A Chegada do Diabo

This is a very weird movie. Almost feels like exploitation. And while this is a hard sell, the way it is portrayed and played is really great. There are some holes in the plot and you might wonder about motives and actions of the main characters (especially the mother), but it all fits into the rhythm of the movie and the way it tells the story, no matter how out there it seems.

The acting is really good and for a small budget movie this really knows how to set the mood. This is something that some other movies miss out on. If you can dig that, you will also dig the abyss this movie opens from time to time. Ending something like this, is always a fine line. And I think they did a really good job here with that too ...

Perhaps we are seeing a revolution in Mexican horror cinema today. Along with Jorge Michel Grau's excellent WE ARE WHAT WE ARE (2010), a story about a family of inner city cannibals, who must also like the Mexican horror film industry face change or disappear. Argentian horror film maker Adrían García Bogliano's newest film follows in a lot similar constructs.

Neither of these two recent Mexican horror films follow the country's classic monster horror formula of the past. They are both stylistically and visually very modern horror films. There are also extremely low budget and make excellent use of Mexico's dark and dirty urban settings and focus on the strife of Mexico's lower class families.

After a jarring opening of sex and blood, HERE COMES THE DEVIL is a unnerving, taunt and tension filled tale about a family that starts coming apart after a family trip to the outskirts of Tijuana. Parked at a highway truck stop, the two kids, Sara (Michele Garcia) and Adolfo (Alan Martinez), decide they want to explore a nearby rocky hill while their parent Felix (Francisco Barreiro from We Are What We Are) and Sol (Laura Caro) "relax" in their car, waiting for their two children to return. Soon the frantic parents wake up in the car to realize their children have vanished.

The real star of this film is the direction of Bogliano. From the very opening of this film he creates an atmosphere of tight slow unwinding tension that builds to the perfect closing shot that like the master Mario Bava is a very subversive wink at the audience. Getting to the final shot is where all the fun lies. This film is classic horror film making at it's finest. With excellent storytelling and a very controlled atmosphere, Adrian draws the audience in from the opening and sustains the suspense without giving the audience a chance to catch their breath till the final reveal. The score and sound construction is muted excellence too, that Hollywood horror films sure could learn a thing or too from. Adrian never tries to scare his audience with loud sound effects. Instead he builds brooding momentum with an acoustic guitar melody layered with creepy distant background noises. In one scene he makes fantastic use of a heavy metal song playing on the car radio. As the score builds so does the editing and pacing. This film is an excellent lesson in making the best use of what you have. With minimal characters and a tight focus on a interesting plot, you don't need a lot of money to make a great dark fantasy film. That is not to say that this film didn't have a couple of eye-popping set pieces that had an afternoon TIFF audience hooting and hollering at it's world premier! This film has so many classic horror film references from Hitchcock to Fulci, but what makes this film work is the economy in which it was made.

When it comes down to it this is a smart fun horror film that recalls those classic European grindhouse films that were cheaply made in the 70's & 80's without much fanfare. Fantastic film and my pick for Horror film of the year. Dark Sky should be rewarded for producing this Spanish language film and Argentinian director Bogliano is definitely a name to watch. I know i am now looking forward to going through his back catalog of horror films he made in Argentina looking for some more gems.

This movie has pretty good pacing. The parents are very realistic and the kids are effective as well. A pretty good small production foreign film. The subtitles in English and Spanish audio was a problem. English audio is necessary in 2022 in the states.

It only took two of his movies to make me an avid follower of Adrián García Bogliano. He's the type of cinematic artist I deeply respect and even am somewhat jealous of. We're about the same age, but at "barely" 32 years old Bogliano accomplished nearly a dozen of long feature horror films. And although I'm certainly not claiming his movies are bona fide genre masterpieces, they are definitely interesting to explore and – on a more personal note – the type of movies that I'm looking for the most. They are raw, brutal and nihilistic low-budget exploitation efforts that genuinely re-create the atmosphere of horror during the 70's and early 80's. His "Room for Tourists", for example, is one of the cruelest torture-porn flicks out there and especially his "I'll Never Die Alone" is pretty much the only modern day rape & revenge flick that truly lives up to the prototypes of the seventies, such as "I Spit on your Grave" and "Last House on the Left". Evidently I was very eager to catch his newest effort "Here Comes the Devil" when it played at the Brussels' Festival of Fantastic Films, because it allegedly concerns a homage to the devilish cult flicks of the 70's and one giant homage to "Picnic at Hanging Rock". Bogliana again didn't disappoint, although it's different from his previous work and emphasizing more on character depth and disturbing atmosphere. Our director moved up from Argentina to Mexico for this film (I sincerely hope he isn't on his way to Hollywood!) and serves a compelling cocktail of drama, occult thriller and vigilante action. During a family day trip, Felix and Sol's preteen son and daughter request to go on a hiking trip up a hill while their parents "relax" in the car. They don't come back down, though, and the parents spend a long and petrifying night in a nearby motel. But the kids suddenly show up again the next morning, unharmed and just in a minor state of shock, and they all happily return home together. Over the next few days, however, Felix and Sol witness their children behaving increasingly bizarre and asocial. They presume their offspring fell victim to a perverted child molester and promptly seek for vengeance, but in reality something far more disturbing happened to Adolfo and Sara. They seem possessed by dark forces and deliberately head back to the hillside… The slow and sinister pacing, as well as the detailed character drawings, are the main trumps that make "Here Comes the Devil" such a haunting and unsettling thriller. Felix and Sol are very identifiable characters and, especially if you're a parent yourself, you'll mildly cheer for their unlawful (and slightly inconsiderate) decisions. Bogliano masterfully mounts the tension steadily and professionally towards a nearly unbearable climax that is – admittedly – somewhat derivative and vague, but most of all harrowing. Stellar performances from the ensemble cast, gorgeous filming locations and the exact right amount of blood and violence also contribute in making this is a true gem. Please, if you love real horror, leave all the nowadays CGI ghost and zombie crap for what it is and dig into the repertoire of Adrían García Bogliano.

On the way home to Tiajuana, Mom and Dad stop at a rest stop and their two children want to do some exploring in the nearby caves. (No one seems to consider that there are rattlesnakes and mountain lions in this part of Mexico). The children don't come back, and the parents call the police. The police find the children the next morning and return them to the parents. When the children come home, it slowly becomes obvious that something happened to them in the cave.

This movie is about dread, sex and possession, and it takes the audience down a few blind alleys before it gets to the payoff. However, when it does pay off, it is the stuff of nightmares. Creeping sense of "ick" gives way to horror in the last ten minutes.

Finally, most kids love horror movies, especially if there are kids in them. This is NOT a movie for kids.