The House at the End of Time

Alejandro Hidalgo's film is generally cited as the first Venezuelan horror feature. Dulce is held responsible for the deaths of her husband and son in 1981 and serves thirty years; returning to the same house to complete her sentence under house arrest, she tries to work out what actually happened. Its idea lies in structure rather than fright. The house holds different times at once, and Dulce can find herself in the same corridor as her own younger self. Hidalgo refuses to reduce this to a cheap twist; what emerges at the end changes the meaning of every scene shown up to that point and ties the tragedy to a story about a mother. It premiered at the Venezuelan Film Festival on 17 June 2013. It took four million four hundred thousand dollars at the domestic box office, becoming the highest-grossing horror film in Venezuelan history and the most widely distributed Venezuelan production internationally. It won Best Picture at Screamfest, and in 2016 New Line announced plans for a remake. Who it is for: viewers curious about horror that plays with structure and about Latin American genre cinema. Who it is not for: anyone wanting relentless pace or graphic violence, since the film builds its tension from waiting.