Okay. Okay. I’m home. The streetlights are too bright. My keys feel weird in my hand. I feel like I just stepped out of a different dimension. That was… something. That was a whole entire thing.
My ears are still ringing. Not from the loud parts, there weren't that many, but from the *quiet*. The deep, humming, fluorescent-lit quiet of that place. The cinema was almost empty, just me and some old guy three rows down who fell asleep and started snoring right at the beginning, and honestly, it was perfect. It felt like I was the only one watching, like the movie was just for me. The screen was so huge that the morgue looked like an endless cavern of white tile and steel. I kept sinking lower into my seat, my feet sticking to the floor from some spilled soda from a decade ago, just trying to disappear.
God, that one-shot thing. The whole movie, one continuous take. At first I was like, okay, I see what you're doing, Mr. Director. Look at me, I’m so clever. But then you just… forget. You get sucked in. You’re *there*. You’re following this poor kid, Ezequiel, on his first night shift. You’re right behind him, breathing the same cold, dead air. I literally leaned forward so many times my back is killing me now. I was trying to see around corners before he did. My body was completely betraying me, reacting to a stupid movie.
There’s this one shot. It’s stuck in my head like a shard of glass. He’s pushing a gurney down this impossibly long hallway. The camera is just behind him, and the wheels are making this rhythmic, clacking sound on the tiles. Click-clack, click-clack. And the lights are flickering, just a little, not in a horror movie way, just in a sad, old, neglected-building way. And he stops. And the camera just keeps gliding forward, past him, down the hall, into the darkness at the end. And for a second, I thought I saw something. A shadow. A movement. I don’t even know if it was real or if my brain just invented it because the tension was so thick you could spread it on toast. I physically flinched. My popcorn went everywhere. The old guy snored through it.
It reminds me of this one time, years ago, I had to go pick up my sister from the ER at like 2 AM. It was nothing serious, thank god, but I had to walk from the waiting room to this little secluded area to find her, and the hospital was just… silent. And that same humming sound. The lights felt sickly. Every single door looked like it was about to swing open. I remember walking extra fast, my heart pounding, and thinking, “This is stupid, I’m in a hospital, there are people everywhere,” but it *felt* like I was the last person on Earth. That’s what this movie feels like. That feeling stretched out for 90 minutes. I’m getting chills just thinking about it.
And the main actor. His face. He just looks so… tired. And young. He has these big, scared eyes and for the first half of the movie, he barely says anything. He just reacts. He listens. You see the dawning horror on his face in real-time. It’s not a jump-scare performance, it’s a slow, sinking realization that he is in so, so far over his head. There’s this part where his boss is explaining the rules, and the camera is just locked on Ezequiel’s face, and you can see him trying to process it all, trying to be professional, but his eyes are screaming “GET ME OUT OF HERE.” I felt that in my soul.
But wait. Hold on. Now that I’m typing this out… was the ending a little… dumb? I don’t know. I loved it in the moment. I was gripped. But the whole… the thing with the bodies and the… you know. Was it a little on the nose? I thought I loved that final shot, but now my brain is picking it apart. Was I just so worn down by the atmosphere that I would have accepted anything? Maybe. I don’t know. I’m too wired to be a critic right now. My brain is just soup. A terrified, anxious soup.
Honestly, I feel like I need to go turn on all the lights in my apartment. And maybe watch some cartoons. Something loud and bright with zero suspense. My heart is still doing this weird little flutter thing. I keep looking over my shoulder into the dark hallway. Which is ridiculous. I live in a one-bedroom apartment. The hallway is like, five feet long.
Whatever. It worked. It got under my skin in a way most movies don’t. It’s not fun. It’s not a good time. It’s an experience. A draining, unsettling, masterfully crafted experience. I think. Yeah. I think it was. I need to sleep but I’m pretty sure I’m just going to lie here and listen to the hum of my fridge until sunrise.
Okay, I’m done.
8/10
-Alex
Trailer English - https://youtu.be/JdbcTw2wFP8?si=SvCgHu45SaM-oqwc
Review English - https://youtu.be/k9PTycI_wyc?si=GiBy7RB-NQ1ax-jt
EXPLANATION english - https://youtu.be/k9PTycI_wyc?si=GiBy7RB-NQ1ax-jt
EXPLANATION hindi - https://youtu.be/Z9KvZTtrDBk?si=tA14tQMyGVnfxUvD