I’ve just finished my 4th watch of the Argentine horror film Terrified (2017) by Demián Rugna and it continues to be just so damn good & one of my personal favorite horror movies of the previous decade & obviously highly recommend to those who haven’t seen it. The film revolves around the discovery and investigation of several unusual & dangerous paranormal occurrences that take place in the homes of a quaint Buenos Aires neighborhood. It is a genuinely well-crafted horror story but I’ve also enjoyed how several scenes in the latter half are as funny as they are frightening mainly due to the antics of the character Detective Funes added to the ensemble about 1/3 of the way through.
Detective Funes has the look & attitude of a character that would be the hard-boiled protagonist in a police procedural, and yet he’s plucked from that genre and placed smack dab in the center of a paranormal horror thriller where his criminal expertise is useless & his poor health issues end up being potentially fatal. During just one night of investigation, Funes legitimately has like 4 minor yet still debilitating heart attacks due to encountering the exact same surprising & overwhelming scares that the audience does and I personally just find it very funny how blatantly unfit he is for supernatural investigation & his repeated urges and requests to flee make him very relatable on top of being totally justified. The actor does an incredible job of making Funes look like he’s completely out of his element at all times & his fear and panic always feel genuine. Not to mention he can also absolutely sell a sudden crippling heart attack too.
