Emotional, scary, melancholic, oppressive fantasy thriller with echoes of a ghost story
Story
He follows the child Emma on her journey to learn how to communicate with the spirit of a girl, Uxoa, who has been trapped in a hermitage for centuries. That’s why he tries to convince Carol, a skeptical medium, to help her. Supernatural thriller full of scary facts, chills, shivers and a lot of scares; however, some are confusing and inexplicable, and the reasons for some scary events are never properly explained. The film presents a fictional story of the social reality affecting a small town. It begins with what seems to be a historical prologue involving the plague, a chapel where the sick were imprisoned and a regiment of beak-like birds, but it turns out to be just a reenactment of a contest as part of the event.
This is an acceptable and acceptable film, with many not always sympathetic protagonists, deeply human and understandable
annual festival in a small town, during which the chapel, which is supposedly haunted by little Usoa, is opened for a short time. It follows young Emma (Maia Zaitegi) on her journey to learn how to communicate with the spirit of a girl, Uxoa, who has been trapped in a hermitage for centuries. That’s why she tries to convince Carol (Belén Rueda), a skeptical and fake medium, to help her. The latter bears literal scars from a childhood when her mother, possibly a real medium, seemed more interested in the spirit of a local little girl than her own daughter. This is a ghost movie full of agitated horror and an eerie atmosphere when the menacing creature appears.
A mystery film full of suspense, suspense, chills, red herrings and scary twists
Step by step, the mystery is revealed until it reaches its surprising conclusion, resulting in a sentimental ghost story with serious, disturbing nuances, in the style of The Orphanage or Pan’s Labyrinth, but with its own distinctive feminine accent. It is an attractive drama whose interest decreases as the actual profusion of its tiresome accumulation of supposedly scary elements increases. While Cerdița focuses on pure terror in La Ermita, there are a few things that mark Pereda as a key figure in the current horror and fantasy genre. One of them is his frontal entry into genre cinema: he moves towards fantasy without hesitation and adds a personal drama. This diminishes as the recording progresses and prevents us from talking about a gem like “Cerdita”.
It is an adequate and decent film, but not a remarkable one
Nevertheless, Pereda manages to make a film more than worthy, but worse than the previous one. Pereda has a great eye for the gothic and enjoys the characteristics of Spanish horror without actually making a horror film. The lead role is played by Belén Rueda, who plays well in her usual style. She is an actress who specializes in mystery and horror films such as: Eyes of Juliet, The Orphanage, No Sleep, While the Torment, The Pact, Orbita 9 and The Corpse. In fact, Belén Rueda is the closest thing Spain has to a horror heroine or “scream queen”.
The film was professionally directed by Carlota Pereda, who is clearly a talented writer and director
She is in no way inferior to the child prodigy Maia Zaitegi, who is reminiscent of the young Ana Torrent in Cria Cuervos or El espiritu de la colmena (The Spirit of the Hive). A female drama with similar tones to the genre, it is the second solid calling card for Pereda’s talent. Won 2023: Sitges Film Festival: Official Feature Film Section (out of competition) and 2023: Goya Awards (Spain): Nominated for Best Special Effects. Her first film was the much better “Cerdita”, based on the Goya winner for Best Short Film of the same name by Carlota Pereda herself, winner of the Goya for Best Short Film in 2018 and which also starred Laura Galán. Rating: 5.5/10.