KM 31: Kilómetro 31

Quite an interesting film; quite dark with some nice special effects; although nothing ground-breaking. It's pretty gory in places so it's definitely not one for the squeamish. All the performances were very good, although I'll put my usual caveat that it's sometimes quite hard to judge a performance in a foreign language. I thought Iliana Fox stood out as the most praiseworthy though. The film does, however, fall a little into cliché here an there; it must be hard to find new ways to scare people these days. It just about have enough 'creep-factor' though to keep me interested, so it's not all bad. Over all, worth a look if you're a horror fan; otherwise, I'd probably give it a miss. Personally, I pretty much enjoyed it.

SteelMonster's verdict: RECOMMENDED

My score: 6.2/10

You can find an expanded version of this review on my blog: Thoughts of a SteelMonster.

This is a surprisingly competent horror movie with chilling events , thrills and nail-biting scenes . And it's certainly better than most other films of the same genre concerning a diabolic and mysterious terror appearing at a road . Enjoyable horror movie with thrills , chills and strange events , while the roles scream and panic her way through most of their scenes and including limited CGI . One of the film's strongest points is the fact that there's quite a lot of fun to be had with the supernatural aspects of the storyline , being heavily influenced by the Asian terror . Following a terrible car accident on a wooded road near Mexico City, Agata goes into a coma, subsequently taking place a series of strange and eerie incidents . Her twin sister Catalina must unlock the horror behind her traumatized and seriously injured sister next to the Km. 31 marker and discovers a terrifying local legend. As Catalina takes off grisly experiences that once tested her sanity , bringing her face to face with a supernatural spirit attached to an elderly woman . And her fiancé is shocked when to be aware about the weird person who inhabits in a forest near the astonishing road . A place between life and death. !Where the end is only the beginning...! There are worse things than death...!. Everything then changes in eerie way and things go wrong . You were right to be afraid of the dark. Darkness will consume you. Every Child Need To Feel Loved.

A creepy and thrilling film about a haunting house where shows up a weird being , it packs inexplicable disturbing occurrences , shocks, thrills , suspense , chills, hair-rising events and surprising final twist . This starts off at the very beginning occuring mysterious happenings , as the camera lurks suspensenful behind its actors and beside them and above them and everywhere else . A scary and unsettling flick in which a girl and her boyfriend must try to solve the mystery of her sister's accident , and it garnered very positive reception in International Festivals . In spite of its limited budget , as the picture goes on growing more and more and developing little by little until the unexpected conclusion . The main and support cast are pretty well , giving acceptable performances such as liana Fox in a double role as Ágata/Catalina , Adrià Collado and Raúl Méndez .

The pic contains a dark and colorful cinematography by Alejandro Martínez . Equally, a mysterious and suspenseful musical score by Carles Cases , composing a sinister atmosphere . Well produced by Julio Fernandez from Filmax , Fantastic Factory and Castelao Films . Julio has financed a lot of successes of all kinds of genres , such as Terror : Rec saga , Mientras duermes , Retornados , La posesion Emma Evans , Paintball , El monstruo del pozo , Quarantine , Los sin nombre ; Cartoon and kiddies films : Copito de Nieve , El Cid , Donkey Xote , Manolito Gafotas , Mola ser Jefe , Perez ratoncito de sueños , Los Dalton contra Lucky Luke and Dramas/Thrillers as Cobardes , Transsiberian , Machinist , Transssiberian , Bullying , 13 Campanadas , Muertos comunes , Morir en San Hilario, Tierra de Fuego , Sexo por compasion, Fotos , Heroes sin patria , among others . The motion picture was competently directed by horror expert Rigoberto Castañeda, though it has some flaws , gaps and a failed finale . After the resounding success of "KM31" he writes and directs the sequel, "Km31-2", also based on the crying lady legend and released in 2016, with Carlos Aragón ("Señor Ávila", "Cantinflas"), film nominated for several technical achievements in the Mexican Academy Awards. In 2010, Rigoberto debuted as a producer, carrying the bestselling book of Mexican writer Juan Jose Rodríguez entitled "Murder in a Chinese Laundry". Rigoberto also has directed many different TV series, winning experience in a wide variety of genres. He led "Terminales" for Televisa, a successful drama series about a group of -out of the ordinary- terminal illness patients .Another series he directed was the action/drama for Channel 11 "Paramedics"; an intensity charged story of real-life cases from paramedics working at the Mexican Red Cross. Rigoberto directs Netflix original "Diablero", a fantastic new horror-comedy, demon-hunters concept . Then he has directed and adapted for the screen "Sin Origen" (Unsourced), a vampire story set in Mexico, and produced "Karem's Diary" a possession/exorcism film . He also directed all 8 episodes of an Amazon Zombies themed series ("Narcos Vs. Zombies" working title). Rating 6/10. Acceptable and decent terror movie. Well worth watching.

For anyone that doesn't know; the horror genre in Mexico has been in the limbo for years, the only Mexican horror movies we remember are horrible ones like: Vacaciones del terror, and all those silly scary movies. However when Kilometro 31 was announced I actually had faith in it. Would this movie revitalize the Mexican horror genre? Sadly know I can say that it doesn't.

The movie delivers some jump scenes, nice special effects, good use of sound and some impressive cinematography, but lacks entirely in story, originality and most importantly in the characters.

It follows the same clichés we've all seen in Hollywood's horror, it borrows elements from The Ring (Gore Verbinski), The Grudge (Takashi Shimizu) and even worst movies like La Monja (Luis de la Madrid) and Darkness (Jaume Balagueró).

It tries to make us care about its characters but it never does, you realize how empty the movie is then the horrible ending starts to roll, clearly making us feel like this was a waste of time and money, and feeling like they didn't even know how to end it, they just knew how to make it look good, focusing more in the effects.

I just expected that this would be in the vein of old good Mexican horror movies like: Hasta el viento tiene miedo and El libro de piedra, even though remakes of both movies have been announced, one hopes that they don't go for the same route, that Kilometro follows.

5/10

the effort is there, it falls a little bit short. but all in all is a really good movie. I don't think is an amazing or excellent one, but it deserves the recognition. for starters the production is really good and the acting is not bad at all.

the myth involved in the story is well developed and of course there are elements that are taken from other films, but come on, not all films have to be an ultimate original. don't be so harsh and lame in your way of thinking. This movie is worth watching. the effects are really state of the art. the direction comes fluently as the acting too. Go see this movie and enjoy it.

While driving through the kilometer 31 of a lonely road, Agata Hameran (Iliana Fox) hits a boy. She leaves her car to help the victim and another car runs over her and she falls in a deep coma. Her twin sister Catalina (Iliana Fox) telepathically feels the pain of Agata and hears her whispering for help. Together with her boyfriend Nuno (Adrià Collado) and Agata's mate Omar (Raúl Méndez), they return to the km 31 of the road, and find out that the place is surrounded by supernatural accidents caused by the ghost of a mother that lost her boy many years ago. Further, Catalina discloses that the spirit of Agata is trapped between the worlds of the living and the dead.

"Km 31" is an intriguing ghost story, with good performances, a dark cinematography and great special effects. Unfortunately, the messy screenplay spoils the conclusion of the plot of this promising and refreshing film. Like many others horror movies, the author and the director were not able to give a suitable resolution to the plot and I was absolutely frustrated with the awful ending. Anyway I do not dare to write that "Km 31" is a bad movie, but it could be better and better with improvements and better conclusion. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Km 31"