Review: Shiver

Title: Shiver (Original Spanish Title Escalofrio)
Starring: Junio Valverde,Blanca Suarez
Director: lsidro Ortiz
Written by: Jose Gamo
Music: Fernando Velasquez
Director of Photography: Josef M Civit

Score: 7.5/10

In recent days I had been watching the Oscar circuit movies. So a good scary thriller was what I needed. Netflix had this Spanish movie Shiver for instant watching. It was really Worthy watching.

The story involves a teenage boy Santi have a nightmare in which, as he comes to Sunlight he gets burnt. The boy has a medical condition called Photo-phobia which makes him extremely sensitive to sunlight. So the doctor advises his mom to move to nearby country side which is thickly vegetated and surrounding by towering mountains. Santi and his mom move to the country side.

They rent a house and as the story progresses we get introduced to various segments of country life. Even though it is sparsely populated there is school, cell phone works and there are also quaint village grocery store locate on cobbled streets. But all these beautiful environment starts revealing a scary underbelly. It starts with a Sheep being killed. It is not just a horrible killing. Somebody has sucked blood out of the animal. Then as the story progresses we encounter a few more gory murders and blood being sucked out of the bodies. This times it is a boy who is the victim. In addition to all there is weird noises and strange happenings in Santi's house. The story proceeds relentlessly revealing little by little. What makes the movie a thrill to watch is the thick jungle setting where the murders happen.

I will not reveal any more here. One should watch the movie for the thrill as well as for the abundantly interesting Spanish country side. I never felt that people were acting. It looked like we were having a front seat view of crime in a village,

The director combines many movie making and story telling techniques. It is a mind bending experience. Two people who watch the movie can have different understanding of what happened. As is usual with murder mysteries there are situations which lead the viewer in the wrong direction but the director maturely handles it so that it does not become just a trick. There is a real reason why the viewer got distracted.

SPOILER FOLLOWS - STOP READING NOW IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW A KEY REVELATION.





This movie reminded me of Spyder by David Cronenberg starring Ralph Feinnes. What we see may not be the truth at all. The director can employ tricks to mislead the viewer while still being truthful. Since I had watched Spyder I was somehow able to guess the secret. But its possible there is a different interpretations.


I was entertained by this movie.

I give it 7.5 out of 10