30/05/2014 - Not for the faint-hearted, this thriller which nabbed three prizes in the Malaga Film Festival’s Zonazine section is competing in Madrid before hitting cinemas

If you avoid elevators as much as you possibly can, if rats repulse you more than any other creature on Earth and if you don’t like your certainties torn apart, the thriller In Darkness We Fall [+see also:
trailer
making of
film profile] definitely won’t appeal. If, on the contrary, you’re a fan of danger and thrills, and you don’t mind your petrified partner sinking their nails into your forearm, this second feature film by Alfredo Montero (Formentera, 1978) is definitely the film for you, with its thought-provoking, terrifying, suffocating and adventure-filled story.

Produced by Juan Gordon (of Morena Films), actor Marcos Ortiz and the director himself, In Darkness We Fall manages to induce acute claustrophobic feelings by way of the nerve-racking closed spaces in which the film’s action unfolds. Via the amateur video shot by one of the film’s protagonists (now a common approach, ever since The Blair Witch Project and REC [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza
interview: Julio Fernández
film profile]), we find ourselves imprisoned, along with the movie’s five characters, in a cave on the idyllic island of Formentera in the Balearics (the Cave of San Valero). This narrative approach affords viewers maximum proximity to the actors, but it also makes the audience feel they’re experiencing the same fate as the characters.

Just a few minutes into the film, we’re already sharing the same anxiety and cold sweats experienced by the characters. We want only one thing: for this nightmare to end. But, instead, this tension and malaise will grow in intensity until mid-way through the film, where excessive arguments reach saturation point. But it does return to inject positive momentum into the third act. Naturally, the ensemble is complemented by the hysterical, cruel, desperate, disagreeable and even cannibalistic reactions which arise in such situations. It’s a horror film, pure and simple, and it’s so realistic it gives you goosebumps, because what happens here could happen to anyone who’s even remotely adventurous.

Not only did In Darkness We Fall (the film’s international title) triumph in Malaga’s Zonazine section (scooping Best Film, Best Actor for Marcos Ortiz, and Best Actress for Eva García), it was also selected in FANTBilbao, Rotterdam and in the third Maremostra Palma International Film Festival. The movie will hit Spanish screens on 11 July, and we’re already told that an American remake is on the cards. It’s a wonderful trajectory for a film which got off to a tricky start: shot in an amazing natural setting, the movie was shown in a test screening in Sitges 2012, which confirmed its effectiveness but also its weaknesses, to the point that the director decided to shoot some new scenes in order to heighten the impact of his work. And it’s thanks to this new and improved version, which has kicked off its tour of the festivals and which has started to win over and terrify audiences, that In Darkness We Fall has become an unmissable title for fans of the most brutal horror films in existence.

Spanish viewers who can’t wait for the film to be released can catch the movie in Madrid’s International Nocturna Festival.

(Translated from Spanish)