El Sanatorio (2010) User Reviews

El Sanatario (2010)

[SashaDarko · 7/10 · 21 January 2018]

An average, but still interesting Spanish take on found footage. But the chosen genre is actually where it fails - believebality starts as so-so, then they just throw it out of the window, especially with some joke elements of the story being introduced (which essentially make the fun of it). And the way the end scenes were filmed...yeah...like it's a staged TV show rather than found footage.

The story is relatively interesting to follow, the characters are nothing interesting, but at least they're not your typical robotic and overcliched Americans you usually see in horror movies. Their motivations to stay in an obviously haunted hospital are very weak, despite the contract being the reason (the medium decides to walk away then with just some irrelevant talk with one of the others decides to stay again and then very sure about it all of the sudden).

It still manages to be creepy and the visual effects are good.

iFelicidades! Terrific 'Found Footage' horror from Costa Rica.

[Coventry · 7/10 · 31 October 2012]

The absolute best compliment I can reward "El Sanatorio" with is that the film singlehandedly re-sparked my long lost interest in the so-called "Found Footage" horror trend. Personally I never understood the success of the massively overrated "The Blair Witch Project" and when highly acclaimed other titles, like "REC" and "Cloverfeld" and "Diary of the Dead", also didn't leave the slightest impression on me neither, I just decided to turn my back on the sub genre entirely. For me, the one and only truly great "Found Footage" milestone remains "Cannibal Holocaust" and never even bothered to check out the "Paranormal Activity" films and all of its imitations. "El Sanatorio" played at a small horror festival in my country and I went to see it with a minimum of expectations. I'm glad to announce that it was a pleasant surprise; a low-budget and semi-amateurish effort with a lot of goodwill and the heart for horror in the right place. An assembly of young aspiring film makers prepares to shoot a documentary about a supposedly haunted sanatorium (and previously prison and orphanage) in Costa Rico. They don't really believe in ghosts themselves, so they process the evidence and approach the witnesses with a large dose of sarcasm and parody. Once inside the abandoned and ominous location, however, a series of inexplicable paranormal events causes their cynical attitude to change drastically within less than 24 hours… I'm not exactly too familiar with Cost Rican cinema, but this is surely an accomplishment they can be proud of over there. Writer/director Miguel Alejandro Gomez professionally succeeds in rotating the tone and atmosphere simultaneously with the events at the sanatorium; from light-headed and comical towards tense and disturbing. Near the climax, neither the characters nor the audience are laughing anymore, and correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that still the ultimate purpose of a ghost tale? The acting performances come across as completely natural, the documentary style narration and camera work (for once) isn't irritating and the film benefices enormously from its uniquely spooky locations. "El Sanatorio" also features a good amount of great visual effects and a few genuinely efficient "jump" moments, which is something I often missed in the aforementioned successful titles. Congratulations to director Miguel Alejandro Gomez and his entire cast & crew! I hope to see more of them in the near future, and particularly María Elena Oreamuno… She's an incredible natural beauty of an actress.

A Lovely Comedy-Horror Film from Costa Rica

[alisonc-1 · 22 July 2011]

Young Luis (Luis Carlos Bogantes) and Arturu (Pablo Masis) are aspiring documentary film-makers, and they have decided that their first subject will be a long-abandoned sanatorium. Originally used for tuberculosis patients, it has also served as a prison, a madhouse and an orphanage – and, oh yeah, it has a reputation for being haunted. Our fearless documentarians recruit "excellent investigator" Mariana (Maria Elena Oreamuno) and psychic Lulu (Maria Luisa Garita), get the overbearing Esteban (Olgar Gonzales) to finance the film (well, using his father's money), hire Kurt (Kurt Dyer) to score the music for the film and to act as the resident atheist and sceptic, and find some tech guys to round out the team. They interview old people who stayed at the sanatorium and saw mysterious sights (which could have been the product of fevers), talk to journalists who have themselves tried to investigate the place only to be run out of the building through sheer fright, and eventually drive out to the old sanatorium themselves to see what they might find. Will their expectations be met, or dashed? Will strange paranormal events take place before their eyes and their recording equipment? And most importantly, will they make it out alive? This is a short (73 minutes) and very funny film – yes, it hits on the typical horror tropes for a film of this sort, but also includes little side bits such as Arturu's infatuation with Mariana (it seems they made out a couple of times in the past, but she confesses that she was "pretty wasted" at the time). A very low-budget film, the talented director/co-writer/co-producer Miguel Gomez manages the few special effects very handily, and there are actually a few genuine scares along the way. Señor Gomez was on hand for the FantAsia 2011 screening, and he proudly announced that of the 17 films ever made in Costa Rica, this is the first horror film. Winner of the Audience Award at the Morbido Film Festival in Mexico in 2010, this is a gem of a movie, with the love that went into making it apparent in every frame, although I will note that it would be useful for the film-makers to re-do the English subtitles, which are not very good. Recommended!

