I don’t know about you, but I seldom think of Venezuelan cinema. I feel a strange satisfaction, however, that the highest grossing movie produced in that country was a horror film. It’s possible to find The House at the End of Time in streaming services, with subtitles. And it’s worth doing. It’s a movie that will stay with you. Intricately plotted and having a lot of heart, it’s a story of loss and redemption. After an apparent break-in at her house, Dulce is accused of killing her husband and son, and is sent to prison. We’re shown, however, that she found her husband already dead, or nearly so, and that her son had been stolen away by a mysterious force. After three decades, given her age, she’s released to house arrest. A neighborhood priest becomes interested in her case, believing that she’s innocent. It’s the house, it seems, that is haunted. Previous families who lived there experienced similar fates.
I won’t spoil it for you, but this is a horror film with heart as well as smarts. It also explores the life of the poor and learning to live with past mistakes. It’s a story about a family. Unlike many horror movies, the protagonists aren’t “all things being equal,” middle-class people. In this regard, it reminds me of The Orphanage and The Devil’s Backbone—also both Spanish-language horror films. And there’s a verisimilitude about the poor as the ones suffering the effects of haunting. Now even that has become a trendy commodity. A house haunted sometimes increases in value as ghosts become gentrified. Obviously, ghosts can haunt anyone, but there’s almost a parable aspect to them. Sometimes ghosts are all that the poor have.
That may be one of the reasons that The House at the End of Time is also Venezuela’s most internationally distributed movie. And the reason that an American production company is working on a remake (presumably in English). The ghosts here aren’t what we’ve come to expect, but religion plays a large part in the movie since the priest pays special attention to Dulce. The reason why is eventually explained, but he is a non-judgmental cleric. He attempts no exorcism. Instead, he researches and seeks to find an explanation for what is happening at this most unusual house. Catholicism is a large part of the culture in Venezuela, and I do hope that the remake doesn’t remove it. A sympathetic cleric is often difficult to find. And in this case, one that really pays off.
