Terrified (2017) review: The scariest movie you’ll ever see (maybe)

Welcome to Knockout Horror. Today we are stepping away from the laughs and going in a completely opposite direction. No matter how deep you search, you are not going to find even a single chuckle in the film we are reviewing today. We are checking out Demián Rugna’s acclaimed supernatural chiller Terrified (Aterrados, 2017).

A quick plot recap

The story follows a series of strange events that take place in a neighbourhood in Buenos Aires. A man’s wife is murdered by a seemingly supernatural force. A young boy is killed in a hit and run before, seemingly, returning from the dead. And a man experiences supernatural goings on in his home, documenting them to request help before disappearing.

“This is pure, unadulterated, Hollywood horror wrapped in an Argentinian package. Rugna is clearly aiming this film directly at fans of movies like The Conjuring.”

In an attempt to get to the bottom of the mystery, a paranormal investigator, her colleague, and an ex-police officer investigate. Only to find something far more horrifying than they could have imagined.

This One Slipped My Attention

This is a movie that I have been wanting to check out for ages. I simply never managed to get round to it until now. The hype for Terrified is pretty insane. So much so, in fact, that legendary director Guillermo Del Toro (of Pan’s Labyrinth fame) immediately jumped on the movie to acquire the rights to produce an English remake for Fox Searchlight.

Demián Rugna was actually attached to direct which would have, hopefully, lent the movie a degree of authenticity to the original product. The only problem was the Fox and Disney merger that took place not long after the documents were signed.

The messiness of that event lead to the movie being shelved indefinitely with the rights eventually reverting back to Rugna. In retrospect, he claimed he was happy the remake wasn’t going ahead. The studio had already made demands to clean up the plot and that would have risked changing the tone of the film. It was something he was unwilling to do.

The sheer fact that it never came to fruition allowed Rugna the chance to exercise a ton of creative control on his next project, When Evil Lurks (2023). This follow up was even more brutal and went on to be a massive success.

A Series of Scares

Rugna didn’t have a concrete outline for Terrified. He had a series of scary “what if” scenarios that he needed to gel together into one cohesive package. What if a dead child showed up in your kitchen? What if you heard a voice in your sink drain? It was an almost anthology style collection of horror concepts.

He then built the connecting story to tie these scenarios together. Hence all of the events taking place on the same street. That goes some way to explaining the rather unique vibe that this movie has. There’s a strange disconnection between the stories.

It’s almost as if they don’t meld together all that well. The best analogy I can think of would be to take a few different Stephen King stories and merge them with one overarching narrative. Though they might share similarities, they wouldn’t fit into one package particularly organically. The narrative would have to do a lot of bending and twisting to make it work.

That is what Rugna is doing here and to varying levels of success. Some stuff doesn’t fit neatly, most characters are underdeveloped, the structure is a bit of a mess, and the plot flip flops around fairly chaotically. Needless to say, Terrified isn’t a movie that you watch for story. It feels like an after-thought and a very weak hook to keep the viewer engaged between the various different moments of horror.

Hollywood Horror With a Vicious Edge

Where this movie shines is in its scares and these do work very well but with one caveat. This isn’t the exotic, ambitious, and completely unique horror that a lot of people make it out to be. This is pure, unadulterated, Hollywood horror wrapped in an Argentinian package.

Rugna is clearly aiming this film directly at fans of movies like The Conjuring and Insidious. The scares are of an almost PG-13 level. The actual fear factor comes from contorted bodies, jerky styles of movement, elongated human-like creatures, and the anticipation of what’s hiding under the bed or in the closet. Rugna bakes you in a sense of accumulated dread before unleashing his hideous creations on you.

It’s effective, don’t get me wrong. But it’s, also, incredibly familiar stuff to a level where I was actually quite shocked. The way this movie has been talked up, I thought it was going to leave me feeling just a tad disturbed or, at the very least, surprised by what I had seen. That just wasn’t the case. Terrified is, for the most part, an example of a series of unoriginal ideas executed with some serious skill.

It should probably be pointed out that it did benefit from an increased interest in non-English language horror. Word of mouth and Shudder’s distribution helped a lot, here, too. That definitely plays into some of the hype surrounding it. Much of that hype is earned, however.

