Published February 5, 2010

It’s February, and I think we all know what that means: it’s still cold. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, I can move on to more important subjects, like Spanish thrillers.  Those of you who don’t know me too well might think that I was being clever in the last paragraph, that I was alluding to the movie’s subject when on the surface it appeared that I was just talking about the weather. Well, I wasn’t being clever. Shiver has nothing to do with the cold, and everything to do with the feeling you get when something goes bump in the night.
The film is about a teenage boy with a rare condition called photophobia. Santi (Junio Valverde) struggles to live as a normal teenager, something that’s kinda hard when you can’t go out in sunlight. The movie begins in a city, where he lives with his single mother Julia (Mar Sodupe). Since Santi’s condition appears to be worsening, he’ll eventually get cancer and go blind, he and his mother decide to move to a remote mountain village that rarely gets direct sunlight, thanks to canyons and woods and clouds and such. This seems fine and dandy, until we discover that some mysterious beastie has been killing animals in the area. Things only get worse when it starts killing humans and Santi somehow keeps ending up at the scene of the crime…
This is not a horror film, though I hear it was marketed as one. Shiver is a thriller. I’m a little fuzzy on the distinction, but I believe that the characters in thrillers are supposed to think, while the characters in horror movies are supposed to die solely for our amusement. That may be wrong, but really, when was the last time you saw a horror movie with smart characters? Since the characters in Shiver are actually reasonably intelligent, the scientific method leads me to classify this film as a thriller. Also, that’s what Netflix said it was, and Netflix never lies.
But I digress. Shiver is by no means a great movie. It has its flaws, and, like most movies that deal with people being chased through the woods by some unknown beast, is rather predictable, especially if you watch Supernatural. Since I do watch Supernatural, it’s one of the best shows currently on TV, it wasn’t too hard to figure out the twist. If you don’t watch Supernatural or many horror movies, much of what happens will come as a big surprise.
Even if you do watch Supernatural, this is still a well-made, sometimes unconventional movie. It doesn’t matter that the plot can be predictable, because it’s all done so well. The actors do their best to make their characters seem like real humans, even when the script occasionally requires them to do things that real people probably wouldn’t do. That alone is kind of surprising, since most movies these days, whatever the genre, don’t bother having believable characters *cough Avatar cough.*
Like I said, Shiver’s plot is not entirely original. What makes the film unconventional is the presentation. It doesn’t rely on cheap scares like so many other thrillers. It lets the scary stuff creep up on you. One of the most effective scenes happens about halfway through. Santi has just seen the “thing” rustling in the foliage outside his house during a rainstorm. Since it’s already killed two people at this point, he is understandably ill at ease. He bolts the doors and windows, then grabs a steak knife from the kitchen and waits on the couch. Hours go by and nothing happens, so he wraps himself in a blanket and falls asleep. There’s a close-up of Santi sleeping, and we’ve reached the point where most movies would have the monster jump out from behind the couch or something. Shiver doesn’t do that. The thing slowly comes onscreen; we don’t hear it, and the first thing we see is its long, matted hair. As this happens, we realize that it’s probably been there the whole time. That is far more frightening than watching a monster leap out and attack you.
On top of all that, Shiver is also beautifully shot. Director Isidro Ortiz uses the scenery to great effect, creating a gloomy, eerie atmosphere and reminding us that the woods are, in fact, quite scary, even during the day.
Anyway, y’all should probably watch this movie. It’s not perfect, but it’s so well made that its few flaws don’t seem all that important.