The Squad (2011)

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

"The Squad"(El Paramo) is a Spanish film about a squad of soldiers who were deployed, lost, and trapped in uncharted territory where they find a creepy silent captive who refuses to cooperate. It's a dreadful film and is definitely atmospheric. It was a good scary movie. If you read any further you will reveal the whole plot of the movie, as I have included many spoilers in my review. So beware! **Contains Spoilers** they hide out at a compound thats old and rundown looking. They discover that anyone who was there is now mysteriously gone and there is blood splattered all over the walls. This movie was moving at an almost boring pace,that is, until one soldier discovers a hollow concrete wall with something behind it. The lieutenant orders his men to knock the wall down and what they find inside is truly terrifying. They find a filthy woman covered in dirt and wearing rags who has been bound at the hands. This woman does not talk, but yells loudly. There's something not right about her. She's very hard to look at, as he is terrifyingly creepy. As a viewer, I immediately knew she had bad motives. The soldiers question the woman about what had happened at that base. How did she get in the wall? What happened to the other men who were stationed there? Who is she? She still refuses to talk. Somehow, the woman escapes and that's when things get really sour and the men start to turn on each other. One of the soldiers finds a journal in the base that reveals a lot about what happened there, and it also reveals that the woman in the wall is actually a witch. While some of the men think she's an innocent old woman who needs help, others think she is a witch who has put a curse on the men and anyone who comes in contact with her will die. Ultimately, they decide that she needs to die and they set out through the fog to hunt her down. It does not go well. It is an overall good idea and a good movie but I wish the director did a little bit more with the supernatural idea and less with the "it's man's fault" idea

A special high mountain command (stars : Juan David Restrepo, Mateo Stevel, Andrés Castañeda, Daniela Catz, and Nelson Camayo, among others) of nine is sent to a military base in a desolate high-plains moor of Colombia , but all contact with the military base high in the desolate wastelands of Colombia has been lost . Contact was lost several days ago and was believed to be target of a guerrilla attack . Upon arrival, the only person found inside the base results to be a woman , as the men discover a shocking scene of carnage, and only one survivor , a peasant who is heavily chained . Gradually , the team is disturbingly hooked by isolation and the impossibility to escape , and creating them doubts about the true nature of that strange woman . They start to question the identity of their enemy, and the true nature of the strange , silent woman . Is she a terrorist ? A victim? Or something more sinister? Something supernatural… Paranoia takes root . Prisoners of fear and the terrible secret they share , and the events go wrong .This stirring as well as violent film has breathless , brutal scenes , a gut punch of an action film , it creates a nice amount of tension and fright . It begins when authorities – believing a military base to have fallen to a terrorist attack – send a nine-man squad to investigate ; as a special unit of combat taking on the challenges of dealing with pressure themselves , isolating , fright and fighting at an unnamed war . This is a thrilling picture with terror elements in which a squad is submitted to strange horrors and impossibility of escape that undermine the integrity and sanity of the soldiers, causing them to lose the certainties about the identify of the enemy . It's an interesting movie , from the beginning until the end the frightening and scary action is unstoppable . It's a thought-provoking and clever studio of an Elite Squad , about some experienced soldiers, and unflinching remark at the lack of communication , as a group inability to communicate with the outside world originating upsetting feelings , hatred and confrontation . The film turns out to be a crossover from various flicks , as it takes parts here and there of The Bunker by Rob Green , Deathwatch by Michael J. Basset , The Guard Post , among others . The flick has an eerie atmosphere , it is in gloomy color , enhanced by the mud of trenches and with lights and shades that originates a ghostly setting . Set design is alright , the movie is enough atmospheric , the dark sludge , the dirtiness and filthiness with the muddy trenches are very well designed .Jaime Osorio Marquez makes his acceptable writing and directing debut with this tale of an elite team of soldiers , though overusing the Steadicam . American remake rights to The Squad (El Paramo) have already been snatched up by a Hollywood producer. Colombia Reports says Scott Lastaiti (his previous credits include executive producing Turistas , Love in the Time of Cholera and Stan Helsing) saw the film, thought it was "chilling," and ultimately purchased the rights.

I caught this first time around on Netflix about a year ago and absolutely loved it. So much in fact I bought the film on DVD a couple of months ago (not sure if it has had a blu-ray release). I really can't recommend this film enough it is well written, well shot, well acted and has a brooding, claustrophobic quality about it that stands it head and shoulders above the large percentage of dross that currently boasts to be "the scariest film you will see this year, blah blah" I must also mention the score which adds impressively to the ominous atmosphere of this film overall. Impressive!

As with the first two reviews, I have to agree that there were no weak acting here. Every single one of them were marvelous. The cinematography and especially the atmosphere were very effective and notable.However, I would not classify this as a horror movie. I'm inclined to say that this is more of a suspense/drama.Admittedly, the director was extremely talented in building up the tension, though it is quite tiring to always have that accumulate inside you without having any form of release as nothing of significance really happens. Granted, that he wasn't going for cheap thrills, which I can respect, but a movie gets anti-climactic fast, even with superb actors and atmosphere, if it's not going anywhere.This would have been great for a short film, but made into a full length movie, it became a bit diluted. Still, I did not regret watching this for the positive points already mentioned above. Those were so good, it salvaged the entire film.