The A.V. Club by Mike D'Angelo
Viewers who enjoy a big rug-pull will want to keep an eye out for this one, as it essentially combines the surprise endings of several notable films into one all-encompassing “Gotcha!”
Critic Rating
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Director
Roberto Busó-García
Cast
Cristina Rodlo,
René Monclova,
Axel Anderson,
Rocky Venegas,
Luz Odilia Font,
Marisé Álvarez
Genre
Mystery,
Thriller,
Drama
Determined to restore her dying father's reputation, Ana travels to the remote town of Rosales. Decades ago, he settled there and opened his first free clinic for cancer research. He launched an illustrious medical career - and fell in love. Ana plans to celebrate her father's scientific and humanitarian achievements by transforming the old family mansion into a world-class museum. She will preserve his legacy, and also breathe new life into the forgotten Rosales. But the townspeople-now destitute and helpless-do not greet her warmly. Neither does the house.
The A.V. Club by Mike D'Angelo
Viewers who enjoy a big rug-pull will want to keep an eye out for this one, as it essentially combines the surprise endings of several notable films into one all-encompassing “Gotcha!”
Time Out
The filmmaker throws in a strangely irrelevant twist before he’s through, but despite a lavish dose of gothic style, The Condemned’s trek toward absolution is pretty familiar.
The Hollywood Reporter by Frank Scheck
Although directed in effectively creepy fashion by Roberto Buso-Garcia, the film’s leisurely pacing and overall restraint will likely leave genre fans dissatisfied even as its lack of depth will turn off art-house patrons.
Slant Magazine by Steve Macfarlane
It adds up to a methodically bland, intellectually sluggish exercise in guilt-tripping that's nonetheless still more interested in its rich and sexy characters than the supposed unfortunates.
Los Angeles Times by Sheri Linden
A good idea for a ghost story is dead on arrival in The Condemned, a would-be thriller whose intended horror-tinged chills register as ho-hum hokum.
The New York Times by Manohla Dargis
The Condemned is uncanny only in its resemblance to a television soap, with acting as flat as the lighting and scenes that end with the kind of cliffhanger moments that otherwise announce commercial breaks.
Chicago Sun-Times
The Condemned is nothing but a creaky façade.
Village Voice
Writer-director Roberto Busó-Garcia's Spanish-language movie is so tame and so completely boring that to advertise it as a horror film is to insult the genre.
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