55 min of Found Footage Film boredom to get 12 min of shaky action

[cyberknight · 1/10 · 20 October 2019]

This was made as a Found Footage Film (shaky camera, stupid focusing and framing, bad video and audio quality etc.)

The first thirty minutes are random chit-chats, like showing staff reading books in a library or interviewing people during work time, with random people getting in and out (what was not cut off just to increase the film's length) and so on (and, a note to the producers, just because it was a clown, didn't make it funny). All that was absolutely irrelevant, as nothing added tension to the film (they could have summarised all that in characters' conversation already at the sanatorium). Only important piece of information, film/story/plot wise, was that there was supposed to be a nun ghost haunting the sanatorium, without any explanation as to why (if they had said it was Mother Teresa of Calcutta, or at least a follower of her "methods", that would suffice as explanation).

The next twenty five minutes are random wanderings inside and around the sanatorium, with some "supernatural" events (practical and visual effects) happening here and there. Some are interesting, but most are just more padding to the film's length. A character is badly wounded in an accident with electricity, quite unrelated to the story.

The final twelve minutes concentrate all the real action and scares, with the invisible evil spirits dragging people around and, eventually, killing some random characters off screen. Only in the last three minutes a character (the producer, the most annoying of them all) is killed on screen by an invisible spirit (which I can't really call "evil", because everyone wanted that guy dead), then the survivors get into the van and try to run away, just to be all killed off screen by the evil nun mentioned in the first 30 min, as she materialises inside the van (implied deaths, that is, because not even off screen sounds are offered to assure us that none of the dummies will come back in a sequel). The end. Follow four minutes of credits.

Two of the worst moments in the film occur in those last twelve minutes:

1) The on screen death of the producer is shown in several different (bad quality) camera angles and takes, what would be obviously impossible with just one camera. It tries to convey a footage "feeling" at the same time as showing some "nice" fan-service gore. From a cinematic point of view, that's good, because we get a much better visual storytelling, but from the premise of a FFF, it completely destroys the "footage" feeling. Just plain stupid.

2) One character is demented, in an H.P. Lovecraft-ish way, by "something" he saw on the CCTv cameras installed in the sanatorium by the staff. The other characters rewind and watch the recording... And whatever it was that was so horrifying that could drive people insane just by watching on a display is never shown, because the cameraman just dumbly record the characters reactions (what the freak is that, YouTube?!), instead of pointing the lens to the monitors! Absolutely irking stupid!

Fifty five boring minutes to get twelve minutes of stupid action. Just forget this.

One of the most entertaining Latin Film of all time.

[OptimusPrimero · 9/10 · 10 November 2010]

This has to be the one of the greatest film in Costarican history. It gets you since the beginning in this one kind of a mockumentary and keeps building up till the last act.

The acting is really good. The camera work is amazing, it takes us as an audience and make us one more of the characters. Miguel Gomez is only 28 and has become the biggest promise in filmmaking for our little Costa Rica. I'm really proud of this film, it shows a real personality, so much talent, the actors, the special effects, the cinematography, but what I appreciate more than with the other films that have been produced in Costa Rica is how entertaining the movie was.

The atmosphere created through the film is a really an amazing achievement. At the beginning you are laughing, and at the end you are feeling scared, it really masters the mix of comedy and horror, last movies I saw achieving something close to this was The Evil Dead series.

The movie already won an award at Morbido Horror Film Festival in Mexico, I see it playing in the Horror and Fantasy circuit and doing great in this kind of festivals. Watch the film, you'll like it.

If you want Horror and Comedy mixed, WATCH THIS NOW!

[paulymiranda · 10/10 · 10 November 2010]

I'm writing this review after watching El Sanatorio. I have to say, that at first, I felt like in Paranormal Activity and Blair Witch Project. That was after the first 5 minutes, then if just feels like if Spinal Tap had a monster baby with Drag me to hell.

The film is really amusing and clever introducing all the characters, it has deep characters that build around the story. It also feels like a joke. 2 film students, and atheist musician, an egocentric producer, one sexy girl and a clueless medium go to a haunted hospital with cameras and microphones to record the ghosts in the place. From there it sounds like a cliché film but nothing could be more far from the Truth.

