- Directed by Demian Rugna
- Written by Demian Rugna
- Stars Eqequiel Rodriguez, Luis Ziembrowski, Demian Salomon, Federico Liss
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 39 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrTnV6gNzno
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
Once upon a time in Argentina, they run into a little bit of trouble in a town and the rural area surrounding it. That’s an understatement of how strange and gory this movie is. It’s really well made, dark and creepy, and gross in all the good ways. We thought it was great.
Synopsis
Pedro and his brother, Jimi, hear shooting out in the forest. It’s not a poacher; there are too many shots. “They are not hunting. It’s a revolver.” As the sun comes up and credits roll, the two go out to patrol their land. The dogs lead them to a man who’s been torn in half. No, it wasn’t a puma. They also find parts of some kind of machine.
They’re on Ruiz’s land, so they want to tell him about the body, but Ruiz doesn’t like them. Instead, they go to see Maria Elena Gomez, where the dead man was heading. The old woman says they were waiting for the man to come and kill Uriel, her son. What?
Pedro and Jimi go inside to see Uriel. He’s a diseased, rotten, bloated mess, but he’s not dead. The old woman says prayers didn’t help. The other boy there says they reported Uriel’s condition a year ago.
The two men go to the police, who think he’s drunk. Pedro wants to call the mayor. The “cleaner” that the sheriff called was the man who was killed. The cleaner is essentially an exorcist, so this is a matter of possession. The police still laugh at the whole thing.
They go to see Ruiz next, and he has no problem believing them. Ruiz says all four of his dogs ran off last month since the “rotten” makes animals crazy. They all talk about this going viral.
That night, Ruiz goes to the old woman’s house with his gun and sees Uriel for himself. “You don’t kill evil like that; it’ll only get worse,” she begs. Uriel wants to be shot and begs for it – he threatens Ruiz’ unborn child.
In the morning, Ruiz’s wife brings Pedro and Jimi to see what happened, and Ruiz admits that he couldn’t do it. He knows that will only make it worse. The three men decide to carry the man away, and they all know it’s a really bad idea. It’s really nasty, but the three drag him outside, oozing and dripping all the way to Ruiz’s truck.
They drive hundreds of kilometers away, but when they get to a spot to dump the body, it’s gone. It must have fallen off when they swerved a while back. Everyone goes back home; it was far enough anyway.
Ruiz’s wife is afraid of one particular goat among their herd, one that is staring at them fixedly as the others run off. She warns him not to shoot it, as that will condemn them both. She wants to kill it with an ax. He blows its head off, and then she kills Ruiz with the ax immediately. Then she turns the ax on herself, which is pretty rough.
Jimi and Pedro hear a knock at the door. It’s Uriel’s younger brother, who says the Ruiz’s are dead and his mother has vanished. They let him stay in the barn for the night. He warns the men that electric light shadows call evil, so they should turn out the lights. The two men decide to leave town the next day.
Pedro goes to his ex-wife’s house and warns them that they all need to leave, as badness is coming. Her new husband is… unsupportive of Pedro. They do give him new clothes when he burns his own. She reminds him about the restraining order. He says the rotten in town is spreading, and soon it’ll be all over the city. They don’t believe the story about “the rotten” and think that Pedro wants to take their children away.
Suddenly, the big pet dog eats the littlest daughter while the parents argue in the next room. The dog runs out, gripping her. Things get crazy really fast. As Leo and Sabrina scour the neighborhood for what’s left of little Vicki, Pedro grabs his autistic son, Jair, from upstairs along with his other young son, Santino.
Pedro flags down the police, who warn him about the restraining order. They all hear Leo, who has shot the dog after Pedro warned him not to use a gun. Oddly, little Vicki is back home, unscratched and perfectly fine, which isn’t what we saw at all. She whispers, “Daddy is going to kill you.”
Pedro takes Jair and Santino out in the car. At the same moment, Leo intentionally rams his truck into Sabrina. Pedro takes the kids to Grandma’s house, where they pick her and Jimmy up. They tell her about the possessed, but she’s skeptical. Meanwhile, Jair sits in the back seat, looking creepy.
Grandma explains the possessions to Santino. There’s even a song. “It’s not that bad if you take precautions,” she smiles. She says one of the rules is never to name the evils, and then she lists the names. They all argue with annoying children in the car, and then… Sabrina phones, which is also impossible. He gets out of the car to talk to her. She wants her children back, and she’s not nice at all on the phone.
Pedro has a breakdown and tells Jimi everything that he’s seen. Jimi only knew half of it. Jimi wants to go to Mirta, a woman who lives in the country with no electricity, who can help and can lend them some money. They arrive, and she offers to let them stay. Since Jair pooped himself, they agree. Jimi and Mirta talk about the possessed, and Jimi admits that he’s not sure he believes Pedro’s story.
That night, Sabrina shows up outside the cabin. Grandma wakes up and finds her holding little Santino and is happy to see her. We see that she’s a bloody mess, but half-blind Grandma takes a while to notice. Eventually, she tells Jimi and Pedro that something is up there with Santino.
Mirta insists that the demon is inside Jair, but Jimi says no, he’s just like that. Turns out that when a demon possesses an autistic person, it gets confused and can’t get back out again. They get lost inside. Mirta has the “cleaner” equipment, and she knows how to exorcise the problem. She explains that this is all part of the demon’s “birthing process,” and the original victim, Uriel, is not dead yet. They need to fix that.
Mirta notices that the lights in town have gone off. That’s not a good sign. She and Pedro drive off to find Uriel, where they think he fell out of the truck earlier.
Jimi catches up with Sabrina, and she’s digging her hand into the top of Santino’s head, scooping out brains and scattering them on the road as she walks along. He rams her with his truck, drags her along on the hood, and then crashes into a tree.
Back at the house, Jair tells grandma that he’s cold and hungry, except Jair doesn’t speak.
Pedro and Mirta come to a schoolhouse full of children sitting silently at night. The children are possessed, and Mirta thinks they are hiding the rotten. One of the children says Uriel’s at the teacher’s house and points the way. A little girl says the boy is lying, and Uriel’s at her house. Mirta says they’re both lying; it’s right here.
They go back inside the school and find all the kids’ dead parents entombed under the stage. There are too many to tell, but Uriel may be under all those bodies. Pedro starts tearing the stage apart while Mirta sets up her exorcism equipment. Pedro finds Uriel, still alive, down inside there.
The children trick Pedro into going for an ax, and while he’s gone, they kill Mirta rather excessively. They also wreck her equipment. Uriel begs Pedro to kill him, so Pedro beats his skull in with the exorcism stuff.
Then, a demon child crawls up out of Uriel, now born, and all the children smile. The bloody, naked little boy walks outside, and now, the bad stuff is really going to hit the fan…
Pedro goes back to Mirta’s house and finds Jimi there. Uriel’s brother in the barn admits to killing the original cleaner in the woods because the voice in his head told him to. He killed his mother, too. They give Jair his apple ice cream, and he starts coughing up blood and bits of Grandma.
Pedro goes outside and screams. Jimi doesn’t want to look in the kitchen where Jair is.
Commentary
This is just all kinds of messed up. It’s not exactly a zombie movie, but it plays out like one. It’s more of a crazy demon virus. It’s a weird situation with a demon-possession system that I haven’t seen before, but it all seems realistic and feels like it may have come from real legends.
This is really good. Weird and unusual but excellent!