4/10
Slow, boring with an annoying cast
25 March 2013
In the intro five medical students are involved in some experiment. They are all tied to a chair and the researcher explains to them what he's going to do. He actually cuts one of the guys challenging them and the guy in particular to stop his bleeding by will power alone. They all freak out and protest till the guy passes out. Then it's revealed it was all a set up. The guy wasn't cut and pig blood was used instead. All this was to show how people convince themselves of something that isn't real.

One of the girls complains to the researcher who I think is their anatomy professor. They were promised a pass on the final exam for their participation in the experiment. Instead he gives her another challenge. To go to some small town were a doctor was rumored to kill people even after his death. She agrees.

The five kids plus the sister of the leader girl go to the small abandoned town. They set up camp in the church, visit the mines where the town folk chained the mad doctor and left him to die. They go to his place which looks like a butcher shop. And decide it would be a good idea to put the sister in a trance since she has a sixth sense and can hear screams and voices.

During the trance she sees the mad doctor. When she and another guy go back exploring the Dr. appears and binds the guy with barbed wire. This is 45 minutes into the movie. 15 minutes later finally someone is actually killed. But all along we have learned about the two sisters who lost their mother and lived with a crazy abusive father who supposedly committed suicide as a result of which the young sister is traumatized. We learn how that dad really died and it is clear that something isn't right with this girl. In the end we find out who the killer is and what happens to the surviving kids.

Unlike most Spanish ghost/supernatural movies, this one is filmed in lively color during the day. It's also a very Americanized movie as one can see from the movie poster. The kids act like complete jerks giving each other a hard time throughout the whole movie- not very entertaining. The beginning looks like something out of Saw or Nine Dead. Locations are neat- the mines, the abandoned town. The villain is alright, he wears some partial face mask and is missing an eye.

But XP sure is light on suspense, action, horror, gore, anything menacing. The whole story of the girls' childhood is OK for a while but we get too much of it and it takes forever to get to the point. So does the movie as a whole. All the other characters are irrelevant and as mentioned, their interaction painful to watch. The main idea is alright I guess but why would you film a horror movie in such a dull boring way to begin with. Not worthwhile.
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