33/29
, to help her
Line of Events
Follow Emma on her journey to learn how to communicate with the spirit of a girl named Uxoa, who has been imprisoned in a hermitage for centuries, so she tries to convince Carol, a skeptical medium, to help her in , a terrifying, melancholic, suffocating fantasy thriller with touches of a ghost story. A supernatural thriller full of terrifying events, emotions, chills and a lot of fear; However, some are confusing and inexplicable, the reasons for some of the ghostly events are never well explained. The film depicts a fictional story about the social reality that plagues a small town. It begins with a seemingly historical prologue involving a plague, a chapel that imprisoned the sick, and a flock of pecking birds, but it turns out to be a reenactment of a parade as part of the small town’s annual festival, when the chapel that is believed to be haunted by little Usoa opens for a short time. Follow Emma (Maia Zaitegi) on her journey to learn how to communicate with the spirit of a girl named Uxoa, who has been imprisoned in a hermitage for centuries, so she tries to convince Carol (Belén Rueda), a skeptical medium and a fake.
A tense and mysterious film full of emotions, tension, chills, red herrings, hair-raising twists
The latter has literal scars from a childhood when her mother, perhaps the real medium, seemed more interested in the ghost of a local girl than her own daughter. This is an accessible and approachable film with many not always sympathetic, deeply human and relatable characters. This is a ghost film with a haunting horror and a sinister atmosphere when the sinister beings appear. Little by little, the mystery is revealed until its surprising end, resulting in a sentimental ghost story with a serious and melancholic tone, like the manner of The Children’s House or Pan’s Labyrinth, but with its own characteristic feminine focus. It is an attractive drama whose interest fades as its tiresome accumulation of supposedly frightening elements increases in effective abundance.
It turns out to be an adequate and decent film, but not remarkable
Although Cerdita focuses on pure horror, La Ermita has several things that confirm Pereda as a key figure in the current horror and fantasy genre. One of them is his frontal entry into genre cinema: he does not hesitate to rely on fantasy, adding some personal drama. This empties as the material progresses and does not allow us to talk about a gem like Piggy. However, Pereda manages to make a film that is more than worthy, but inferior to the previous one. Pereda really likes the Gothic, because he enjoys the trappings of Spanish horror without making a horror film.
The film was professionally directed by Carlota Pereda, who is clearly a talented writer and filmmaker
In the role, Belén Rueda, who offers a good performance in her usual style, is an adept actress in mystery and horror films such as: Eyes of Julia, Children’s House, You Will Not Sleep, In Time of the Storm, The Pact, Órbita 9 and The Body. In fact, Belén Rueda is the closest Spain has to a horror heroine or ”Scream Queen”, she is well connected with the prodigy Maya Zaitegui, reminiscent of the young Ana Torrent in Cria Cuervos or The spirit of the hive . As a women’s drama with genre-like tones, it is the second solid presentation letter of Pereda’s talent. Won in 2023: Sitges Film Festival: Official Feature Film Selection (Out of Competition) and in 2023: Goya Awards (Spain): Nominated for Best Special Effects. Her debut feature film was the much better ¨Cerdita¨, which is based on the Goya winner for Best Short Film by Carlota Pereda herself, the Goya winner for Best Short Film in 2018 and also by Laura Galán. . Score: 5.5/10.
43/42
16/23
43/36
22/40
25/32
37/47
37/27
10/30
22/29