★★★★★★★★★★7/10

An old country house is put up for sale, it’s furnished but the no one has lived there for some time. Laura and her dad Wilson are hired by Nestor the owner, to clean and repair it. The father and daughter arrive late in the evening so that they can have an early start. As they settle down to sleep, Laura discovers a photo album with Polaroids of people sleeping in the same positions as they’re occupying. They hear noises emanating from upstairs. When her dad goes and investigates, Laura hears a struggle and finds her dad dead and that she’s locked in with the killer.

Based loosely on a true story, this Uruguayan movie was realized by director and story creator Gustavo Hernández. The film is only a handful of commercial films ever to done in one single long take. I believe this is the first ever long take horror film. This is only possible with  digital video cameras. In this case this film was made with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II, a SLR camera anyone could pick up. Besides technology, the planning required to do a movie in a single take is extraordinary. When you factor in the film’s $6,000 budget it makes it even more mind-blowing.

The house is boarded up and it’s fairly dark in the house. Most of the illumination is with camping lanterns and candles. So the mood is immediately creepy. The house isn’t huge and most of the action takes place in a few rooms. Laura is played convincingly by Florencia Colucci. As she’s the main character, her spiral into fear and madness is reliant on her ability to hit those emotions. Remember there are no second takes!

There is a weakness in the film and it’s related to the inability to show or plan for extra elements in the story. Since nothing can be edited for greater effect. What you see is what you get. So when the story goes a bit awry in the last third of the movie, there’s no remedy available. Aside from that the film is a decent horror film. It’s all tease and insinuations. Clever camera work, lighting effects and a great a great sound make this a suspenseful thrill ride.

blood, budget, canon camera, child, daughter, father, fear, Horror, killer, knife, long take, madness, murder, Polaroids, slr, suspense, Uruguay Horror, Uruguay