The film has some great visual effects, they don't feel like those cheap effects in nowadays horror films. They feel more like 80's horror films, where the blood is real and the monster is real. I just felt so pleased at a full theater where the entire audience is laughing and then the film starts switching genres and becoming a horror film. The director is really clever, he knows the formula for comedy, and he knows the formula for horror, so the movie delivers for sure. Be ready for some scenes parodying the Paranormal Activity movies. But don't be fooled by other reviews, this film has it's own monster laying within, and when it comes out it would take your mind for a few hours after watching it.

Fun and original! Bravo!

[Danosky · 10/10 · 15 November 2010]

I was studying Spanish in Costa Rica till last week, we went to see this movie because it's a local effort and I was blown away of how much fun this movie is.

This movie is nothing like Paranormal Activity, in fact, I dare any American, to watch this movie(I hope it make it here,via Netflix or amazon) and compare it to Paranormal Activity 1 or 2, I think El Sanatorio is way better.

It has this genuine humor and this genuine vibe that I haven't seen in a movie for a long time. I laughed and get scared and that was great. It starts like a documentary, becomes a comedy and ends like a horror film. SAY WHAT ? Yes, this movie is like that. I was surprised cause during my stay I was shown 2 other movies, and both were awful, I think they are funded by the government cause one was about being a pregnant teen and it was like watching 90210(morality from the 90's and all) in the third world, the other one was about a Nicaraguan soldier (didn't get that one either). So when I heard about watching this movie about THE DURAN SANATORIUM (a must to any tourist) , I thought it was going to be another "Borefest".

This movie is awesome, check it out, buy it from amazon, rent it from netflix, watch it at your local Festival, do what you need to do and check some serious Talent. You don't laugh genuinely and get genuinely scared in other horror movies like you'll do in this one.

Horror and Comedy! Finally

[Felinus · 9/10 · 10 November 2010]

I've been an avid follower of the horror/comedy sub genre since I can remember. The only movies that I really like that I remember are from the eighties *(Gremlins, Creepshow, An American werewolf in London), cause recently what they do is pass parodies like Scary Movie and Transilmania as Horror comedy, and what they really are is bad Comedies.

So when you have a movie, where the characters are believable, there's a slasher (a Ghost Nun nonetheless), and good special effects that not look like cheap CG. You as a lover of the Horror Comedy sub genre, feel pleased. This really is a cult movie.

It pays cult to the legend of the old Duran Sanatorium in Costa Rica, a place that is known to be plagued by Ghosts and legends. It pays cult to the old 80's horror movies and finally it pays cult to the found footage and mockumentary style. It's really an amazing mix, well crafted from beginning to end, following this ghost hunting team that are really young and funny to watch, cause the movie instead of being just build over the paranormal activity, it also builds around their own problems to produce the film and personalities making them likable enough, so when bad things start happening you care for them.

I give this movie a 9, cause I feel like it should've been longer, It's the first time in a long time that I didn't wanted the movie to end.

So Mae in Costarican means DUDE!

[Mexoholic · 9/10 · 10 November 2010]

I got the pleasure of watching this movie during this years edition of Morbido Film Fest in Mexico. I got to say, I felt really grateful with this festival, cause when I come to think about it, there was no way I would've watched a horror film from Costa Rica, if this festival did n't showed it.

My first impression was that I was n't gonna be happy. When the director introduced the film as a horror comedy I thought It was probably something close Scary Movie or something like that. However when the movie started, I realized I was witnessing something new. It had a complete different tone from what I've seen, people keep talking Paranormal Activity and Evil Dead. But this movie brings something completely different to the table. This movie is a real roller coaster or a trip, through the whole legend of the Sanatorium Duran, and through the eyes of different witnesses, and guess what? You become a witness yourself, because the film have something magical, the characters break the 4th wall constantly and talk to you directly, and it's done so smoothly and natural, that it feels like if you are there with them. So suddenly and through the ¨found footage¨ deal, you become a victim of the Sanatorium. Why do you become a victim of the Sanatorium? cause the place becomes another character in the movie. I was blown away of this movie and kept thinking What if?

What if? Judd Apatow had made this movie? what if? the movie had more budget? what if? ...

This could be easily the next REC or the next LET THE RIGHT ONE IN. If somebody is clever enough to buy the rights of this film, the remake would make bank in the states. Cause my only con with this film, is the slang, it has a Costa Rican slang that would probably prevent it to become a more universal film, at least in Latin America. I read somewhere that the movie budget was less than $100,000. First time I saw an Alex de la Iglesia Film I became an instant fan. I saw El Sanatorio, and I've became an instant fan of his director Miguel Gomez. The mix of dark humor, horror and straight comedy just got me. I need more, and I need it soon. I can't wait for next year Fantastic Fest, cause I feel somehow this little movie is gonna make it and it's gonna give us a lot more to talk.