 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: On the 3rd Day (aka Al Tercer Día) • Year: 2021 • Country: Argentina • Director: Daniel de la Vega • Main cast: Mariana Anghileri, Arturo Bonín, Lautaro Delgado, Gerardo Romano • Runtime: 85 minutes • Production company: Del Toro Films, Furia Films • TRAILER
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The Argentinian cinema market won’t outstand as one of the producers of decent horror cinema (or any cinema in general), when it comes to South American horror Brazil and Mexico always bring out the most interesting titles. Okay, Mexico is technically not South America, so let’s say Latin America. Still, there was a title that this year came out from the country of Tango and Asado entitled On the 3rd Day (2021) (or Al Tercer Día in the original Spanish language). The movie had already premiered on Argentinan television early this year and it got quite positive reviews, so I was excited to have the chance to watch it as part of the Fantasia Film Festival.
Well, since the first minutes disappointment was already taking over me. The story had a dark and sinister tone, but the execution was mediocre and was leading to fearing another lousy and forgettable demonical story. And, sadly, I was right.
Overacting performances, characters doing illogical things any normal sane person wouldn’t do, a very unoriginal story, and the visual tricks a film student without a bright future are populating the entire running time of On the 3rd Day (2021). It was not a very prolonged running time but still becoming a tedious watch.
The movie is divided into three blocks happening simultaneously. First, we have the mother looking for her child after their car accident, a religious man fighting demonical forces, and the worst depicted detective I have seen in months trying to figure out what the hell is going on. And although his screen time is very limited, that detective alone becomes a reason why to pass this movie and forget about it eternally. Badly built, worse performed, and is the personification of all the (bad) detective cliches you can think of. And that dude was supposed to look like a top investigator, the kind of man who can put together all the pieces of the puzzle no matter how sordid or surreal case he is working on. Instead, be becomes a parody.
Towards the end of the movie, the story gets a more interesting tone focusing on the evil entity and finally delivering what one could expect from a movie of these sorts. But, by then, the film had already derailed. Plus, in conjunction with the rest of the set, nothing to see there is fresh, everything is a copy of another copy of some horror movie. The feeling of perhaps finally enjoying something but being left unsatisfied once again.
On the 3rd Day (2021) is the new movie by Daniel de la Vega, a filmmaker who gained some popularity thanks to his film Ataúd Blanco: El Juego Diabólico (2016) (White Coffin in the English translation). In fact, both have many similarities in the plotline. And, as the predecessor, the decent ideas get diluted by the weak execution and everything seems to be done by amateur filmmakers.
I could understand this film might have its audience, somebody who is new to the genre, has a fetish thing for Argentinian movies, or doesn’t care much if the script is just a compilation of lousy cliches. But, for me, it is not worth my time and attention.
RATE: 3/10
IMDB URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt10984206
