An average, but still interesting Spanish take on found footage. But the chosen genre is actually where it fails - believebality starts as so-so, then they just throw it out of the window, especially with some joke elements of the story being introduced (which essentially make the fun of it). And the way the end scenes were filmed...yeah...like it's a staged TV show rather than found footage.The story is relatively interesting to follow, the characters are nothing interesting, but at least they're not your typical robotic and overcliched Americans you usually see in horror movies. Their motivations to stay in an obviously haunted hospital are very weak, despite the contract being the reason (the medium decides to walk away then with just some irrelevant talk with one of the others decides to stay again and then very sure about it all of the sudden). It still manages to be creepy and the visual effects are good.

Young Luis (Luis Carlos Bogantes) and Arturu (Pablo Masis) are aspiring documentary film-makers, and they have decided that their first subject will be a long-abandoned sanatorium. Originally used for tuberculosis patients, it has also served as a prison, a madhouse and an orphanage – and, oh yeah, it has a reputation for being haunted. Our fearless documentarians recruit "excellent investigator" Mariana (Maria Elena Oreamuno) and psychic Lulu (Maria Luisa Garita), get the overbearing Esteban (Olgar Gonzales) to finance the film (well, using his father's money), hire Kurt (Kurt Dyer) to score the music for the film and to act as the resident atheist and sceptic, and find some tech guys to round out the team. They interview old people who stayed at the sanatorium and saw mysterious sights (which could have been the product of fevers), talk to journalists who have themselves tried to investigate the place only to be run out of the building through sheer fright, and eventually drive out to the old sanatorium themselves to see what they might find. Will their expectations be met, or dashed? Will strange paranormal events take place before their eyes and their recording equipment? And most importantly, will they make it out alive? This is a short (73 minutes) and very funny film – yes, it hits on the typical horror tropes for a film of this sort, but also includes little side bits such as Arturu's infatuation with Mariana (it seems they made out a couple of times in the past, but she confesses that she was "pretty wasted" at the time). A very low-budget film, the talented director/co-writer/co-producer Miguel Gomez manages the few special effects very handily, and there are actually a few genuine scares along the way. Señor Gomez was on hand for the FantAsia 2011 screening, and he proudly announced that of the 17 films ever made in Costa Rica, this is the first horror film. Winner of the Audience Award at the Morbido Film Festival in Mexico in 2010, this is a gem of a movie, with the love that went into making it apparent in every frame, although I will note that it would be useful for the film-makers to re-do the English subtitles, which are not very good. Recommended!

I was studying Spanish in Costa Rica till last week, we went to see this movie because it's a local effort and I was blown away of how much fun this movie is. This movie is nothing like Paranormal Activity, in fact, I dare any American, to watch this movie(I hope it make it here,via Netflix or amazon) and compare it to Paranormal Activity 1 or 2, I think El Sanatorio is way better.It has this genuine humor and this genuine vibe that I haven't seen in a movie for a long time. I laughed and get scared and that was great. It starts like a documentary, becomes a comedy and ends like a horror film. SAY WHAT ? Yes, this movie is like that. I was surprised cause during my stay I was shown 2 other movies, and both were awful, I think they are funded by the government cause one was about being a pregnant teen and it was like watching 90210(morality from the 90's and all) in the third world, the other one was about a Nicaraguan soldier (didn't get that one either). So when I heard about watching this movie about THE DURAN SANATORIUM (a must to any tourist) , I thought it was going to be another "Borefest". This movie is awesome, check it out, buy it from amazon, rent it from netflix, watch it at your local Festival, do what you need to do and check some serious Talent. You don't laugh genuinely and get genuinely scared in other horror movies like you'll do in this one.

I'm writing this review after watching El Sanatorio. I have to say, that at first, I felt like in Paranormal Activity and Blair Witch Project. That was after the first 5 minutes, then if just feels like if Spinal Tap had a monster baby with Drag me to hell. The film is really amusing and clever introducing all the characters, it has deep characters that build around the story. It also feels like a joke. 2 film students, and atheist musician, an egocentric producer, one sexy girl and a clueless medium go to a haunted hospital with cameras and microphones to record the ghosts in the place. From there it sounds like a cliché film but nothing could be more far from the Truth. The film has some great visual effects, they don't feel like those cheap effects in nowadays horror films. They feel more like 80's horror films, where the blood is real and the monster is real. I just felt so pleased at a full theater where the entire audience is laughing and then the film starts switching genres and becoming a horror film. The director is really clever, he knows the formula for comedy, and he knows the formula for horror, so the movie delivers for sure. Be ready for some scenes parodying the Paranormal Activity movies. But don't be fooled by other reviews, this film has it's own monster laying within, and when it comes out it would take your mind for a few hours after watching it.