Film Review: KM 31: KILOMETRE 31 (2006)

Director: Rigoberto Castañeda
Writers: Rigoberto Castañeda, Ricardo Álvarez Canales (script consultant)
Running time: 105 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 15

Genre: Horror/Mystery/Thriller
UK Release date: 7^th December 2007

Watched on Sky+ Saturday 27^th April 2013.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE UNINTENTIONAL SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

I have to admit I knew nothing about this film before hitting the ‘PLAY’ button on my SKY+ box earlier today. Well not quite nothing; I knew it was a horror film and I knew it was from Mexico (not dubbed – so beware, those that fear the subtitle). It turned out to be an interesting, if a little cliché, film with a neat little twist at the end. Here’s a very brief summary before I give you my thoughts.

When Ágata is badly injured in a road accident, her identical twin sister Catalina is first on the scene (both played by Iliana Fox). It seems the accident was caused when Ágata saw a small boy in the road. She had phoned her boyfriend, Omar (Raúl Méndez) just before she was run over but there was no sign of the boy at the scene. Omar decides to investigate further but a Police Detective; Ugalde (Carlos Aragón) dissuades him. Catalina’s boyfriend, Nuno (Adrià Collado) also decides to look into it and he and Catalina re-visit the scene where they meet an old woman who tells them a tale about how a woman had thrown herself into the river that used to flow there with her young son. Meanwhile, Omar visits Detective Ugalde who tells him that he has been looking into the many accidents that have plagued that stretch of road over the years. They all come up with the same conclusion and they know just where to find the answers; in the sewers of Mexico City.

Quite an interesting film; quite dark with some nice special effects; although nothing ground-breaking. It’s pretty gory in places so it’s definitely not one for the squeamish. All the performances were very good, although I’ll put my usual caveat that it’s sometimes quite hard to judge a performance in a foreign language. I thought Iliana Fox stood out as the most praiseworthy though. The film does, however, fall a little into cliché here an there; it must be hard to find new ways to scare people these days. It just about have enough ‘creep-factor’ though to keep me interested, so it’s not all bad. Over all, worth a look if you’re a horror fan; otherwise, I’d probably give it a miss. Personally, I pretty much enjoyed it.

SteelMonster’s verdict: RECOMMENDED

My score: 6.2/10.

IMDb Score: 5.3/10 (based on 2,119 votes when this review was written).
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460485/

MetaScore: No Data: (Based on 0 critic reviews provided by Metacritic.com at the time of going to press).

Rotten Tomatoes ‘Tomatometer’ Score: 75/100 (based on 8 reviews counted at the time of going to press).

Rotten Tomatoes ‘Audience’ Score: 41/100 (based on 2,539 user ratings counted at the time of going to press).
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/km_31/

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Trailer: (Sorry about the picture quality)