LIKES: The Cinematography A New Culture To Learn About The Makeup/Visual Effects Creepy Elements At times Decent Character/Cultural Development Great use of Lighting Shorter Run Time Summary: Rosario is a movie that looks like it had less budget than most of Hollywood's illustrious movie studios, and I feel they did a great job with the resources they had. Vargas has brought a tale to life with great visuals and simple approaches that continue to impress me with how they can craft a world. A fantastic cinematography leads the film's strengths, angles, and movement that make the most of a small space. Close-ups of those grotesque modalities, sweeping shots of the apartment as the titular character navigates what lies in the dilapidated apartment, and those proper moments of background effects all tease our imaginations and give a glimpse at what stalks our heroine. The lighting, as well, is solid, with dark shadows to play further with the fears and make our imaginations fill in the gaps to something terrible as we wait for something to reveal itself. That something is a grotesque culmination of makeup and CGI, a being from legend that feels very blended of the cultures that they talked about. All the little details that this entity portrays are stunning, pale skin being just a basis for the various fragments of decay, darkness, and metaphorical greed that made me cringe in disgust. These effects are passed onto other elements, many of the solid use Hollywood's effects labs that I love seeing come alive on screen. And as a small bonus, some of the sound techniques accompanying these signs add sinister synergy to the moments and give it that horror crunch we like in our silver screen sandwiches. Past the physical elements, the story holds some merit on a non-traditional level. It's a culturally heavy movie, focusing on elements of familial bonds, hopes and dreams, and a character who is the center of the world for a family with such a complex history. The central character, Rose, has a powerful career, but a sudden turn has her diving into her familial past to offset some of the shortcomings, and uncovering something much bigger than she imagined. It's a wild ride that illustrates some important concepts, wrapped around a mythology/practice I did not know. A decent foundation is laid with this, the two-story elements playing okay together, brought together by some solid acting from what is essentially a one-woman show with a few interludes. Toubia held a lot of things up on her shoulders, and I was impressed with much of her delivery as she uncovered the truth and tried to find solutions to the problems at hand. Smart, vulnerable, strong, and intelligent are some key emotions she captures well alongside her terror, delivering most of the lines with a believable nature. And if none of this does it for you, but you still have to go see the movie, then be thankful it's a short run time. DISLIKES Goes Nowhere For Some Time Too Many Twists Bloating The Movie Better Ways To Twist This Tale Too Many Familiar Tropes Gets A Tad Preachy Characters Are Not Optimized Not Scariest So Many Places To Go and We Went Nowhere The Ending Becomes Annoying Summary: Where the movie did not succeed for me was that the execution and storytelling did not fully achieve their potential. For one thing, the pace is off at times for me, the film feeling longer than the eighty minutes promised by the trailer. Rosario's tale goes nowhere, repetition in the lines, and familiar elements taken a bit too far to keep my attention and make the investment worth the time. This happens a lot at the end, the film trying to throw a bunch of twists to keep the surprises coming, some of which I did not see coming. However, all the twists kind of occur at rapid fire, a few lackluster, as they try to keep adding just a few more layers to make the story come full circle. I found there were better ways to do this, most involving more run time, less repetition, and more involvement with other characters to help establish the movie. Such rushed twists felt more like an overextension, a last-minute play to squeeze every possible emotional tie they could, perhaps in the writer's or director's personal stories. Touching as it was, some of these were highly unnecessary, and I could have had a much better appreciation for the movie if they had left things alone after the first solution. And the last shot would have brought everything to that chef's kiss finish of splendor, but alas, took it just a tad far for the cliché token seal that Horror movies often love to leave behind. Another limitation is that the movie's scare factor felt a bit lost in the conveniences and the lack of fully utilizing the potential it was setting up. For one thing, we're confined to a small apartment during a big blizzard that traps our lead character in an apartment building. Yes, building. Yet, we stayed in one small apartment when the very beast (defined as a stalking entity) had a whole assortment of places to unfold the full might of this thing's powers. In addition, the confined space and short run time meant that we only got a few tricks to try to scare us, and many of them have been present in other movies that have been done too often. The horror elements also start to get drowned out by the soap opera aspects this movie, preachy, hyper sentimental quips that start to become a tad too much of the focus when the movie needed to better spread these elements out and utilize more characters to help add a little more danger and stakes to this film. When all of this comes together, this Horror quickly becomes more of a Horror novella that might not be the scream sensation that fans might expect. The VERDICT: Rosario is a movie that holds a lot of promise for being a prime horror movie. It tells a lesser-known culture and offers a new array of things to uncover, and ties it to a character-centric narrative with some decent development. A strong actress to keep much of the film up, the narrative has some heart that I think some will find relevant, as she faces the challenges in this apartment. These novella elements are not going to enthrall the majority of the Horror audience, if I had to guess, though. Rosario has some great visual and makeup effects to bring the boom, alongside some choice moments that are worthy of an honorable mention in the horror hall-of-fame. It's just too limited in my opinion. Confining to an apartment was an error, confining to primarily one character, an even bigger one, as familiar techniques become too relied upon to be less thrilling. Eventually, the horror elements are washed away by the drama aspect, repetition, too many crammed twists, and extending the ending to unnecessary means just suggests they ran out of assets to fully realize the dream. The movie is not horrible, and probably a good medium-level horror to expand to the audience, but I don't think this is going to be the best theater film this weekend. My scores are: Horror: 6.0-6.5 Movie Overall: 5.0.

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