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Posted on Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 0:28:35 GMT by: quietearth
Posted under: movie review horror foreign

Year: 2008
Release date: October 28th (R1 DVD)
Director: Isidro Ortiz
Writers: Isidro Ortiz & Hernán Migoya & José Gamo & Alejandro Hernández
IMDB: link
Trailer: link
Review by: quietearth
Rating: 6.5 out of 10

While not a bad little film, Shiver suffered from some sputtering about a quarter of the way in. The sputtering came from a complete change in story direction, away from the spectacular beginning of the boy Santi, who suffers from a photosensitivity disease, running through the city as the dawn chases him. This was great, and it seems the storyline directions were endless, but that it would probably end up being something vampire-like as a visit to the doctors shows his disease progressing, and his canines growing. But no, after a short while, they head to the country, and toward a much simpler story line, one which suffers from a severe lack of ingenuity.

Santi has a diseases which makes him sensitive to the light, to the point where it could easily cause cancer and all sorts of other problems, this is why him and his mother head out of the city to a small town deep in the mountains where the sunlight shines less due to being in a valley. After he arrives, things are fine for a short time, but in rapid succession, two murders happen which make Santi the prime suspect as he was present for both of them. While not the murderer, we get a view of something scurrying quickly in the forest, maybe it's a werewolf or some other type of monster?

The police, the town, everyone is involved now. Wearing his hoodies and sunglasses. Santi becomes an outcast again, scorned by the family of one who died instead of him. The detective is alternately skeptical and reassuring, we really don't know where this ig oing to go, but I can tell you that what it turns out to be may be just as sinister as a werewolf, but innocent at the core.

The whole 2nd and 3rd quarters of the film are soft, and while not poorly written, leave me wishing the story had stuck with the photo sensitivity disease, but no worries, because we're rewarded in spades with a great ending to the film. It may have it's twists and turns, but overall, I liked it.

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