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[Fantastic Fest Review] Aptly-titled ‘Terrified’ Delivers on Scares
There’s only one true aim with writer/director Demian Rugna’s Terrified, and that’s to scare the crap out of you. Less of a traditional narrative and more of an experience in horror, Terrified succeeds in its goal. Set in a Buenos Aires neighborhood, strange things begin to happen. A woman hears voices from her kitchen sink, while her husband is driven mad by pounding on the wall that he shares with his neighbor. However, the neighbor hasn’t been seen in weeks, though he had been dealing with strange phenomena of his own before disappearing. When things get too creepy and weird to ignore, a paranormal doctor, her colleagues, and a soon to be retired police officer convene to get to the bottom of it all.
A lifelong horror fan, Rugna is well versed in the conventions of horror and uses them against the audience. He keeps a consistent level of unpredictability throughout by throwing many different tropes into the mix and using them in refreshing ways. The entities in Terrified are varied, and all have varied tactics of eliciting chills. He also keeps the answers of what’s happening always out of reach, which may frustrate those that prefer their horror to have clear cut explanations. The investigators at the center of the activity are there to find out what is happening and collect evidence, but they may be in over their heads. That’s more terrifying than anything.
Some horror films are lucky to nail one iconic scare moment; Terrified has at least five. The sound design is effective and chilling, and Rugna has a knack for timing in crafting the scares. More than just timing, though, is his creative use of perspective. Perspective is key both in terms of plot and in some of the scariest bits of the film. Also refreshing is Rugna’s refusal to grant any of his characters safety throughout. There’s a constant level of danger, and any of them could perish at any time. Sometimes shockingly so. Rugna also understands when to bring the levity, giving the audience moments of humor to release some of that tightly wound tension.
Of course, that none of his characters are safe also means that we don’t really get to know any of them very well. The closest we get to an audience proxy is that of Maximilliano Ghione’s police officer. He’s the bridge between the detached investigators and the confused neighbors, but as an outsider to the paranormal he’s also our entry point to this spooky world. But because of the sheer level of paranormal activity happening, Terrified plays more like an ensemble anthology as Rugna zips us through the various scares and set pieces that take precedence over character and plot development.
This nonstop barrage of scares and super creepy set pieces is the equivalent of venturing into a haunted house attraction. It’s daring, fun, and absolutely thrilling. This doesn’t offer much in the way of a fully fleshed out plot with concrete answers, but it doesn’t need to. All Rugna wants to do is make sure you’re scared, and he wholeheartedly nails it. The best part of all is that Shudder snatched this one up and is releasing it exclusively next month. Which means you have no excuse not to miss one of 2018’s scariest films.
Only one episode remains in Season 3 of “Chucky,” and what a bloody road it’s been so far, especially for actor Devon Sawa. The actor has now officially died twice on screen this season, pulling double duty as President James Collins and body double Randall Jenkins.
If you thought Chucky’s ruthless eye-gouging of the President was bloody, this week’s Episode 7 traps Randall Jenkins in an elevator that feels straight out of an iconic horror classic.
Bloody Disgusting spoke with series creator Don Mancini and actor Devon Sawa about that ultra-bloody death sequence and how the actor inspires Mancini’s writing on the series.
Mancini explains, “Devon’s a bit of a muse. Idle Hands and Final Destination is where my Devon Sawa fandom started, like a lot of people; although yours may have started with Casper. I was a bit too old for that. But it’s really just about how I love writing for actors that I respect and then know. So, it’s like having worked with Devon for three years now, I’m just always thinking, ‘Oh, what would be a fun thing to throw his way that would be unexpected and different that he hasn’t done?’ That’s really what motivates me.”
For Sawa, “Chucky“ is an actor’s dream in that the series gives him not one but multiple roles to sink his teeth into, often within the same season. But the actor is also a huge horror fan, and Season 3: Part 2 gives him the opportunity to pay homage to a classic: Kubrick’s The Shining.
CHUCKY — “There Will Be Blood” Episode 307 — Pictured in this screengrab: (l-r) Devon Sawa as President James Collins, K.C. Collins as Coop — (Photo by: SYFY)
“Collectively, it’s just amazing to put on the different outfits, to do the hair differently, to get different types of dialogue,“ Sawa says of working on the series. “The elevator scene, it’s like being a kid again. I was up to my eyeballs in blood, and it felt very Kubrick. Everybody there was having such a good time, and we were all doing this cool horror stuff, and it felt amazing. It really was a good day.”
Sawa elaborates on being submerged in so much blood, “It was uncomfortable, cold, and sticky, and it got in my ears and my nose. But it was well worth it. I didn’t complain once. I was like, ‘This is why I do what I do, to do scenes like this,‘ the scenes that I grew up watching on VHS cassette, and now we’re doing it in HD, and it’s all so cool.“
It’s always the characters and the actors behind them that matter most to Mancini, even when he delights in coming up with inventive kills and incorporating horror references. And he’s killed Devon Sawa’s characters often. Could future seasons top the record of on-screen Sawa deaths?
“Well, I guess we did it twice in season one and once in season two,“ Mancini counts. “So yeah, I guess I would have to up the ante next season. I’ll really be juggling a lot of falls. But I think it’s hopefully as much about quality as quantity. I want to give him a good role that he’s going to enjoy sinking his teeth into as an actor. It’s not just about the deaths.”
Sawa adds, “Don’s never really talked about how many times could we kill you. He’s always talking about, ‘How can I make this death better,’ and that’s what I think excites him is how he can top each death. The electricity, to me blowing up to, obviously in this season, the eyes and with the elevator, which was my favorite one to shoot. So if it goes on, we’ll see if he could top the deaths.”
CHUCKY — “Death Becomes Her” Episode 305 — Pictured in this screengrab: Devon Sawa as James Collins — (Photo by: SYFY)
The actor has played a handful of distinctly different characters since the series launch, each one meeting a grisly end thanks to Chucky. And Season 3 gave Sawa his favorite characters yet.
“I would say the second one was a lot of fun to shoot,“ the actor says of Randall Jenkins. “The President was great. I liked playing the President. He was the most grounded, I hope, of all the characters. I did like playing him a lot.” Mancini adds, “He’s grounded, but he’s also really traumatized, and I thought you did that really well, too.”
The series creator also reveals a surprise correlation between President James Collins’ character arc and a ’90s horror favorite.
“I saw Devon’s role as the president in Season 3; he’s very Kennedy-esque,“ Mancini explains. “But then given the supernatural plot turns that happen, to me, the analogy is Michelle Pfeiffer in What Lies Beneath, the character that is seeing these weird little things happening around the house that is starting to screw with his sanity and he starts to insist, ‘I’m seeing a ghost,‘ and his spouse thinks he’s nuts. So I always like that. That’s Michelle Pfeiffer in What Lies Beneath, which is a movie I love.”
The finale of “Chucky” Season 3: Part 2 airs Wednesday, May 1 on USA & SYFY.
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