Shiver (Eskalofrio)
Sub-Genre- Thriller
In Attendance- Yo soy.
Cast Members of Note- A hot Spain chick named Blanca Suarez, and a bunch of other Spain people whom I don't know.
What's it about?- Santi is a teenager who is scared of the sun, has growing canine teeth, and mopes around town keeping to the shadows; no, he isn't a vampire... he's just an Emo kid. Since everyone in Spain hates Emo's, it isn't long before the kids at Santi's night school try to gay bash him, prompting his mom to move them out to the country.
With nothing to do in his new village, Santi starts to spend long afternoons with Uncle Jacinto; playing tickle tag, having spit fights, taking long walks through the fields, playing "find the salty churro"... but soon enough he finds out that Uncle Jacinto isn't his uncle at all, but a local homeless man that comes out of the forest and likes to give him hugs. Wet hugs. Totally creeped out by this, he decides to go back to school instead.
Sheep and people start dying all around town, and soon enough Santi is the chief suspect. Along with a hottie named Angela and some weird kid named Tito, Santi sets out to investigate the odd happenings in the local woods, and clear his emo name. Who is the killer? Is it a monster? Is there a deep dark secret that the small village is trying to protect? Is it Uncle Jacinto gone berserk?
I wont spoil the ending here, because that's what mean people do, but suffice it to say that the very last scene left me shaking my head.
The Good- Shiver started off great, if a bit misleading; about 10 minutes in and I'm thinking "Hey, this is gonna be a cool little vampire flick." Nope. It did turn into something cool though, and it had a few scenes of genuine creepiness to keep me interested along the way. I loved the look of this film, and it's settings; gorgeous and desolate, inviting yet forbidding at the same time. I really just loved the feel of the whole thing.
Blanca Suarez, who played Angela, is totally adorable. She makes me love Spain even more than I already do, and I hope to see her in more genre work in the future.
On a fun side-note, this movie has one of the neatest opening credits sequences I've seen, which nicely complements the look of the rest of the film, all of which is sharp and crisp.
The Bad- They totally set us up for a vampire story, and then switched gears and did something completely different. Why include the sunlight allergy and growing canine teeth if you aren't telling a vampire story? Tease!
The Downright Horrendous- What in the hell was with the last shot in the movie? I get what they were going for, but for some reason it just really seemed out of place and it didn't belong with the rest of what I just watched.
The Gory- Ripped throats, stabbings, deadly woods traps, and gutted sheep! This one has a fairly good amount of the red stuff... although it seemed to be played down a bit to me. Those Europeans do love their gore!
The Naked- No naked senoritas. Lo siento.
Best Line- "Hola!" or "Me gusta jugar el futbol." What do you want from me, I only took one year of Spanish...
What did we learn?- Country folk sure do love their rape. Also, they like murder.
Rating- C Eskalofrio wasn't anything mind blowing, but I did find it pretty enjoyable. Interesting plot and premise (although I would have liked to have seen them keep going with the vampire set up that they started with), there were moments of genuine creepiness, and some good gore... Give it a rent if you can find a copy, or buy it if you can find it on the cheap.
Final Thoughts- Spain produces some mighty pretty ladies...
