Netflix’s Newest Mexican Horror Film Will Leave You Feeling Cursed
What I love about Mexican horror films, and Latin America in general, is how they incorporate folk tales into their narratives. When you come across them it hardly appears out of place, romanticized, or mystified. It’s just a part of the culture, simple as that. This is exactly what we get with writer, producer, and director Luis Javier Henaine’s third film Disappear Completely. Even with its setting in the Federal District of Mexico, which is the largest and most populous metropolitan area in the country, when the story turns to brujería you don’t second guess the direction of the story. You just follow along for the ride.
Disappear Completely follows a freelance photographer Santiago (Harold Torres). His day-to-day routine consists of going to crime scenes to photograph the dead. His intent is nothing short of reaching front page news with his grisly images. He even dreams of one day opening an exhibit featuring all his photos. So the more gruesome the better. Santiago gets a tip about the next crime scene which happens to be a senator’s house. As Santiago arrives late, his access is denied to look at the body. But this doesn’t stop him. He sneaks into the house to capture the perfect photograph of the corpse. Once leaving the house, Santiago gets mugged and wakes up in a daze. Unbeknownst to him, this is the start of a curse. He has five days to find a cure or he’ll disappear into the darkness.
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What you are going to hear a lot about this film is its resemblance to Nightcrawler. And yes, there are quite a few similarities. Santiago is a photographer who is truly selfish when it comes to his work. Just like Louis Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal), Santiago is willing to exploit people, both living and dead, for his personal gain. Both of these characters become obsessed with the “money shot”. Their attempts at capturing it even means having to rearrange the shot to emphasize the severity of the crime they’re photographing.
This happens during the first half of the film. Then, Disappear Completely slowly leaves the territory of American thrillers like Nightcrawler and enters the world of Latin American horror. It’s here where I feel Disappear Completely becomes 2024’s version of Huesera: The Bone Woman.
Valeria’s (Natalia Solián) story includes brujería from the beginning thanks to her tía’s involvement in the arts. This isn’t the case with Santiago. He’s a man working and living in Mexico’s largest city. It’s almost expected there is some skepticism coming from him when the dialogue of brujería and curses gets brought up. We see him question the authority of the bruja he initially interacts with for a cleanse. But as the story progresses and his symptoms intensify, both he and the viewer are thrown into a state of panic after realizing how sinister his curse is. By the end of the runtime, Disappear Completely turns into something of its own.
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The last act of the film will be the distinguishing factor in terms of the viewer’s enjoyment of the film. This act became one of my favorite parts of the film. But it is completely understandable why someone wouldn’t be able to fully embrace the atmosphere created. Henaine takes a bold approach with the sound design. By adjusting the sound, volume, and pitch Henaine creates an experience that is truly uncomfortable. His commitment to allowing the viewers to undergo the curse with Santiago is honestly a stroke of genius. The creative choices taken to achieve this not only immerse the viewers but work on a thematic level as well.
Santiago’s panic begins to ensue. We, as viewer and Santiago, enter this anxiety-inducing auditory setting once the realization begins to hit on how terrifying the last day will be. Santiago now must face the consequences of his previous actions. He must see if he is willing to sacrifice himself for the fate of someone else. It only makes sense for a man attempting to create a visceral response through his photos is now slowly losing his senses one day at a time. Henaine spares no expense as the viewers undergo the same treatment.
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Harold Torres acting as Santiago is something to applaud. His character is a prime example of a likable character with gray morals. We see Santiago undergo an enormous amount of emotions and physical pain and everything meets realistic portrayals. Considering Torres already has 75 credits on IMDB, one of which is in the extreme Mexican horror anthology Barbarous Mexico, it’s no wonder he was cast as the protagonist in this film.
Disappear Completely is a great entry in Mexican horror cinema. It encapsulates the reason why I love these films so much, particularly in its inclusion of genre tropes and normalized folkloric aspects. As for Latin American horror cinema in general, the genre is truly taking off here with filmmakers thinking outside the box to create a unique movie watching experience. With recent films like Putrefixion: A Video of Nina Temich, which was filmed entirely on a 360 camera, to the Chilean animated nightmare The Wolf House that includes both 2D and 3D animation, Disappear Completely is another Latin American horror film that is both impressive on a technical and narrative standpoint.
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