All Saints’ week is filled with terror on the big screen with the premiere on November 4 of ’13 exorcisms’, a new effort by horror film made in Spain that comes from the same creative team behind ‘Malasaña 32’, but on this occasion tries to be less similar to terror James Wan and delves into the drama of its protagonist, a troubled teenager who also experiences an oppressive confessional education in the Provinces.
Produced by Ramón Campos, this bet by Atresmedia Cine and Bambú Producciones, this story of possessions takes place in Ourense although it is inspired by different cases of exorcisms recently documented throughout the country and tells us how after a spiritism session held on Halloween night, Laura Villegas begins to behave strangely; From that moment on, a series of strange phenomena will begin to surround the protagonist.
The possession of Laura Villegas
Alarmed by the sinister behavior of their daughter and convinced that the devil has possessed her, her parents go to Father Olmedo, one of the 15 exorcists authorized by the Vatican to intervene in cases of demonic possession. This feature debut by Jacobo Martínez stars José Sacristán, who gets into the skin of a rigid priest crowning a modest but very solid fantastic portrait based on a fairly recent real case, which follows in the footsteps of other recent supernatural horror films with inspiration in paranormal cases.
Spain has a long tradition of exorcism cinema. Not only did our great representative of fantaterror overtake the premiere of the classic ‘The Exorcist’ (1973) with ‘Exorcism’ (1975) on the right, but the creator of the dead without eyes, Amando de Ossorio, joined the bandwagon early with ‘La demoniada’ (1975). In the new century, many examples have not been lacking, such as ‘The Possession of Emma Evans’ (2009), in which they already played with ambiguity and the oppressive environment as a trigger for the adolescent victim disorderalthough in reality, here is more of the Spanish gothic of ‘Unavela para el diablo’ (1973).
’13 Exorcisms’ has no problem using many of the recent tropes of possession cinema, but the difference with others in its category is that it uses them to expose a black Spain of Catholic repression with a background much more similar to ‘Camino’ (2008) than ‘The Exorcism of Emily Rose’ (The Exorcism of Emily Rose, 2005). Although he walks a playful way of recycling key moments of Roman ritual, in the style of Scott Derrickson’s film, he takes a path that opts to expose all the determining factors of suggestion and malpractice.
Catholic and chronic repression of events
The dull and sad tone of the film connects more with the idea of a retrograde and prohibitive environment, in which the practice of religion reaches levels of extremism that define the life of a teenager and how she lives a disease, not far apart from what Fesser’s movie did though instead of surrealism, the familiar codes of horror movies are used here. For half of his run he focuses on tormenting a girl, functioning best as coming of age dark than like a carousel of scares.
His lack of definition of tone —it is not a drama true crime of denunciation such as ‘Beyond the hills’ (2012)—makes your moments of contained terror are more elegant and effective than many proposals of current volume surges, even with some leakage to the body horror very successful that flaunt well-masked special effects so as not to break the idea of drama that puts us in the tortured existence of a teenager with the same desires as any other. There is a very competent cast where they stand out Ruth Diaz, Urko Olazabal or Pablo Revueltacredible secondary, which avoid the classic theatrical syndrome of the Spanish actor.
However, the one that stands out is the young Mary Romanillo, who does organic and tortuous work with Laura’s pain, without ever reaching histrionics or exaggeration that usually condemns the most past moments of return of the subgenre. Her sweet face is convincingly affected or sad and serves as the perfect hook for her nightmarish journey. In fact, ’13 exorcisms’ could do a double bill with ‘Veronica’ (2017), but although it proposes a very valid “supernatural” martyrdom as a contribution to current horror cinema.
Spanish supernatural terror is possible
However, here the set of diabolical manifestations responds more to a metaphor of the girl’s own response to the toxicity of the fanaticism of her environment, almost a somatic form of rebellion that connects more with a tragedy like ‘Requiem’ (2006), despite the fact that it does not give up the infernal voices, makeup, blank eyes and the rest of the catalog that we all want to see in a work of this depth, which sometimes does not make clear the field in which it is Playing.
The key may be in the character of Sacristan, ora stoic priest who is far from a Warren-esque hero, so the film works more like a Trojan horse of religious horror cinema in the style of ‘Warren File 2’ to launch a poisoned dart at ecclesiastical interference in health competitions. The priest of the legendary 85-year-old actor is based on the real priest Jesús Hernández Sahagún, a Valladolid native authorized by the church to perform exorcisms. Along with the parents of a teenager from Burgos, he ended up in legal proceedings for the health responsibility of her suicide.
The script does a good job of weaving familiar details of the case into a terrifying performance, so that even the sequences of the rite are perversely posed as a possible game of abuse. Perhaps it is in that final stretch when ’13 exorcisms’ does not dare to throw the rest and ends somewhat hastily, but it is difficult to maintain duality in such a delicate moment, and in any case it successfully comes out of the difficult task of giving it dignity and continuity to the difficult task of consolidating the idea that fantastic horror is once again possible in Spanish cinemajoining notable shows such as ‘Voces’ and ‘La grandmother’.