31 Nights of Halloween Horror part 12 - The House at the End of Time

The House at the End of Time
101 mins.
Dir. Alejandro Hidalgo
2013/Venezuela

Do yourself a favor and watch this movie. This is probably going to be one of my shortest reviews I write because the less I say about this film the better.  It seems like every year there is a movie that I have not seen before that completely blows my mind, it impresses me so much.  Last years was the film The Innocents, and if you still haven't watched that movie for shame, you are doing yourself a great disservice.   Though it is only the 12th of October and we haven't even reached the half way point of movie watching this month.  I feel like I found the movie already that has most impressed me that I need to recommend to everyone.

This unknown film already four years old, has become the highest grossing film in it's home country of Venezuela.  It has already been picked up by New Line Cinema for an American remake, so make sure you watch the original before it gets Hollywood-ized.  I knew nothing about this movie going into it.  I must have read something previously about it, bought the DVD and there it has sat in my pile until now.

I'll set up the basic premise, the movie opens with Dulce waking up on the floor surrounded by broken glass, she has a large gash down the left side of her face.  Almost unsure what has happened she gets up and continues down the hall like she is looking for someone.  She comes across her husband, dead on the floor with a large butcher knife stuck into his shoulder.  She continues on, calling for her son Leopoldo.   She turns and seems him standing in a darkened doorway, he seems to be in shock and hesitant to approach her.  She reassures him everything is ok and to come to her, slowly he begins to take baby steps towards his mother.  Suddenly he is pulled into the darkness and the door slams shut.  Frantically Dulce tries to open the door and once inside there is no sign of her son, he has completely vanished.  Dulce is arrested with the murder of her husband as her prints were found on the knife, though she denies killing him and the murder of her son, though his body was never found.  She serves 30 years in prison and in 2011 is released on house arrest, but she must spend the rest of her days locked in the house where the murders took place.  Her only visitor, a priest who she unveils her story to that we see in a series of flashbacks.

That's all you get.  The less you know about this movie the better, don't read anything about it further.  When the pieces of the puzzle are revealed and the story slowly falls into place, you will be saying, "Oh shit!" Out loud.  It is nicely paced, the acting is very good and the story is unlike anything I recall seeing before.  Even the design of the house itself is a foreboding place and almost Escheresque with many stairs and locked doors.  My only complaint is the woman who plays Dulce, also plays her character 30 years later and the old age make-up isn't very good and was distracting for me.  I almost felt like I would have rather seen a different actress in the older role.  But this is minor complaint to what the story throws at you.  It is a haunting thriller.  No blood or gore here.  Just a solid story that crosses the lines of reality.  Do yourself a favor and watch this movie.