Ultra Refined Scares

I actually don’t think the lack of originality is a flaw, it’s more of a feature. This formulaic approach actually speaks to why Terrified gets so much attention. This is a movie that is going to appeal to the masses while also bending the rules just enough to make it feel fresh. Without the confines of a big studio, Rugna gets to be a little more creative.

It is instantly accessible to the majority of horror fans because it delivers on the one thing people expect – scares. Nobody ever said that frightening viewers needed to be done in a way that breaks new ground. Concentrate on the execution because it’s better to do an old thing well than a new thing poorly.

If the only horror movies you have ever watched were Annabelle or The Nun, you could go right into Terrified and have a great time. You would definitely come out thinking it handled the horror element even better than those movies do.

This is a movie that isn’t necessarily trying to reinvent the wheel. It’s just trying to add a nice rim to it and a performance tyre. From that perspective, it really succeeds. This is a much more well refined form of the supernatural horror you are used to and love.

Not Original But Still Effective

Many of the scenes, despite being occasionally predictable, are very effective. The creature designs, often reminiscent of things seen in Guillermo Del Toro features, are pretty creepy and are expertly applied to some pretty great jump scares.

“Needless to say, Terrified isn’t a movie that you watch for story. It feels like an after-thought and a very weak hook.”

The horror maintains a nice balance between the paranormal and the physical. All while keeping an enjoyable investigation element going that is sure to please fans of The Conjuring series. It’s like a cosy horror blanket.

I think something that works tremendously in Terrified’s favour is the pacing. This is something of a breakneck movie that rarely stops to smell the roses. The threadbare story allows us to get right into the action. From there on out, it’s a fairground Ghost Train ride from one scare to another.

The scares themselves feel pretty earned, as well. Many of the scenes are setup in a way that Rugna could easily take the sudden jump scare but he rarely does. He shows a lot of restraint which makes the horror much more effective. He tends to avoid the payoff until the viewer has accumulated enough fear to make it really count.

Rugna’s direction, as a whole, is very confident and assured. This looks like a decently high budget movie. Many of the shots are expertly setup to maximise the shock value. A couple of the scenes will definitely get more nervous viewers shaking in their boots.

While some of the moments don’t always land, it’s a real pleasure to see so many great practical effects. Terrified feels like an ode to 80s horror in that respect. The sound production is fantastic, as well. The score is minimal but the thuds and creaks are legitimately haunting.

So Why Didn’t It Vibe With Me?

I may be lavishing this movie with praise but I should point out that it all comes with a “but..”. Proper horror vets who live and breathe the genre might find themselves feeling a bit shortchanged. The hype sets this movie up to fail when it comes to proper experienced fan’s expectations.. The more movies you have seen (and I am not talking hundreds, I am talking thousands) the less this movie has to surprise you.

Japan, Thailand, and South Korea have been knocking this kind of horror out of the park for years. It’s nothing you haven’t seen before from South East Asia in the early 2000s in movies like Shutter (2004) or the Ju-On series. Sure, it is well executed, but it is far from new or original.

None of it resonated with me a great deal because I think I built up my anticipation a little too much. I wanted to love Terrified and I just didn’t. In fact, I was actually quite bored thanks to the limited narrative and how predictable I found it.

With that being said, I know I could recommend this film to a few friends and it would scare their asses off. In fact, it would be near the top of my list of horror recommends for that reason alone.

Sitting and watching with my equally horror loving fiancee. It’s just another horror movie that’s well executed but not all that original. We could appreciate what worked but were left scratching our heads about all the fuss and wondering what the big deal was. A fact which caused me to approach this review from a different angle rather than one of simple disappointment.

Our Scoring Philosophy: A Fair Fight

Horror is a genre that thrives thanks to indie film makers and low budget creators. At Knockout Horror, we firmly believe that every movie that we review deserves a fair fight. That's why we grade on a curve. Our star ratings are all about context, judging a film on what it achieves with the resources it has.

A 4-star rating for a scrappy indie horror made for $10,000 is a testament to its ingenuity and raw power. A 4-star rating for a $100 million blockbuster means it delivered on its epic promises. We don't compare them side-by-side; we celebrate success in every weight class, from the back-alley brawler to the heavyweight champion. Please keep this in mind when considering star ratings.

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