The producers of recent Spanish horror films The Orphanage and Pan’s Labyrinth have joined up with short-film director Gabe Ibanez to create psychological thriller Hierro, a beautifully crafdted, acted, and written movie starring Elena Anaya.
With the releases of the aforementioned films, along with 2007’s REC, spannish filmmakers are starting to firmly establish themselves as a strong horror contingent, deserving of the position along with Western and Asian horror. The success of these films has heightened the expectations for Hierro to be as scary and unnerving as them. And although the film is particularly eerie and mysterious, it certainly isn’t as scary as any of these past releases.
In fact, apart from some horrific symbolism and dream sequences, it can hardly be considered a horror film at all. This isn’t to say that it’s a bad film though, because it is anything but. Ibanez’s use of symbolism and dream sequence helps to keep the audience on the edge of their seat, and also allows for the already impressive mystery to truly flourish.
The film follows Maria, who on a ferry trip to the island El Hierro loses her son. A body is found and she is asked to identify it as her son. When realising that the body isn’t her son, however, she starts upon her own investigation to find her son’s whereabouts on the mysterious El Hierro Island. Elena’s performance as Maria is outstanding and it is somewhat not surprising that she won a best actress award at the Signet Film Festival in 2009.
Cinematographer Alejandro Martinez’s impressive widescreen compositions and washed out colours perfectly capture the atmosphere and feel of the protagonist’s surroundings, turning the island into a character that appears to be manipulating the distraught Maria’s emotions and sense of reality.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Unfortunately the film isn’t as scary as initial assumptions may have you believe, but it is still a brilliant psychological thriller that is sure to engage you in its mystery.
