REVIEW: KIDNAPPED SECUESTRADOS (2010)

By Elena Anele

KIDNAPPED (SECUESTRADOS, 2010) is Miguel Ángel Vivas second feature film. He wrote the screenplay together with Javier García Arredondo (LA NOVIA). Filmax produced the film in cooperation with Vaca Films.

It premiered in early 2011 in Spain over Filmax. The film had a UK and US release in the spring of the same year.

In the very beginning we are placed in a beautiful house, with a perfect family in an ordinary day just after moving to a new residential area but, suddenly the dream is over, and three hooded Eastern-European criminals burst into their home holding the family hostage in its own home and forcing the father to empty his credit cards. Nothing will get better and from now on the family will be abused in several ways.

The father is played by Fernando Cayo, an actor I am not a big fan of, but who – I must confess- does a great role in here. He is basically a TV actor for Spanish comedies and some Spanish cinema blockbusters such as PALMERAS EN LA NIEVE (2015) or EL ORFANATO (THE ORPHANAGE, 2007). He is now in the popular show MONEY HEIST aka LA CASA DE PAPEL as Coronel Tamayo. Mother and daughter are Manuela Vellés and Ana Wagener, also from TV series.

KIDNAPPED is the best movie so far by this director. It is very well done full of distressing parts such as the rape scene, the father’s attempt to run away, and the whole abuse situation in general. It keeps away from cheering resolutions or hopeful endings and that is what makes it even better and more realistic- also it is placed and shot in Madrid so many spots are familiar for the locals. They were the most agonizing 90 minutes I have ever spent watching a movie. It is full of actual violence, brutality, and sadism.

One of the things I enjoyed the most is the editing. The story is told in parallel narratives via 4 basic tracking sequence shots which follow an awesome pace, by the way, the movie is composed of 12 long shots, without cuts in them. The narrative is a masterpiece.

The movie, a must for extreme realistic horror fans, can be watched on Filmin if you are in Spain or Amazon Prime.

It is also available on DVD and BR released by Vértice cine in 2011, so it may be a little difficult to find in this format. This edition is said to have English subtitles for the flick.

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Elena Anele is the woman in charge of SPANISHFEAR.COM, Horror Rises from Spain, and Un Fan de Paul Naschy. A literature and cinema researcher, finishing her postgraduate studies with a thesis about the mystic filmmaker José Val del Omar. She has published in different media and books as Fangoria or Hidden Horror. She has also been in charge of several translations including Javier Trujillo’s complete works, La Mano Film Fest, The Man who Saw Frankenstein Cry and many more.