Veneno
2018 · 13m · Argentina
Directed by Lucas Rios
Genres: horror, mystery, thriller
A man wakes in a laboratory basement with no memory of identity while a renowned doctor tries to calm the patient and restore memory. Discovery follows about the doctor's true identity and a disturbing reason for confinement.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
The amnesia-reversal thriller is basically a hostage cliché, but Rios uses the basement setting and the doctor's gaslighting game to flip the power dynamic in ways that actually unsettles—shame it doesn't lean harder into the weirdness it's clearly teasing.
Competent execution of the confined-space thriller with deliberate pacing and a reveal structure that owes to Shyamalan's playbook, though the film would benefit from more formal clarity in how it telegraphs the doctor's duplicity through visual language rather than exposition.
The real lift here is how Rios pins the entire film's credibility on the doctor's performance—one moment of dropped composure, one micro-expression of satisfaction when the patient resists, and suddenly the whole confinement becomes obscene in a way the budget couldn't otherwise afford.