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Ten year old
Jesús shows us the life of eight survivors
after an apocalyptic war that has more or less put an
end to planet earth as we know it. They live inside an
underground bunker where they're quickly running out of
supplies while fearing what's outside. During one hour
of every night they have to turn off all the heat since
that's known as the cold hour, when a creature comes
for them... I don't want to say too much so read on
for my positive review of this Spanish flick.
La Hora Fria, literarily translated into The Cold Hour
(but the official international title is The Dark Hour),
is a post-apocalyptic thriller like you've never seen
before. It's told through the eyes of a ten year old
boy and his video camera. Not only naturally, it's not
a Blair Witch-style movie, but that's the main concept
here. It takes place inside a bunker where nine people
(including Jesús) with differing personalities have
managed to stay alive through some miracle. Everything
has went smoothly for several years, until now.
They're running out of supplies and terror awaits them
outside in many different shapes and forms - but I'm
not going to give away what the threats are since that's
a bit of the movie's charm. Every night they have to
turn off all the heat for an hour to avoid getting
killed by an unseen creature. Granted, not everything
about La Hora Fria makes sense and it does have several
problems - probably due to its limited budget, but this
is one of the best apocalyptic thrillers that I've
ever seen. In the end I almost felt like this could
be how it really is in a couple of years - that's how
realistic it feels. These people aren't just random
people patched together to survive, they all have some
connection to each other and since they've lived together
for so long, they're like a big family.
I really appreciated all the differing personalities
that are rarely portrayed in horror flicks. The "leader"
is a woman, the two gay guys aren't feminine at all,
and, well, everyone simply has a realistic and likeable
personality. Despite its low budget, the movie still
looks great and it's a shame that it was released on
the same day as The Orphanage in Spain, which led to
the movie flopping rather disastrously. Something which
it didn't deserve to do. The director really knows what
he's doing and the actors bring life to their characters.
Everything about this movie is simply terrific, it's
an outstanding horror flick to say the least, except
for a few things...
The horror aspect of the movie barely exists. It's more
of a drama thriller than it is a horror flick, and I think
that it would have benefited from some more suspenseful
and thrilling scenes. It has a couple of plot holes and
I wish that we would have found out a little bit more
about the war that caused all of this - and about how
the creature came to exist. But other than that, La
Hora Fria is a terrific movie. Spain really knows how
to produce good horror flicks and this is up-to-par
with movies such as "28 Days Later" and "Day Of The
Dead". If you're looking for a high quality apocalyptic
thriller, don't miss this one. An outstanding horror
flick, a stylish and entertaining movie to say the least.
Some blood splatter.
Could have been better, did what it was intended to do
but nothing more. Needed some more suspenseful music.
A terrific horror flick which proves to us once again
that Spain knows how to make horror movies interesting.
Sure, La Hora Fria may lack a bit in the horror
department but that doesn't prevent it from being a
top-notch apocalyptic drama-thriller. Don't miss this
one as it's a great movie.
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