Review - Shiver (2008)

Santi is a young boy who has an intense allergy to sunlight, which forces he and his mother to move away from their home in search of a more remote sunless environment. As soon as they arrive in their new town, a series of mysterious murders begin to take place and all signs and fingers point to the fanged Santi as the culprit. But the real culprit is actually a much more sinister beast lurking in the woods and young Santi is about to become the prey.

Should You See It? Naw. Cuddle up with a superior Spanish horror flick instead.

Ahh, another vampire movie. After seeing Let The Right One In a week or so ago, I pretty much vowed to not watch any other vampire movies, at least for the remainder of the year (unless the girlfriend drags me to Twilight!). Afterall, when ya reach the summit of a particular subgenre of film, it can only go downhill from there. But I figured what the hell, why not give one last one a chance?

The reason I had any interest in this movie was because it was produced by Alvaro Augustin, who also produced Pan's Labyrinth and The Orphanage. It was proudly stated on the cover, and that's really all I needed. It also has the same cinematographer as Silent Night, Deadly Night 3, but that's not something to really boast about, is it? At first glance, Shiver is a combination vampire/werewolf film, but you soon find out it's really neither. I'm not even sure if Santi was a vampire or not. He's got fangs and the sun makes him burst into flames, but he doesn't feed on blood and the movie really would have been no different if he was a normal teenage boy. The whole vampire angle is thrown out about 1/3 of the way into the movie and it's a wonder why it was ever written in in the first place. It seems like the only reason the kid was a vampire was for a cheap way to justify he and his mother moving to a strange mountain town. And the killer is not a werewolf either. She's just a feral wild child who has a penchant for slashing achilles tendons. Two misunderstood children who appear to others to be mythical beasts? Ya ya, it's all well and cute. But it just don't work.

This movie absolutely reeks of mediocrity and there's really nothing worse than a mediocre movie, is there? I had no interest or attachment to any of the characters and I just plain didn't care about anything that was going on. At least a really bad movie inspires conversation and some kind of reaction. Shiver is neither bad nor good, it's somewhere in between and that's just not enough to make it stand out from the thousands of other horror films released every year. It's the kind of movie that leaves your mind as soon as it ends. In fact, once I hit the publish button on this post, i'll probably never give another moments thought to this movie.

I could go on and on reviewing a really good or a really bad movie, but there's just not much to say about this one. Shiver is a well done movie, it's just not an interesting one. I was not impacted in any way by it, bad or good. And don't be fooled by the cover. The Orphanage or Pans, this is not. And if I ever see a time lapse shot of the progression of the day as shown through the sky in a movie again, I might have to self terminate.