KM 31: Kilómetro 31 (2006) Reviews

• Do You Believe in Ghosts?

  claudio_carvalho2007-09-07

  While driving through the kilometer 31 of a lonely road, Agata Hameran (Iliana Fox) hits a boy. She leaves her car to help the victim and another car runs over her and she falls in a deep coma. Her twin sister Catalina (Iliana Fox) telepathically feels the pain of Agata and hears her whispering for help. Together with her boyfriend Nuno (Adrià Collado) and Agata's mate Omar (Raúl Méndez), they return to the km 31 of the road, and find out that the place is surrounded by supernatural accidents caused by the ghost of a mother that lost her boy many years ago. Further, Catalina discloses that the spirit of Agata is trapped between the worlds of the living and the dead. "Km 31" is an intriguing ghost story, with good performances, a dark cinematography and great special effects. Unfortunately, the messy screenplay spoils the conclusion of the plot of this promising and refreshing film. Like many others horror movies, the author and the director were not able to give a suitable resolution to the plot and I was absolutely frustrated with the awful ending. Anyway I do not dare to write that "Km 31" is a bad movie, but it could be better and better with improvements and better conclusion. My vote is six. Title (Brazil): "Km 31"

• Flawed, but good effort...

  jluis19842007-05-10

  Through the history of Mexican cinema, the horror genre has undergone a somewhat irregular development, as even when some excellent masterpieces of horror have been done at times, most of the times the horror movies done show more heart than talent, and even if the intentions are good the final product tends to lack quality in more than one aspect. To make things worse, the total production of horror movies has always been far below than the desired one, and even in the better days of Mexican cinema, horror was often relegated. Due to this reasons, it's always interesting whenever a new Mexican horror movie gets a release, as it's a new chance to make things right and redeem the genre once and for all. That's the reason why the brand new horror film, "Kilómetro 31", gathered so much hype on the days before its release, and while it certainly wasn't the horror film to save the genre, it has some good things going for it. While driving one night through the forests near Mexico City, Agata Hameran (Iliana Fox) has a terrible accident on kilometer 31 in which she loses her legs and falls into a coma. After that horrible night, her twin sister Catalina (also Iliana Fox) begins to feel a strong psychic connection with her sister, as Agata seems to be screaming desperately for help. Haunted by horrible nightmares and ghastly visions, Catalina decides to investigate what exactly happened that night on kilometer 31, hoping to end the pain her sister is suffering. So, with the help of her best friend Nuño (Adrià Collado) and Agata's boyfriend, Omar (Raúl Méndez), Catalina begins an investigation that will lead her to the mystery behind the strange series of accidents that have happened on kilometer 31 since the construction of the highway. Written by director Rigoberto Castañeda himself, the story of "Kilómetro 31" is an interesting reworking of many of the most iconic Mexican folk legends and ghost stories all mixed up into one single plot that while certainly modernized, retains that Mexican flavor that makes those legends so enjoyable. He also borrows many elements from the popular New Wave of Asian horror cinema that started in the late 90s, and attempts to adapt them into his own ghost story with some success, resulting into an interesting tale of mystery and horror. While the concept and back-story of the movie are quite interesting and really very well constructed, Castañeda's screenplay has a lot of problems in the development of its main story and its characters, mainly in the poor way most of the dialogs are written and the way the story gets unnecessarily complicated as a result of Castañeda's attempt to mix so many classic stories into one. As a director, Castañeda has a great eye for visual composition, and is able to create a very atmospheric movie pretty much in the style of "Ringu"'s director Hideo Nakata. However, unlike the Japanese movies that inspired him, Castañeda is more adept to use his many special effects, and he doesn't waste a chance to show off the excellent work of his visual effects team; in fact, through the film he seems to be more comfortable directing the special effects scenes than his human actors, and as a result, he doesn't manage to get a good quality in the cast's performances. Honestly, the work done by both the makeup department and the digital effects department is simply remarkable, probably the best work ever done in the history of Mexican cinema; however, Castañeda seems unable to find a balance and often overuses them in excess. As written above, the performances of the cast are nothing amazing, and truly hurt a film that certainly deserved better. As the Hameran sisters, Iliana Fox makes a very weak and unsympathetic lead character, almost like one of her characters in Mexican soap operas. Oddly enough, her character is one of the better written in the film, but she seems unable to pull off something good out from it. Spaniard actor Adrià Collado plays Nuño, making a very good performance and delivers the best acting in the film. As Agata's boyfriend, Omar, Raúl Méndez is simply good, nothing special, but considering the bad writing of his character, one could say he did a great job. Carlos Aragon and Luisa Huertas appear in minor roles, Aragon having a nice turn as Officer Ugalde and Huertas delivering a terribly bad performance (like Fox, in a very soap opera style) as the Old lady that guides Catalina. Due to its very noticeable similarities, "Kilómetro 31" could be considered a direct heir of that popular brand of Asian horror, as often through the film Castañeda shows the enormous influence those movies had in him. This is of course, a double edged sword, as due to his overuse of the conventions and clichés of Asian horror, Castañeda could easily be seen as a director without a style of his own and limited only to copy what has proved to be successful in Asia and the United States. The extreme reliance on special effects and jump scares to make his film "scary" is one major problem the movie has, as often those devises break the good atmosphere that Castañeda manages to create thanks to Alejandro Martínez' excellent cinematography (who clearly has improved his work). In the end, there is no doubt that "Kilómetro 31" is a work of excellent quality in its production, and with the intentions of being the horror movie to resurrect the Mexican horror genre, however, it's obvious that the intentions of making it "hip", "cool" and therefore commercially successful got in the middle of the making, resulting in an often derivative movie. It's a flawed film, but it's a nice effort that hopefully, will inspire more Mexican filmmakers to give a chance to horror. A final word of advice: if you hated Asian ghost stories, stay away from this film. 6/10

