Terrified: Worth a watch?

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Argentinian horror Terrified (Aterrados) has earnt a clutch of festival gongs and some are calling it the scariest film of the year. But is it any good?

It's a Shudder exclusive and caught our eye for its social media buzz and creepy as hell poster. But does Terrified earn a place on your Halloween watchlist? 
 Read on for our spoiler-free summary of the highs and lows of this foreign language horror.

Terrified's hits

  • The tall skinny bald man of death. His favourite games are hiding under beds and murder.
  • Some feverish, seriously creepy horror vignettes featuring floating corpses, rotting children and the afore-mentioned bald man of death.
  • Maxi Ghinoe as brusque cop Funes. He starts off with a bit of a swagger, but when shit gets real he quickly does a runner.
  • A tone of insistent unease, much more effective than the hysterical melodrama of some haunted house stories.

Terrified's misses

  • Time for some harsh truths – Terrified does not hold together at all. The three supernatural spookathons are never convincingly connected. The paranormal investigation at the heart of the film never goes anywhere. The ending feels premature and unsatisfying.
  • The movie's rife with plot holes. Elvira Onetto's character offers up a sort-of explanation that sounds like it comes from a reject episode of Doctor Who. How does she know all this?
  • Monsters under the bed, sinister figures hiding in the wardrobe – haven't we been here before?
  • Terrified tries to squeeze too many ideas into it's short 90 minute runtime. We wanted to hear more from the mother who forms an unshakeable bond with the risen cadaver of her son.

Our verdict


There are some great set pieces here, but Terrified is not a coherent movie. Some scenes will stay lodged in the memory, but you're bound to be disappointed when the credits roll.


Still looking for a horror movie to watch? We'd recommend these feminist horrors over Terrified any day. Read the first and second part of our series on feminist horror movies now.

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