the story follows this author guy, joseph crone, who travels to barcelona to spend time with his brother and dying father. he starts to see the numbers 11-11 everywhere and on researching this discovers he may be part of a terrifying prophecy.
this is a proper, old school, slow-burn horror film. there are jump scares, sure, but most of what this film achieves is through the atmosphere it creates, and the atmosphere is super creepy throughout. there's something unsettling about the locations and the music, and when you add a pretty terrifying storyline it all adds up to a rather frightening experience. there are evil monk creatures in this film with awesome make-up effects, but they often turn up just at the edge of a frame or in the background of a shot, and then they disappear, making you wonder whether you saw them or not. it's not always this subtle, but the combination of full on scares and smaller, creepy moments really works.
the film reminded me of the works of a couple of other directors - roman polanski and dario argento. there are certainly elements of rosemary's baby and the tenant here, but the music and atmosphere reminded me of films like tenebrae and suspiria. it's a little too slow at times, and occasionally it feels like we're just killing time until the fateful day when things are supposed to kick off, but for the most part this is a fresh, original horror film that draws on some real classics for inspiration.
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