La Ciguapa Siempre

Short films are extremely hard to crack. In under 15 minutes you have to sell in compelling characters, an attention grabbing scenario, a 'plot'.

Unfortunately, this one didn't land. However, some of the 'horror' elements were done well but it came too late. There was too much padding in the form of random conversation where the couple had no chemistry.

There is some interesting characterisation but unfortunately it falls into general tropes. Like a stranger running to the camp to fake out the strange noise in the woods - but she has no flashlight or anything? It's a redherring for the sake of it.

I see Netflix is streaming more and more short films, which I love to see. But they need to up their standard.

No pun intended - the short movie tries to get us into the head of the main female character. She is on a camping trip with her boyfriend. We do get some inkling what their relationship is, at least from her perspective. You can read things into how he reacts - depending on what you want to believe I reckon you can ... well believe stuff.

That said, we also do get a glimpse into her background ... well what we and her know about it ... which is almost nothing of course. As you can see, I am not entirely convinced about what and how the short movie goes on about things. On the other hand, if you do like horror movies (or at least themed stuff), you will get what you pay for (time and otherwise that is).

The effects also work fine - you have to suspend your disbelief of course. Decent overall then, but the lack of depth .. unless this is a sort of prelude to a larger world ... that I would be quite interested in. Could be a movie or tv show for that matter. There is stuff to discover for sure!

This is short and well paced but totally lacks depth so fails to be interesting. This is not just because of its length but because the characters and cast are so generic. It's a film with one moment and the rest is a build up to that. It's hard to invest in the characters or the lore as neither are given enough depth. It's well made except the main special effect which looks a bit goofy. La Ciguapa is a really interesting cryptid and this film doesn't do the myth justice, it even changes the myth to be perceived revenge rather than hunger. It's certainly not bad and I wasn't bored but it certainly isn't good either, just the absolute definition of average. You won't be wasting your time watching it once but don't make any effort to see it.