Influência

I've tried to look for some positives in this film, and not to simply just say it's a poor film, but in reality it's just a poor film. It's tagged as a horror, it isn't, or if it is, then those behind it have very different views on what makes a good horror movie. It is agonisingly slow, the pacing is the main issue, you keep wanting something to happen, for it to spark into life, but that moment never comes. The story was all over the place, it made no sense.

If you can reach the end, you're a trooper. I was just bored. 3/10

Imagine a bad cook trying to make hearty soup. Get everything in your kitchen and chuck it into a pot and imagine it will turn out ok. What you get is every cliche of every horror film you've ever seen thrown together with a weak narrative. Sadly boring and un-engaging.

The nurse Alicia (Manuela Vellés) is summoned by her sister Sara (Maggie Civantos) and returns to the dark house of her mother Victoria (Emma Suárez) with her husband, the unemployed electrician Mikel (Alain Hernández), and their ten year-old daughter Nora (Claudia Placer). Alicia and Victoria have been estranged to each other for many years and now Victoria is terminal in comatose and Alicia will help the nurse Ana (Marta Castellote). Alicia has recollections from her abused childhood, when Sara and she were maltreated and controlled by her mother in rituals of witchcraft. Mikel finds a room with witchcraft objects and occult books that belong to Victoria, shows to his wife and they keep it locked. Soon Nora communicates with Victoria and changes her behavior, befriend the creepy outcast girl Luna (Daniela Rubio) and Alicia realizes that her daughter in under control of the witch Victoria.

"La influencia", a.k.a. "The Influence", is a creepy horror film developed in slow pace like most of the European movies. The atmosphere is dark and gruesome, the performances are great but the story becomes predictable when the lawyer reads the testament. The screenplay could be better but the underrated "La influencia" is a good horror film. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

I didn't find this to be a slow burn as some have sugggested, but I found it to be very disjointed and didn't pace well. Too many things are happening that you don't know what the story is, until toward the latter half, and even then it was still all over the place. It is like a ghost movie, no wait its a possession movie, no wait its a witch movie, no its a revenge movie.....sigh. It is like it didn't know where to go with all of the activity...oh yeah there is poltergeist activity too. Good grief this was difficult to watch and try to stay focused.

I can't find a film that entertains and scares me. I didn't expect much from this one. It wasn't scary but it kept me entertained. It was better than a lot of American over CGI'd and overacted movies but with the usual flIckering lights and jump scare tactics

Overall better than some famous so called horror films.