Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Captivating movie !

The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

The first must-see film of the year.

I really loved this movie. Not your typical horror spooky movie, and I still get chills from it. I saw this movie three times. Loved the soundtrack, loved Ruth Diaz in this movie. Every emotion she felt, I felt. Talk about fear. This movie haunts me daily. In order to appreciate all that this movie has to offer, you should first learn more about the actual horrific crimes against the 30,000 people that disappeared in Argentina from 1976-1983. Knowing this first will make your heart ache and jump as you watch how this movie unfolds, untwists and as it opens up to let you in and keeps you there. That is what I felt the director was trying to do but for some people, they may not know of the horrors of the forced disappearances that happen in many other countries around the world. This movie really opened my eyes to these horrors.

Let me start out by saying that I gave it a 7/10 due to the misleading "horror" movie this film is supposed to be(?). I don't know if the horror genre with this movie is the way to go. Another review calls it a "horror with a supernatural twist/thriller within a mystery", I'd leave out the horror part and say it describes it perfectly. That being said, I enjoyed it for the most part, as it was entertaining and had unexpected twists (with some old horror movie ingredients).It's a different way to tackle some social-political issues that have been left unresolved in Argentina. Very BOLD in terms of how the subject matter was dealt with (one of the other reasons I gave it a fairly high rating).I feel I need to clarify points, misunderstandings the movie may've caused others who've seen it:1. There is NO mention of any political affiliation of the parents in the film. There is only a blatant assumption that they're communist by the doctor. You must take into account that in the 1976-1982 dictatorship, the communists weren't the only ones targeted. There were socialists, Christian-democrats, Peronists, unionists, liberals, activists (in general) etc. And anyone who had significant ties or any ties for that matter, or simply questioned the regime would be considered suspicious, not to mention a potential target.2. Where is there in the film any hint of a communist vanguard and what lack of evidence? If you refer to the woman telling the Malena about her experiences and the fact that one of her friends disappeared because he went to a "marcha" (protest-march), please refer to point Nº1.3.The movie was filmed in Argentina: The City of Buenos Aires and in the Patagonia. The Castilian "dialect" is rioplatense (spoken in Uruguay and Argentina).The end was the part that most impacted (me, at least) as the siblings were now able to see all the ghosts of the people who were "missing" (keep in mind in Spanish "missing" and "disappeared" in this case are the same word=desaparecido/s). Aparecidos= (the) Appeared. For this reason I felt the title was perfect and the ending not only appropriate, but surprising, non-conventional, in a very good way.

Highly entertaining ghost story with many plot twists and turns. This film is unpredictable and offbeat. Ultimately, it is a plea to stop the torture and murder of civilians who suffer under repressive political regimes. This message should be applied equally to the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany, Communists in Argentina in 1981 or Iraqis in Guatanamo Bay in 2009. There are a few places in the film where it doesn't work well if you try to consider it logically, so don't look at it logically. Just follow the story where it wants to take you and you will be rewarded. I watched this because it was billed as a ghost story, but I enjoyed this film on so many other levels.

If you want something different than the usual horror genre, this is the movie for you. I would personally describe it as horror with a supernatural twist/thriller within a mystery. Long description, but that's what it is. I wanted to see it first and foremost because it was filmed in Madrid, Spain (having lived there, some things were recognizable), and I am a fan of supernatural horror flicks. The plot of this movie was NOT predictable whatsoever, which is good. I hate movies you can figure out in the first five minutes of watching them. I was so engaged in the film that I did not move from seat for fear of missing one little detail. There are some parts that made me gasp even, and what you find out in the end is really disturbing,intriguing, and extremely unexpected. Oh, and just a further note, the Spanish they speak in the movie is a castilian dialect, but that's why they have English subtitles.