Paranormal Xperience 3D

This, the first Spanish horror film to be shot in 3-D, takes its cues from several cliched American slasher films, which doesn't immediately bode well. A handful of perfectly manicured young friends posture and gesticulate throughout the early scenes, inciting nothing much from the audience except perhaps irritation at such characterless, self-satisfied people. The usual bland prog-rock music score accompanies their every pout, too. So far, several points lost, I'm sorry to say.

Once we drift into more isolated locations, Director Sergi Vizcaino's camera is disinclined to dwell so much on the bottoms of the females in the group to take in the rugged beauty of the world in which they now find themselves, and things begin to pick up. The performances all round become more enthusiastic. Our villain Dr. Matarga (Manuel de Blas) fails to make much of an impression when we first meet him, but like the story, he grows on us - and on the cast of characters too, only not in the way they relish.

'Paranormal Xperience' is the very definition of a 'grower'. It's worth sticking with and, even though we may not ultimately get the explanations we're looking for, it's a good, chilling ride. My score is 6 out of 10.

It looks as if the writers of "XP 3D" initially planned to do another found-footage horror flick, cashing in further on the success of contemporary hits like "Paranormal Activity" and "REC", but then somewhere along the way suddenly abandoned the idea and went for an old-fashioned and straightforward psycho-thriller/slasher instead. Fine by me!

However, whether a slasher or a found footage flick, "XP 3D" is mediocre, derivative, unmemorable, and rather boring. The plot introduces five college students that answer to all the dreadful clichés you can think of, and they head out to the middle of Spanish nowhere to investigate the legend of a little mining community where the town's doctor allegedly killed and tortured dozens of people. The lead girl of the group insists on bringing her younger sister along for the trip, even though she struggles with unprocessed traumas. One by one, the students get slashed sadistically, and there's absolutely nothing paranormal about their deaths.

The girls are sexy (but dumb), the boys are hunky (but even dumber), the mining town's infamous doctors admittedly looks creepy, and there are a handful of juicy and sickening gore effects. All this ensures that "XP 3D" remains watching and enjoyable to a certain extent, but there's nothing about this film horror fans haven't seen hundreds of times before, and that includes the plot's predictable end-twist.

In the intro five medical students are involved in some experiment. They are all tied to a chair and the researcher explains to them what he's going to do. He actually cuts one of the guys challenging them and the guy in particular to stop his bleeding by will power alone. They all freak out and protest till the guy passes out. Then it's revealed it was all a set up. The guy wasn't cut and pig blood was used instead. All this was to show how people convince themselves of something that isn't real.

One of the girls complains to the researcher who I think is their anatomy professor. They were promised a pass on the final exam for their participation in the experiment. Instead he gives her another challenge. To go to some small town were a doctor was rumored to kill people even after his death. She agrees.

The five kids plus the sister of the leader girl go to the small abandoned town. They set up camp in the church, visit the mines where the town folk chained the mad doctor and left him to die. They go to his place which looks like a butcher shop. And decide it would be a good idea to put the sister in a trance since she has a sixth sense and can hear screams and voices.

During the trance she sees the mad doctor. When she and another guy go back exploring the Dr. appears and binds the guy with barbed wire. This is 45 minutes into the movie. 15 minutes later finally someone is actually killed. But all along we have learned about the two sisters who lost their mother and lived with a crazy abusive father who supposedly committed suicide as a result of which the young sister is traumatized. We learn how that dad really died and it is clear that something isn't right with this girl. In the end we find out who the killer is and what happens to the surviving kids.

Unlike most Spanish ghost/supernatural movies, this one is filmed in lively color during the day. It's also a very Americanized movie as one can see from the movie poster. The kids act like complete jerks giving each other a hard time throughout the whole movie- not very entertaining. The beginning looks like something out of Saw or Nine Dead. Locations are neat- the mines, the abandoned town. The villain is alright, he wears some partial face mask and is missing an eye.

But XP sure is light on suspense, action, horror, gore, anything menacing. The whole story of the girls' childhood is OK for a while but we get too much of it and it takes forever to get to the point. So does the movie as a whole. All the other characters are irrelevant and as mentioned, their interaction painful to watch. The main idea is alright I guess but why would you film a horror movie in such a dull boring way to begin with. Not worthwhile.

Nothing interesting happens in this movie, the closest it gets to being entertaining is in the intro, and thats it. Dont get me wrong, things do happen. But the cast is so annoying its impossible to care.

Unlike other paranormal films , this one did not bore me to death. On the contrary , it was very interesting from the beginning . The cast was good , very pleasant to the eye but also very talented as actors. It was easy to relate to the two sisters . The combination of sibling tragedy with the paranormal, the psychiatry and the slasher theme deserves the credit . The plot twist was wicked ... Overall , worth watching !