HERE COMES THE DEVIL (Adrián García Bogliano). 98 minutes. Subtitled. Opens Friday (February 14). For venues and times, see Movies. Rating: NNN
Adrián García Bogliano’s Here Comes The Devil riffs on the slithery 70s grindhouse cinema of Jess Franco and Mario Bava, with their quick-zoom cinematography and self-consciously portentous tales of family members turning against each other.
In contemporary Mexico, Felix (Francisco Barreiro) and Sol’s (Laura Caro) children (Michele Garcia and Alan Martinez) wander into a creepy cave and disappear. They turn up the next day, but something’s not right. In the days that follow, as Felix and Sol investigate, things get progressively worse.
This is slow-burn horror, more concerned with creating a sense of dread than with actual shocks or scares. And it works well enough until the climax, when García Bogliano just sort of lets the movie sputter out.
Say what you will about Franco and Bava, they always knew how to end on a high note.
