THE STORY – Wall Street stockbroker, Rosario Fuentes, returns to her grandmother’s apartment after her sudden death. While sorting through her Grandmother’s belongings, Rosario uncovers a horrifying secret—a hidden chamber filled with occult artifacts tied to dark generational rituals. As supernatural occurrences plague her, Rosario must confront her family’s buried secrets and face the truth about the sacrifices and choices they made.
THE CAST – Emeraude Toubia, David Dastmalchian, Paul Ben-Victor, José Zúñiga, Diana Lein & Emilia Faucher
THE TEAM – Felipe Vargas (Director) & Alan Trezza (Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 88 Minutes
Supernatural stories are easy to come by in films, but the ones that really shine have a winning combination on their hands. It’s not just that they make audiences jump out of their seats or want to run out of theaters, but also the creatives behind them find unique ways to explore themes we encounter on a daily basis and often make us more afraid of regular life than what we see on screen. “Rosario” is one of those movies that could have been at that level, but it misses the mark. While its technical aspects are horrific and exemplary, standard direction and a weak script hold the film back from excelling in the same way.
We first meet Rosario as a young girl (played by Emilia Faucher) at her first communion, celebrating with her immigrant family. However, the vibe is off from the start. Her mother, Elena (Diana Lein), is coughing and struggling with her health, her father, Oscar (José Zúñiga), seems concerned about Rosario’s future, and her grandmother, Griselda (Constanza Gutierrez), keeps disappearing into her bedroom. As if that wasn’t enough to set off red flags, when Rosario goes to retrieve her grandmother, walking through a haunted house-esque hallway that cinematographer Carmen Cabana captures in disorienting camera tilts, she finds maggots there, along with Griselda acting very cold and strange.
In the present day, adult Rosario (Emeraude Toubia) is a successful stockbroker with a lavish apartment and the life her father could have only hoped for her. As much as she has seemingly distanced herself from her family and culture, particularly her grandmother, those ties come roaring back when she gets incessant calls from her. When she finally picks up, she learns that Griselda has died and someone needs to be with the body until an ambulance arrives. Unfortunately for Rosario, it will be a long night when a major blizzard shuts down the city.
When Rosario arrives at her grandmother’s place, the film’s stellar production design shines. Everything looks so grimy and dirty, from the dilapidated elevator to the nauseating stains on the walls and floor. Inside the apartment, rotting food is on every plate, and maggots and roaches are crawling on almost everything. You can practically smell how foul the odor must be inside – and let’s not forget there’s a rotting corpse on the couch, too, which also looks disgusting thanks to the makeup work. Even the people inside the apartment complex are not rays of sunshine either, including an odd super and invasive neighbor, Joe (a very underutilized David Dastmalchian), who wants nothing more than to get his air fryer back.
As Rosario pokes and prods inside the apartment, she comes to find out a lot more about her grandmother, including her practice of the Palo religion. That’s when the true horrors of the night set in, including terrifying figures, ancient witchcraft/voodoo rituals, dark family secrets, and some long, gross hands emerging from unspeakable places (some great practical effects are in play here). But Felipe Vargas’s direction and Alan Trezza’s script don’t go far enough to make this film unique and stand on its own. When the supernatural components come into play, many of the same tricks seen in other films are at play here, too, like shadowy figures lurking in the background and cheap jump scares that rarely get hearts racing. Moreso, the film doesn’t explain the Palo religion well enough – it’s amusing to see Rosario attempt to use Google to figure out how to break a curse – and it just plays out like any other weird ritual that involves using one’s blood for sacrifices. It’s not until “Rosario” enters its final act – when the film explores the family’s journey to the United States and their sacrifices as immigrants – that it gives us a more interesting and relatable story. That’s what most of the film should have been about, not just the grandmother’s strange rituals, as it gives us better insight into their dynamics as a familial unit and how the past has shaped so much of Rosario’s life.
Oftentimes, great acting can help pick up the missing pieces, but sadly, Toubia gives a very unconvincing performance. She doesn’t put much passion into her line deliveries, like when she attempts to be funny or snarky in her asides, but they feel more awkward than anything. Her physical acting is pretty low-energy as well. But even worse is that Dastmalchian is given so little to do. He, a very solid horror actor, is given a part that solely requires him to cough in the hallway and demand an air fryer. It’s such a waste.
Even though “Rosario” has flaws, it gets another boost for its short 88-minute runtime. Sure, it may take inspiration from plenty of other supernatural films and not do enough to stand apart from them, but it doesn’t overstay its welcome. Not to mention, the technical aspects are gnarly in the best way possible. As long as Vargas and Trezza continue to push the elements that worked in this film and improve on bringing their unique voices to the forefront, they’ll have a winner on their hands in the future.
