Tagline: Prey for the children.
In 1992, Dr Contreras Sr. prepares to abandon a finca in Santa Clara, Colombia. As he walks down the stairs he receives a phone call. The person on the other side of the line tells him to burn a group of medical files. These files belong to several children. He proceeds to burn, as he does, he hears noises around the house, disposes some of the files on a food lift as he cant burn them fast enough and goes to see what the noises are. He is then chased by several children who push him out of a 2nd floor balcony and he falls to the patio impaling a piece of wood in his chest killing him. Also, dropping in a bush a scalpel he picked up from his belonging to defend himself from the intruders.
20 years later, Sara and Paul move from the Uk to Santa Clara. Sara is Jordan´s only daughter and the new manager of the paper mill that Jordan owns. The Paper company has been in town for more than 20 years. It has brought prosperity to the town and provided new infrastructure and jobs.
Sara and Paul are moved into their new house: the finca. There, Paul finds the scalpel in a bush that Dr Contreras dropped 20 years before. Jordan tells them that the finca has been inhabited for a long time. Paul and Sara love the new housing and Hanna has a new doll house in the back yard.
During a walk on the market, a girl snatches Hanna’s pony doll and Hanna follows her through the market. The girl has a ragged appearance and seems to have gauze wrapped in her head and face. Hanna walks towards her to recover her toy but is picked up by her parents after losing sight of her for a few moments.
The next day, while playing at home, Hanna hears a noise coming from the jungle in her porch and wonders into the forest. Her father is looking at pictures he has taken and see the snapshot he took the day they arrived of Hanna. He then notices the shadows of several faces with green bright eyes in the background. He looks up and Hanna is gone from his sight and into the woods. Hanna sees her pony placed in a rock and is about to take it when her father arrives and picks her up. The pony is now gone from sight and her father tells her that the pony was lost in the market. It cant be there.
A girl is hired by Jordan to be a maid/nanny/assistant: Catalina, a local girl who wishes to become a teacher and speaks fluent English. On the night of “Los Niños Santos” (The Holy Children or Children Saint) Catalina is baby sitting Hanna. In town, her parents watch the celebration of the children. They are told about the story that is observe on the celebration: 500 years before a group of Spaniard conquistadors came to town, found the helpless fisherman town and kidnapped all the children and demanded silver for the rescue. The town, regardless of its poverty, manage to borrow the gold from neighboring towns and paid the ransom. Nevertheless, the children were locked up in a church by their captors and burn alive.
At the finca, Hanna is awaken by the sound of the door of the “food lift” in her room opening. She walks closer and sees her pony in it. Meanwhile, her babysitter is following a red ball that has suddenly moved in the living room. Paul sees a boy in town with gauze on his head staring at him and them suddenly disappear from the spot.
Paul and Sara arrive home to hear Hanna scream inside the finca. Then, they find that Hanna has fallen inside the lift in her room. She is unconscious and feverish with a rash in her arm. At the clinic, Dr Contreras Jr. is now the paper mill doctor and does medical work on Hanna to verify her condition. Catalina tells Paul and Sara that the ghost of children roamed the house the night before and Paul dismisses her. Jordan travels to Brazil and leaves his daughter ahead of the factory. Sara is reviewing all company info and is unable to find statements from 20 years ago. Her father tells her that the factory has gone digital, and someone will have to look up the physical files for her.
Hanna´s condition worsens everyday, even though her blood work came out fine and she is given medicine. She now has rashes on her legs and both of her parents agree to take her back to UK for medical attention. That night, the shadow of several children are seen on the house as Paul roams the outside after hearing noises and Sara is making tea. Paul goes back to Hanna´s room but in her bed now is a boy who says in a native language “red waters” and then vanishes. Outside, Sara runs after a group of children who have wrapped her daughter in the mosquitoes net and run away with her.
Out of the Dark (Spanish: Aguas rojas) is an English-language supernatural thriller film starring Julia Stiles and Scott Speedman. The independent Spanish-Colombian co-production is directed by Lluís Quílez based on a screenplay by Alex Pastor, David Pastor, and Javier Gullón. Filming took place in Colombia between April 2013 and July 2013, after which it entered post-production. The film premiered at Germany’s Fantasy Filmfest on August 27, 2014.
Out of the Dark
Directed by: Lluís Quílez
Starring: Pixie Davies, Alejandro Furth, Stephen Rea, Julia Stiles, Scott Speedman, Vanesa Tamayo, Guillermo Morales Vitola
Screenplay by: Javier Gullón, David Pastor
Production Design by: Iñigo Navarro
Cinematography by: Isaac Vila
Film Editing by: Bernat Vilaplana
Costume Design by: Bina Daigeler
Art Direction by: Juan Carlos Acevedo
Music by: Fernando Velázquez
MPAA Rating: R for some violence, terror and disturbing images.
Studio: Vertical Entertainment
Release Date: February 27, 2015
Visits: 75
