Mexican production Romina is a slasher film now streaming on Netflix. Directed by Diego Cohen, the film has no story and runs one-dimensionally on a simple plot where six friends go on a camping trip, and most get killed by one of their school friends.
I watched this movie because it was on Netflix. I kind of believe that Netflix has a decent collection of horror films, but Romina is definitely not one of those. However, barring the first few minutes when it was more to introduce and develop characters, it falls flat.
Plot:
A shocking assault inspires horrific violence when a group of teens encounters a girl from their school while camping in a remote spot.
Romina is more like a film made by acting school students where the makers have tried using different filmmaking styles borrowing heavily from others. Yet, from the very beginning, there is no suspense to look forward to; everything is already explained in the first scene.
In addition, there is no backstory and no effort has been made to develop the titular character. The plot twist at the very last scene also does not work as by that time – you must have asked many times “what the hell is happening?”.
Also, the idea to give it a found footage style feel also does not work, as it’s not consistent throughout the film. I can understand the set design and shooting limitation as the lack of resources.
Honestly, I respect filmmakers and the amount of effort they put in. However, sometimes I feel – they should be honest in creating a product and not such a half-baked one. In this film, I would not blame the actors, as I can see they are all newbies and they have little to perform. The script and dialogues also don’t add any value to their attempts.
I like Mexican movies and there are few good horror movies. I would also like to see more sound project from the director Cohen. Hopefully, he gets enough budget and a compelling story to work on.
Where to watch Romina (2018)
