A young couple, Luzma and Demian, having had to make some hard choices moves into their new place and things start getting weirder and weirder as they attempt to make this new place a home.
Written by Juan Carlos Garzón and ngélica Gudiño and directed by Chava Cartas, Inquilinos feels more like a drama with creepy undertones than a flat out horror film. The story created here is as much about the two leads and their relationship than it is about the external, evil force that is working against them. The characters created and put on screen by the writers and director are humans with flaws, people worth watching and they are interesting in how they deal with the potential supernatural happenings around them. The way this is written gives a sense of reality to the leads in how one believes almost right away while the other is a skeptic. Their interactions and reactions come off as real and genuine in great part due to the writing and directing.
The performances are a major part of selling these characters as realistic humans that ring true. In the lead of Luzma, actress Danny Perea gives an emotional and emotionally connecting performance. She makes believing in the supernatural look like the logical answer to what is happening to and around her. Playing her boyfriend Demian is actor Erick Elias who gives a strong performance for the skeptic side of things while his character is seriously affected by the events around them. His performance is the most interesting one at times, outshining his co-lead Danny Perea in some scenes. Their back and forth is beautiful to watch as they sell the attraction and love between their two characters with conviction and natural emotions coming across. As their characters evolve and the relationship changes, they can still be seen feeding off of each other’s work to keep their performances strong throughout. In supporting parts, Gabriela Roel as Irma and Camila Selser as Judith gives great, nuanced and layered performances creating a strong ensemble cast.
This cast evolves in images created by cinematographer Patricio Lopez who frames and shoots every scene beautifully, giving the film and almost dreamlike, albeit dark dream, quality. His work is careful and helps add to the emotional turmoil the characters are living and trying to survive. Supporting those carefully crafted images is the music by Ximena Sariñana and Dan Zlotnik which highlights the emotions and scary undertones on the screen without overtaking them. This combo of images and music create an easy to watch film that is that much more effective because of them.
The special effects in this film are minimal as the story and scares depend more on atmosphere, tension, and things left unseen to create a feeling of dread and perhaps fear as things escalate for the protagonists. Nevertheless, there are a few moments with bloot that are very well done with natural looking blood and a few wounds at different levels of healing that look rightfully gross. This minimal approach works in how it leaves a lot up to the imagination which is often worse than what can be shown.
Ultimately, Inquilinos is a good film about a couple going through tough choices and a hard situation. Their relationship and how they deal with things once the supernatural elements show up are interesting and well-written, directed, and acted. However, while the drama works, the scares are too few, too far in-between, and not effective enough. To casual horror fans, it may be scary, but to regular watchers of the genre it will have a few creepy moments, a good atmosphere, but it will most likely not be actually scary. Thankfully, the film doesn’t need the scares to be enjoyed as the feeling of it is shrouded in dread and the characters are interesting while evolving in a beautiful, dark dream-like series of images. Inquilinos is a strong film, albeit low on scares.