The Diary movie review: Juan Acosta-starrer is a fairly entreating psychological thriller

Still from The Diary

Film: The Diary/ (El Diario) (Amazon Prime)
Cast: Juan Acosta, César Antonio, Isabella Arroyo, Irene Azeula
Directors: Emma Bertrán, Alba Gil
Rating: 2.5/5
Runtime: 72 min

This Mexican film is a psychological horror thriller that focuses on a divorced mother Olga (Irene Azeula) and her daughter Vera(Isabella Arroyo). They have just moved into a new house in order for Vera to have a chance to recuperate from the traumas she has experienced in the past. Olga is doing everything to help Vera heal but the move to the new house doesn't get the results Olga was expecting. Instead there's a haunted feel to the place. Flickering lights and other eerie occurrences lead Olga to explore the attic where she finds a chest with some suspicious items including an unfinished diary. It happens to be that of a killer and Olga becomes fascinated by its dark secrets. She eventually starts imagining paranormal activity, visions and apparitions and finds that her daughter Vera is also behaving quite self-destructively…

The narrative opens like a horror film but eventually plays out as a psychological thriller using imagination and story-telling smarts to craft a thriller that is fairly credible. The film opens with Vera calling out to her dog, Nelson, in the woods. There's a gunshot and next Vera is shown carrying the injured dog to the vet. Thereafter we see Vera at her therapist Dr. Carlos's office, unwilling to talk about Nelson. Vera also appears to have problems with her Dad, Victor's new girlfriend Marianna.

Suspecting some sort of connection with the Diary, random paranormal visions and Vera's behavior, Olga meets with a graphologist, who deems the author of the Diary is a woman killer who happens to have a liking for murdering people. The graphologist also claims the killer is from the present time… which seems to be a rather far fetched deduction just from analysing the writing. From there on the narrative gets a little unsteady.

Olga believes Vera's accidents are linked to the house and the diary. So for most of the film it's Olga trying to make sense of what is happening to her daughter and herself. The events written in the diary continue to unfold and Olga tries her best to trump fate by keeping her daughter confined but powerful forces converge and the pre-written murders take place notwithstanding.

This film has a unique story that makes fate the determinant of how the narrative will progress. The director manages to make the complex analogy of having the past converge into the present, simple and lucid enough to get involved with. The actors do their job of being serious and in the moment. Other than a few outrageous moves, the narrative seems believable and fairly justifiable. This film, written by Emma Bertrán and Pamela Pons, with an amiable runtime of 72 minutes makes its family drama, supernatural aspects and imaginative thrills count. The atmosphere is dark and dreary. Despite the low budget and sparring use of VFX, this film manages to get you involved.