‘Paranormal Xperience’ Blu-ray 3D Review
Stars: Amaia Salamanca, Maxi Iglesias, Lucho Fernández, Úrsula Corberó, Óscar Sinela, Alba Ribas, Manuel de Blas, Eduard Farelo | Written by Daniel Padro | Directed by Sergi Vizcaino
When you’ve watched horror for most of your life you tend to have seen a lot of the gimmicks used to try to make the genre more interesting, even if we didn’t need it. 3D is one, if we can still call it a gimmick that keeps on re-appearing and while sometimes it works, others it just feels like it’s forced in. There are arguments for the use of 3D, such asGravity but with Paranormal Xperience is it really needed?
Paranormal Xperience features your normal horror film style story, with five students travelling to an abandoned mining village to investigate the supernatural. Said to be haunted by the spirit of the evil Doctor Matarga the students are there to see if they can find proof of the afterlife. With one of the students sisters driving the group to the village it’s not long before Diana (Alba Ribas) starts to sense the souls of the dead. Using an experimental trance inducing process on Diana, the students find they may have opened the door to the afterlife, or her inner demons which should have never been awakened.
Just reading the brief synopsis you can tell that even though this is a Spanish horror this film is as routine as they come. There are a few nice touches and the use of hooks and barbed wire in some of the killings does add a quite gory edge to proceedings, but in truth there is nothing new here. As with many horrors though, it’s easy to like a film even if it gives you nothing new. There is for example a nice piece of history between the two sisters, and the idea that Diana can’t remember the suicide of her father pushes a mystery into the present that should have been left alone. I won’t reveal the truth of it of course, but the past is Diana’s weakness and this is where the film causes me to ask the main question, why would you take a person with mental problems into a situation where they are likely to lose their minds?
When the murders happen it is interesting that even we as the audience aren’t given the exact truth. We see what Diana sees and are given theories of what is happening, which is plausible but there is also the more realistic explanation too. It’s interesting that we are given this choice, if we choose to make it. We could not even bother wondering though and simply think “well this is just a load of rubbish” but I’d rather follow the story and at least give it a chance.
The fact is with a name like Paranormal Xperience and the overuse of 3D (using bad CGI) this is a movie that is pushing heavily for the gimmick instead of the horror. If you look past that though and enjoy the story for itself, you won’t find anything new but you will find a fun little horror. The performances of the actors aren’t bad and the focus is on having fun, and as I’ve said many times sometimes we just need our horror to push the fun to the forefront and forget about being all serious. Not scary, but also not a waste of a few hours Paranormal Xperience is arguably a film where you will enjoy it, as long as you don’t expect much from it.
Paranormal Xperience is released on DVD, Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D on February 24th.
Could be better but these new horror films should focus more on story and less on not so good CGI.