• La llorona strikes again

  Milo-Jeeder2007-08-28

  It's nice to see one of the most memorable Mexican horror legends of all times coming back to life in such a reasonably enjoyable and well done little film. I suppose 'Kilómetro 31' cannot be compared by any means to some of the finest old Mexican horror films that deal with the same background story, like Rene Cardona's 'La llorona', for example. Regardless, this modern version of the crying woman certainly went beyond my expectations, since I was expecting some kind of mediocre Hollywoood-wannabe film that would probably go to far with the use of CGI. The reviews and comments in general about 'Kilómetro 31' are rather harsh and critical, which is surprising, considering how nationalistic Mexican people tend to be when it comes to standing up for their things. 'Kilómetro 31' clearly got a lot of attention when it was released in its country, but not all the attention was precisely positive. I'm not going to lie, if I have to be honest, I'd take the old Mexican horror films instead of this one, any day. However, I found this movie entertaining and dark enough to deserve approval. While it is clear that the budget was generous enough to develop a commercial film addressed to teenagers mostly, that doesn't necessarily steals Mr. Rigoberto Castañeda's merits when it comes to making a horror film. In 'Kilómetro 31' a young woman named Catalina finds herself struggling to help her twin sister Agata who fell into a coma after a mysterious car accident. These two sisters share some kind of special bond, a strange ability to communicate with each other without even saying a word and being miles away. When Catalina realizes that Agata is suffering some kind of torment even though she is almost dead to the world, she has to find a way to save her from the darkness, until she finally wakes up. However, playing the detective turns into a rather dangerous game for Catalina when she realizes that her own life is in danger too and that the legend of 'the crying woman' is not gibberish after all. Leaving aside the fact that the last minutes offer a little bit more than I bargained for 'Kilómetro 31' is a pretty good choice for anyone who is in the mood to party with an old Latin American horror icon, which is La Llorona in this case. This time, she's back in the road (literally) and with some brand new tricks to chase her victims. The story was obviously changed to a certain extent, but the essence is still the same and let's be grateful that they decided to be respectful to the well known story. 'Kilómetro 31' succeeds more than anything when it comes to developing the right atmosphere and dark scenarios. It looked quite artsy to me and even though the last minutes offered a few sequences loaded with CGI, this film is rather simple for the most part and it doesn't try to emulate those ridiculous super-productions with explosions and digital creatures all over the place. The moderated use of CGI somehow manages to remain almost natural and endurable for old-fashioned horror lovers who pretty much are not into these things.

• good effort

  demetrioz2007-02-05

  the effort is there, it falls a little bit short. but all in all is a really good movie. I don't think is an amazing or excellent one, but it deserves the recognition. for starters the production is really good and the acting is not bad at all. the myth involved in the story is well developed and of course there are elements that are taken from other films, but come on, not all films have to be an ultimate original. don't be so harsh and lame in your way of thinking. This movie is worth watching. the effects are really state of the art. the direction comes fluently as the acting too. Go see this movie and enjoy it.

• Starts well but becomes incomprehensible

  standeman19842007-12-18

  I went to see this movie with high hopes on the back of a good rating from this very site...that rating has since dropped dramatically. I must say i was disappointed and a little confused by what i saw. It all starts off well enough, gripping and engaging horror elements - a spooky child has caused many accidents at a section of the road KM 31. A twin is hit by a car on her way to her sister's house and they and their boyfriends become drawn into the mystery surrounding this haunted road. There are some genuinely creepy moments as the story unfolds. The problem i had was that as the history is revealed, the situation becomes more confusing than explanatory. Somehow the sisters and their dead schizophrenic mother are connected to a weird back-story of why the road is haunted in the first place. I began to flag halfway through and must admit to not understanding the connection properly, but my friend afterwards also found it a little confusing. Then it ends very stylistically but still with little actually explained. I don't really mind that, but all style and not enough substance do not a great horror movie make. You can leave much to the imagination, but there must be some comprehensible way of connecting the dots for your watching audience. And the over-used child figure of recent horror films from around the world has become old hat. Horror fans will find things to enjoy here but most will be left scratching their heads and lamenting a missed opportunity of originality and revival of Mexican horror.