Wall Street stockbroker Rosario Fuentes returns to her grandmother's apartment after her sudden death. While sorting through her belongings, Rosario discovers a hidden chamber that's filled with occult artifacts tied to dark generational rituals. As supernatural occurrences begin to plague her, she must confront her family's buried secrets and face the truth about the sacrifices and choices they made.
Director: Felipe Vargas
Cast: Emeraude Toubia, David Dastmalchian, José Zúñiga, Diana Lein, Paul Ben-Victor
Release Date: May 2, 2025
Genre: Horror
Rated R for bloody violent content and some language.
Runtime: 1h 28m
Review:
Felipe Vargas's feature film debut, Rosario, tries to explore some interesting concepts with his Latin inspired spookfest. Unfortunately, its convoluted story falls back on tired tropes while barely registering any sort of real scares along the way. Vargas does show some talent behind the camera as he makes solid use of the setting and a series of grossout moments. Sadly, there's a noticeable lack of tension to the whole thing that saps most of the film of any real energy with most of the scares falling flat. The script doesn't do him any favors with its hackneyed dialogue and slow roll reveal of the main conceit. The concept takes an interesting approach to weave in horror elements and immigrant experience together but doesn't take full advantage of the concept before resorting to overused jump scares. It doesn't help that Emeraude Toubia is onscreen by herself for nearly 90 percent of the film's runtime. Toubia makes an admirable effort as she tries to carry the film, but she just doesn't have the acting chops required to pull it off. Her character fluctuates between confused, terrified to oddly ok with all the increasingly odd occurrences unfolding in front of her. That doesn't include some of the sillier elements such as her grandmother's rather expansive apartment which contains more secret compartments than a medieval castle. David Dastmalchian, José Zúñiga and Paul Ben-Victor make up the small supporting cast, but the film never takes advantage of their talents. Dastmalchian feels wasted in what amounts to a pointless, throwaway character who doesn't factor all that much into the overall story. It all leaves Rosario a rather forgettable experience that fumbles some of the more interesting ideas it throws onscreen.
D
