right.That opening scene has the knocking continue until it gets under our skin. When Juan decides to look behind a door, there is a jump scare waiting, but the moment has earned it. Another scene does this to great effect when a character looks out a window at night and sees a creature in a window across the street watching him. Many horror films would immediately go for the jump scare, butTerrifiedholds onto the monster in the darkness. It’s there, then it’s not; it lingers again, then disappears, and BAM!We know it’s coming, but the timing is off, which throws our expectations off as well.
As good asTerrified’s jump scares arethough, its most unnerving scene is one where not much happens. One day, the aforementioned dead boy rises from his grave and goes home, but this isn’t a zombie movie. Instead, his corpse is found sitting at his mother’s kitchen table.We see the bloody footprints, the ripped-open fingers that clawed at the casket, and even the bowl of cereal and glass of milk he put out in front of him, but the boy doesn’t move at all. The camera holds on him as characters lean in close, and we lean back, waiting for the jump scare.Instead, nothing happens, and it’s absolutely unbearable.In the Shudder seriesThe 101 Scariest Horror Movie Moments of All-Time, it comes in at number sixty-six.
If you want a horror movie with stellar world-building and captivating characters, you may admittedly do better thanTerrified.But if you’re looking for a film that’s pure nightmare fuel,Terrifiedis it.It gets its title from one character admitting, “I’m terrified.” Watch it and you will be too.
