La Casa en el Árbol

Festival note by Alejandro Yamgotchian

Horror as a springboard for a theme that, within the film's narrative, becomes a genuine swerve. Several genres are fused in this terrifying thriller — an attempt to do something different, where horror shifts shape, the conventional kind receding almost to the background before a drama suddenly emerges from it, with the lead carrying a character far less straightforward than she first appeared, in service of a somewhat provocative and especially challenging story. The debut feature of young Spanish director Luis Calderón, one to watch closely — and a cinema debut for celebrated Spanish rapper La Mala Rodríguez.