SashaDarko An average, but still interesting Spanish take on found footage. But the chosen genre is actually where it fails - believebality starts as so-so, then they just throw it out of the window, especially with some joke elements of the story being introduced (which essentially make the fun of it). And the way the end scenes were filmed...yeah...like it's a staged TV show rather than found footage.The story is relatively interesting to follow, the characters are nothing interesting, but at least they're not your typical robotic and overcliched Americans you usually see in horror movies. Their motivations to stay in an obviously haunted hospital are very weak, despite the contract being the reason (the medium decides to walk away then with just some irrelevant talk with one of the others decides to stay again and then very sure about it all of the sudden). It still manages to be creepy and the visual effects are good.

Coventry The absolute best compliment I can reward "El Sanatorio" with is that the film singlehandedly re-sparked my long lost interest in the so-called "Found Footage" horror trend. Personally I never understood the success of the massively overrated "The Blair Witch Project" and when highly acclaimed other titles, like "REC" and "Cloverfeld" and "Diary of the Dead", also didn't leave the slightest impression on me neither, I just decided to turn my back on the sub genre entirely. For me, the one and only truly great "Found Footage" milestone remains "Cannibal Holocaust" and never even bothered to check out the "Paranormal Activity" films and all of its imitations. "El Sanatorio" played at a small horror festival in my country and I went to see it with a minimum of expectations. I'm glad to announce that it was a pleasant surprise; a low-budget and semi-amateurish effort with a lot of goodwill and the heart for horror in the right place. An assembly of young aspiring film makers prepares to shoot a documentary about a supposedly haunted sanatorium (and previously prison and orphanage) in Costa Rico. They don't really believe in ghosts themselves, so they process the evidence and approach the witnesses with a large dose of sarcasm and parody. Once inside the abandoned and ominous location, however, a series of inexplicable paranormal events causes their cynical attitude to change drastically within less than 24 hours… I'm not exactly too familiar with Cost Rican cinema, but this is surely an accomplishment they can be proud of over there. Writer/director Miguel Alejandro Gomez professionally succeeds in rotating the tone and atmosphere simultaneously with the events at the sanatorium; from light-headed and comical towards tense and disturbing. Near the climax, neither the characters nor the audience are laughing anymore, and correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that still the ultimate purpose of a ghost tale? The acting performances come across as completely natural, the documentary style narration and camera work (for once) isn't irritating and the film benefices enormously from its uniquely spooky locations. "El Sanatorio" also features a good amount of great visual effects and a few genuinely efficient "jump" moments, which is something I often missed in the aforementioned successful titles. Congratulations to director Miguel Alejandro Gomez and his entire cast & crew! I hope to see more of them in the near future, and particularly María Elena Oreamuno… She's an incredible natural beauty of an actress.

Alison Young Luis (Luis Carlos Bogantes) and Arturu (Pablo Masis) are aspiring documentary film-makers, and they have decided that their first subject will be a long-abandoned sanatorium. Originally used for tuberculosis patients, it has also served as a prison, a madhouse and an orphanage – and, oh yeah, it has a reputation for being haunted. Our fearless documentarians recruit "excellent investigator" Mariana (Maria Elena Oreamuno) and psychic Lulu (Maria Luisa Garita), get the overbearing Esteban (Olgar Gonzales) to finance the film (well, using his father's money), hire Kurt (Kurt Dyer) to score the music for the film and to act as the resident atheist and sceptic, and find some tech guys to round out the team. They interview old people who stayed at the sanatorium and saw mysterious sights (which could have been the product of fevers), talk to journalists who have themselves tried to investigate the place only to be run out of the building through sheer fright, and eventually drive out to the old sanatorium themselves to see what they might find. Will their expectations be met, or dashed? Will strange paranormal events take place before their eyes and their recording equipment? And most importantly, will they make it out alive? This is a short (73 minutes) and very funny film – yes, it hits on the typical horror tropes for a film of this sort, but also includes little side bits such as Arturu's infatuation with Mariana (it seems they made out a couple of times in the past, but she confesses that she was "pretty wasted" at the time). A very low-budget film, the talented director/co-writer/co-producer Miguel Gomez manages the few special effects very handily, and there are actually a few genuine scares along the way. Señor Gomez was on hand for the FantAsia 2011 screening, and he proudly announced that of the 17 films ever made in Costa Rica, this is the first horror film. Winner of the Audience Award at the Morbido Film Festival in Mexico in 2010, this is a gem of a movie, with the love that went into making it apparent in every frame, although I will note that it would be useful for the film-makers to re-do the English subtitles, which are not very good. Recommended!

Mexoholic I got the pleasure of watching this movie during this years edition of Morbido Film Fest in Mexico. I got to say, I felt really grateful with this festival, cause when I come to think about it, there was no way I would've watched a horror film from Costa Rica, if this festival did n't showed it. My first impression was that I was n't gonna be happy. When the director introduced the film as a horror comedy I thought It was probably something close Scary Movie or something like that. However when the movie started, I realized I was witnessing something new. It had a complete different tone from what I've seen, people keep talking Paranormal Activity and Evil Dead. But this movie brings something completely different to the table. This movie is a real roller coaster or a trip, through the whole legend of the Sanatorium Duran, and through the eyes of different witnesses, and guess what? You become a witness yourself, because the film have something magical, the characters break the 4th wall constantly and talk to you directly, and it's done so smoothly and natural, that it feels like if you are there with them. So suddenly and through the ¨found footage¨ deal, you become a victim of the Sanatorium. Why do you become a victim of the Sanatorium? cause the place becomes another character in the movie. I was blown away of this movie and kept thinking What if? What if? Judd Apatow had made this movie? what if? the movie had more budget? what if? ...This could be easily the next REC or the next LET THE RIGHT ONE IN. If somebody is clever enough to buy the rights of this film, the remake would make bank in the states. Cause my only con with this film, is the slang, it has a Costa Rican slang that would probably prevent it to become a more universal film, at least in Latin America. I read somewhere that the movie budget was less than $100,000. First time I saw an Alex de la Iglesia Film I became an instant fan. I saw El Sanatorio, and I've became an instant fan of his director Miguel Gomez. The mix of dark humor, horror and straight comedy just got me. I need more, and I need it soon. I can't wait for next year Fantastic Fest, cause I feel somehow this little movie is gonna make it and it's gonna give us a lot more to talk.