Review by Stephanie Scaife
Mild spoilers ahead.
The Hidden Face – or La cara oculta, Bunker or Inside as it’s variously been released – is a Columbian psychological thriller directed by Andrés Baiz (Satan), and although it appears to have been doing the festival circuit for a couple of years it’s only now making its UK debut directly onto DVD. It has some original ideas and I found it to be a fairly easy watch, but it’s ultimately let down by a number of rather gaping plot holes and a clichéd telling of an otherwise interesting tale.
The film starts with wealthy composer Adrian (Quim Gutierrez) watching a video in which his girlfriend Belen (Clara Lago) is explaining that she is leaving him and he is not to look for her. Although upset by this brutal dumping he almost immediately seeks solace in the arms of waitress Fabiana (Martina Garcia), who after a whirlwind romance soon moves into Adrian’s palatial home, despite the warnings from her cop ex-boyfriend that Adrian is a suspect in Belen’s disappearance. Things seem to be going pretty well for the new couple; that is until mysterious things start happening around the house such as voices in the pipes, unexplained ripples in the bath water and regular power cuts. This first half of the film plays like a straight up ghost story, and is effectively creepy in places, lulling the viewer to believe that Belen’s ghost is haunting the house after being murdered by Adrian. Then halfway through the story changes and becomes almost a different film entirely. We get a flashback to Belen viewing the house and being introduced to a secret hidden room, which we soon find out was built by the owner’s late husband who just happened to be a Nazi who fled to South America, and created the room as a place to hide should his location ever be discovered. Then we get the first half of the film again from the point of Belen, who as you may have guessed managed to get herself stuck in the Nazi bunker.
Now, I think my main issue with this film is the reveal as to how Belen ended up in the bunker in the first place. It’s frankly ridiculous. I won’t spoil it for you here but I was yelling “what are you doing you stupid woman?!” at my television screen. Speaking of the bunker, I also think it was a flaw not to give more information as to exactly how it came about and why nobody concerned seems at all worried or about the whole Nazi thing. There is also a major problem with judging the time frame of the film; I honestly have no idea if Belen was trapped in there for a week or for months, making it all rather confusing as to how she’s survived and exactly how quickly Adrian moved on after her disappearance because it seems like it’s the next day that Fabiana appears. Also repeating the story from a different point of view is a narrative device that is oftentimes simply a little dull, as you’re being forced to re-watch what you’ve literally just seen and it can be difficult to pull off successfully without simply highlighting yet more plot holes. The Hidden Face treads the line here and just about pulls it off, but not quite enough to stop it being frustrating.
This isn’t to say that there weren’t things I liked about The Hidden Face. The acting is pretty good and with all the primary characters turned up to eleven the melodrama flows thick and fast, but in a pleasing sort of a way that works well with this sort of overwrought subject matter. The film also tears along at a fair whack, making it difficult to lose interest and it almost convinces you that everything makes sense, like if they cram everything in as quickly as possible you won’t have the time to question what goes on, and it almost works. Ultimately I get the feeling that it’s going to prove forgettable (I already had to double check the title twice whilst writing this) and that there isn’t really much of an audience out there for it, but I guess if you can leave your brain at the door and just go along for the ride there are things here to appreciate.
Hidden Face is out now on Region 2 DVD, from Metrodome.
UPDATE – the release has actually been put back to 9th September 2013. Sorry!