Writer-director Miguel Ángel Vivas brilliant technical skills (with help from feature length debuting cinematographer Pedro J. Márquez) in bringing forth a harrowing tale of home invasion and the torment the family involved undergoes thru out the ordeal.
Inspired by Hitchcock's Rope (1948) & Alfonso Cuarón's Children of Men (2006), the Spanish movie was shot in twelve single and unedited long takes with normal and hand-held cam.
Jaime (Fernando Cayo), his wife Ana (Ana Wagener) and teen daughter Isa (Manuela Vellés) just moved into new home when masked intruders break in the same night. The trio of criminals holds the family hostage with money the primary motive. The simple robbery turns into sick game of torture particularly when one of them drags Jaime to the ATM machine to withdraw cash, leaving his companions to terrorize the women which rapidly go south.
Perhaps more successful as a novelty piece than as a tense thriller. Unintentionally dumb moments also take the kick out of the final twenty minutes.
* Version reviewed is dubbed in English *
Inspired by Hitchcock's Rope (1948) & Alfonso Cuarón's Children of Men (2006), the Spanish movie was shot in twelve single and unedited long takes with normal and hand-held cam.
Jaime (Fernando Cayo), his wife Ana (Ana Wagener) and teen daughter Isa (Manuela Vellés) just moved into new home when masked intruders break in the same night. The trio of criminals holds the family hostage with money the primary motive. The simple robbery turns into sick game of torture particularly when one of them drags Jaime to the ATM machine to withdraw cash, leaving his companions to terrorize the women which rapidly go south.
Perhaps more successful as a novelty piece than as a tense thriller. Unintentionally dumb moments also take the kick out of the final twenty minutes.
* Version reviewed is dubbed in English *