'The girl of the communion', the baby of the curve receives her first host

2023-02-10T10:40:32.913Z

A horror movie full of good decisions around pre-production, production and filming, and post-production. But neglected in the essentials: the story, the script and the outcome

A horror movie full of good decisions around pre-production, production and filming, and post-production.

But perhaps neglected in essentials: the story, the script and the outcome.

La niña de la comunion,

Víctor García's third feature film, has a stupendous formal packaging, an attractive premise despite being based on the cliché, and it is seen with the flavor of well-wrapped refried foods: everything familiar, but still with a certain flavor .

Now, it is forgotten after five minutes because its residue is that of the impeccable invoice and not that of deep panic.

If that's what they wanted, I'm quite right, but it gives the impression that perhaps they were aiming higher.

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The idea, by García himself and by Alberto Marini, is certainly not extraordinary, but it is wise: pick up the urban legend of the girl on the curve (there is a similar one in every town), and dress her up in a first communion dress to give him his first and final host.

The white suit, the accompanying doll and the darkness of the night come together in a basic set, although with overtones of efficiency.

Something like the bride who didn't make it to her wedding and wanders between two worlds, but in a child's version.

To accompany this spirit of a nocturnal tale, of youthful mischief, nothing better than taking the story back to the mid-eighties, a time of adolescent ingenuity in all senses: girls (and boys) still hitchhiked at night to return from parties in the next town or the summer disco in the middle of the countryside;

recreational time,

pinballs,

martians, billiards and table football;

Super Pop,

of night escapades and of dangerous friendships with the quinquis of the town.

And all that recreation, following in a certain way the line of

Verónica,

by Paco Plaza, but more outdoors than indoors, it is magnificent.

In addition, with another good decision, that of taking the action to a small town: the night shots with a drone, between the fog and the dim and yellowish lights of the streets, with the low houses and the church reigning supreme, are phenomenal.

And another excellent pre-production shot: a cast of (almost) unknown faces, both the young protagonists and the parents and other secondary characters;

people who look like a town hall from the eighties.

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But, alas, the development.

What a collection of commonplaces.

The bathroom cabinet that opens, the shower curtain, the creaking bones, the well that grabs you and doesn't let you escape... We've seen each sequence dozens of times before.

slasher

starring a gang of teenagers harassed by the communion girl, who either wants revenge or asks for help, in which there are hardly any deaths.

With aspects of

I Know What You Did Last Summer

and, above all,

A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Thus, until reaching the outcome, the explanation, with little chicha, although dignified.

However, the authors of the story, headed by the screenwriter Guillem Clua, or perhaps the producers, should not have been sufficiently satisfied with that ending.

Which leads them to an epilogue with similar virtues and similar defects as the whole of the film: gratuitous, insubstantial and cliché at heart, and very professional in form;

with a spectacular appearance of the post-production and the work with the special effects, but without any flash in terms of terror, panic and fear of height.