Archivo 253

Archivo 253 (2015)

Runtime: 77 (long) minutes

Directed by: Abe Rosenberg

Starring: Anna Cetti, Michel Chauvet, Mario Escalante, Juan Luis Tovar

From: Movies Independent

Here is a random horror movie I saw earlier today on Netflix Instant. I hadn't watched a horror film in about 2 months and I recently discovered this Mexican found footage movie; I knew this beforehand but other countries can do a found footage movie just as bad as the Americans can. Read all about it in my Letterboxd review below:

It has been awhile since I had watched a horror movie and when I post in a horror thread on a messageboard I sometimes like to bring up filmsI had seen that others had not, so that is why I picked a random flick I recently discovered on Netflix Instant. There's a lot of garbage on that service and unfortunately, this is one of those. I've known this for a long while but other countries can do found footage movies as bad as American filmmakers can. Yes, found footage, something that automatically makes plenty of people cross it off the list. I am not like that myself but I am now wary of those movies, as most of them aren't worthwhile. This is from Mexico and really, watch or rewatch Grave Encounters instead.

I say that as this is a pretty bad version of the Canadian film. This time it's four paranormal investigators (I am going from the Netflix plot description; the film doesn't actually explain who these people are aside from being four random people who have recording equipment and standard ghost hunting devices; they are stereotypes, from “the idiot who provokes the paranormal” to “the voice of reason” to “the girl”) who break in an abandoned psychiatric hospital-which we never get much of a backstory to, aside from cliché moments happening there-things happen, the final scene stops abruptly, the end. You can guess most of the things that happen, I am certain of that.

The movie is only 77 minutes long, yet it should have had some more time so we could actually get to know these people or hell, explain their careers or how long they had been doing those investigations. Was this their first time? The Voice of Reason wasn't happy that The Idiot-who is also the leader-only mentioned minutes beforehand that they were illegally breaking into that place, yet he went along with it anyway. Although, this was a long 77 minutes so maybe it was best that they didn't spend more time on such things. Either way, it was a dull movie filled with cliches and it's not scary or even mildly terrifying. There's a CGI creation you see briefly, and while it doesn't look great it should have been seen glimpsed more often.

As I've made clear, there is no real good reason to check this out. There are plenty of actual horror gems to be found on Instant. Take my word for this, avoid this waste of time.