Don't Listen is overall satisfying but fails to deliver a knock-out ending

Overall a misleading poster since the movie doesn't revolve around the kid. (Image courtesy of dubbingfandom.com)

A Spanish language, Netflix exclusive horror movie, Don't Listen is a slow burn from the beginning before picking up its pace closer towards the end. 

The movie is directed by Angel Gomez Hernandez and stars Rodolfo Sancho, Ana Fernandez, Ramon Barea, Belen Fabra, Lucas Blas and Nerea Barros. The vision of the movie from the casting, to the camera angles and the script were pretty mediocre and typical of any mid-budget, slow burn Netflix horror movie, but the storyline was pretty satisfying. 

(Image courtesy of thecinemaholic.com)

The story revolves around a family of three, Daniel, his wife Sara and their son Eric who move into a new house somewhere in the countryside. The movie begins with Eric meeting a child psychiatrist to discuss the voices he hears at night. Shortly after the appointment, the psychiatrist crashes her car into a tree, impaling herself to death. Weird things start happening in the house in the form of ominous signs like a fly infestation in the walls, cats hung from a tree and voices from a walkie talkie. If those weren't creepy enough, Eric, the son, drowns to death in the swimming pool. Soon after, Daniel starts hearing his son's voice through recordings in his phone. He then consults renowned supernatural investigator German Redondo (Ramon Barea) who decides to help investigate these voices. Armed with a parabolic microphone and heat reader, they discover that there is a demonic entity in the house. 

After German's investigation, this is when the supernatural occurrences start to pick up, from full blown reveals to premonitions and visions. 

(Image courtesy of commonsensemedia.org)

The start of the movie was pretty standard, typical of any Netflix movie. We're starting to feel that Netflix exclusives are even better than silver screen productions. Despite it being a slow burn of a movie, the storyline progress is pretty linear and easy to follow even though it jumps attention from one person to another. 

The story focuses on three people consecutively; Eric, Daniel and German. First it tells the story of Eric being scared of voices he's hearing, then it focuses on Daniel dealing with the death of his son and then it turns to German investigating the house and the hauntings in it. 

The progression from one person to the next is quite good and we enjoyed the little journey without it being too messy. 

The gore and creature make up were quite impressive and the lay ups to the jump scares were pretty decent. 

The only thing we had a problem with was the ending. Despite the starting, middle and closer towards the end being pretty satisfactory, the ending kind of spoiled it for us. There wasn't much of a punch to it.

We'll explain below.

🐳 AHOY!!! SPOILERS BELOW!!
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It turns out that the house that they inhabited was a Spanish Inquisitor's court that dealt with witchcraft. A lot of innocent women were tortured and killed including a legitimate witch. The witch was now haunting the house and terrorizing people that moved into the place, kind of like The Conjuring. 

To defeat her, all they had to do was burn her bones and it wasn't that difficult to find them since they were placed quite close to the entrance they discovered.

Another plot twist at the end was that Daniel was the one that drowned Eric after being possessed by the witch. 

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🌊SAFE WATERS AHEAD!!

So we felt like the ending and the twist at the end was a little too convenient for our taste. But overall, it was an enjoyable movie. 

Asian Does Horror gives Don't Listen (Voces) 👻👻👻 ghost emojis out of five. 



 

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