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Abducted
Penumbra

Penumbra

Movie
Studio(s): 
Genre: 
On DVD: 
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Grade:
C+
Running Time: 
90 minutes

The one thing Penumbra does extremely well is to get you to root for a terrible person. Recently I've watched a number of Spanish language horror films, and while Penumbra isn't terrible, it certainly doesn't hold up to the others.

They say:

Marga is a highly motivated, arrogant and successful businesswoman from Spain on assignment in Buenos Aires, a city she hates and whose people she loathes. While in the Argentine capital on a day the whole population is waiting to view a rare solar eclipse, she must also find a new tenant for her family's decrepit apartment. Rapidly losing her patience, she comes upon the mysterious Jorge lurking outside the front door, who informs her that he has a client willing to pay four times what she is asking in rent. There's just one catch - the paperwork must be signed immediately. As Marga waits to complete the transaction, several of Jorge's associates suspiciously appear at the apartment, and before long Marga discovers that their plan for the building and for her may mean a startling fate worse than death.

I say:

Marga is a fairly terrible person. She is a complete snob who looks down on everything hispanic that isn't from Spain. She complains about the city of Buenos Aires, it's people and more. The only reason she is there is because her parents left her an apartment there that she rents out. Despite her nastiness, slowly through the film you begin to root for her because the things happening around her and to her are worse. The actress, Cristina Brondo, does an excellent job with the part she is given.

The middling grade I've given the film is due to the actual plot. While I really enjoyed the acting, the story was rather dull. And the payoff reveal near the end just wasn't all that great. Still, Penumbra is worth watching if just to see it yourself to compare against other efforts.

Review by Jason Pace
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