31 Days of Horror: Terrified is genuinely terrifying

If you are one of those horror fans consistently in search of a film that is truly scary, I suggest watching Terrified on Shudder. No, this isn’t the film about Art the Clown, it’s an Argentinian horror film that is fully capable of raising big old goosebumps.

It doesn’t take long to get into the hardcore horror in Terrified, the opening sequence involves a woman named Clara who thinks she hears noises coming from her sink drain. Her husband Juan more or less brushes off her claims, but he is awakened during the night by loud bumping noises in the bathroom.

He opens the door, only to see the shocking sight of Clara suspended in midair by something we can’t see and being slammed brutally into the walls. It’s a hard scene to watch, and it sets the tone for the rest of the film.

Terrified features an entire neighborhood being menaced by the supernatural

Meanwhile, Juan and Clara’s next door neighbor Walter is having some supernatural experiences of his own. When he tries to sleep at night, his bed and bedroom furniture shake and move around the room, and he even manages to get video footage of a creepy figure emerging from under his bed.

In the same neighborhood, a young boy is hit by a bus…only to return to his mother’s mother’s house. This of course causes her to go into shock. When the police arrive, they see the decaying body of the boy sitting at the dining room table, a bowl of cereal and milk in front of him.

As unsettling as the rest of Terrified is, it is the scene with the boy’s body that inspired me to add it to our 31 Days of Horror series. I’m not alone in this, it’s the reason so many people consider this to be a genuinely frightening film. When you watch Terrified, you will see what I’m talking about; it’s impossible to take your eyes off of the sad, rotting corpse of the child, just waiting for him to move.

I am not going to give any spoilers, since I think Terrified is best viewed without a lot of prior knowledge. Yes, it’s a foreign film, so there are subtitles – but it’s totally worth it! Terrified can be streamed on Shudder.