I knew absolutely nothing about On the 3rd Day going in. I was incredibly surprised when I found out that it was an Argentinian movie. After watching Pussycake I was interested to see another Argentinian horror movie. This was a very different movie than Pussycake, in more than one way. The version that’s on Shudder is dubbed, which felt weird. While I usually watch dubbed anime, I know that’s some kind of blasphemy, but dubbed live-action movies always feel weird to me unless they’re the old kung fu movies. I feel like I’m only getting half of the performance in the dubbed version.
On the 3rd Day was directed by Daniel de la Vega and written by Alberto Fasce and Gonzalo Ventura. I’ve not seen anything that any that the three had made before this, but I was made a fan of their work after watching the movie. While I wasn’t the more enthralled by most of the movie, mostly because nothing was keeping my complete attention. As the story took more of a complete form, I moved closer to the edge of my seat. By the last thirty minutes I was on the edge of my seat wondering if I was right about where the story was going.
This is Mariana Anghileri’s movie. Her performance is what carries the majority of the movie. The changes that Anghileri goes through throughout the movie transcends the shoddy dubbing for the movie. Gerardo Romano also puts in a performance that transcends the shoddy dubbing. The rest of the cast is good but are held back by the awkward dubbing that doesn’t always match the emotion shown on screen.
The makeup effects in the movie are really good. The creature effects are fantastic. I’m also being necessarily vague as to not even possibly spoil the reveal. The effects for the kills are gruesome. That’s the best way to describe how they look. The music by Luciano Onetti is fantastic. The score ramps up the tension of the movie that extra degree.
On the 3rd Day is an interesting movie that somewhat flounders through a pacing problem and less than optimal dubbing but recovers in the last half hour. There is a post credits scene that might set up a sequel, but it could just be something else. I might see about giving it a rewatch without the dubbing to see if that improves my reaction to the performances. It’s available on Shudder and AMC+. I give On the 3rd Day 8.5 crosses out of 10.