''The Warning'' (2018 film)

The Warning
Film poster
Spanish El Aviso
Release date
  • February 24, 2018 (2018-02-24) (Donostia premiere)

The Warning (Spanish: El Aviso) is a 2018 Spanish thriller film directed by Daniel Calparsoro and based on the novel of the same name by Paul Pen. The screenplay was adapted by Jorge Guerricaechevarría and Chris Sparling. It was produced by Morena Films.[1][2]

The Warning was shown at the 2018 Miami International Film Festival[3] and premiered on Netflix in July 2018.[4] The film received mixed reviews from critics.

Plot

In April 2018, 9-year-old Nico is tormented by bullies who force him to steal an X-rated magazine from a convenience store, and tell him about a man who was shot and killed there 10 years earlier. Nico is caught shoplifting by the owner, Héctor, who realizes the magazine is not for such a young boy. Héctor does not tell Nico's mother, Lucía, and Nico instead buys a video game magazine. Later, he discovers a note saying he must not go to the store on his birthday, 12 April, or else he will be killed. When his mother complains to the school principal, Nico is bullied further.

On 2 April 2008, David tells his best friend Jon he plans to propose that weekend to his girlfriend, Andrea. They stop to pick up ice at the same store, where David is shot in the head, an innocent bystander of an attempted murder. As David lies in a coma, Jon, a mathematician suffering from schizophrenia, stops taking his risperidone. He discovers three previous violent incidents at the same place, with an unusual pattern. Each occurred on 12 April (with the exception of David's shooting) and five people are always present: a 10-year-old boy and four other people aged 21, 32, 42 and 53 years old.

The first incident was a botched bank robbery at the Crédito Agrícola in 1913. Jon finds the elderly daughter of the robber, Ezequiel González, 53-year-old, who tells him her father was desperate for money to pay for her illness, a virus he contracted during the war in Africa and passed to her. After being denied a loan, an armed Ezequiel returned and killed the manager when he pulled out a gun. Ezequiel, who suffered from PTSD from the war, was triggered by people screaming and shot three more people before killing himself.

In 1955, 42 years later, an inn was on the spot, and the owner was murdered by her ex-lover in front of her 10-year-old son. She was 42-year-old. In 1976, 21 years after that, Basque separatist group ETA attempted to assassinate an Army general there. The general survived but his 21-year-old guard, who saved the life of a 10-year-old boy, was killed.

Jon tells Andrea and David's brother about the pattern, but they blame his schizophrenia. Andrea accuses him of being paranoid because his own birthday is 12 April, when he will turn 32. When David is declared brain dead, with only a one-in-a-million chance of regaining consciousness, his family decides to pull the plug, to Andrea's anguish. Jon tells her his theory that Ezequiel is being reincarnated and killed on the same spot, and that based on the sequence, a 10-year-old boy will be the final one killed, but that they can save him. Andrea is enraged and instead blames Jon for driving there, telling him he should have been the one shot instead of David.

After David's life support is disconnected, Jon runs to the maternity ward, shouting to the parents of a newborn their son must not go to the convenience store on his 10th birthday or else he will die. Jon is arrested but escapes, and returns to the convenience store, where he gets a call from Andrea that David has miraculously regained consciousness. Jon realizes that he is the one who must die. He writes the warning (the same one that Nico received years later) and, while wearing a video game T-shirt, gives it to Héctor, telling him he must pass it to a boy, ten years later, who reminds him of Jon. Jon insists that another customer is going to rob the store and takes the gun away from the owner. He forces Héctor, the man and a 10-year-old boy to go outside, where a police officer arrives to complete the sequence.

In 2018, Nico learns another boy got the same warning not to go to the store, but it happened at the hospital the day he was born. When Lucía asks the boy's father, he denies it. Lucía is convinced her son is being pranked and insists he go to the store to conquer his fears once and for all. She gives him money and waits outside. As Nico waits inside, a man pulls out a gun and demands money from the register. Héctor is absent, but the younger man working pulls out a gun in response. Nico looks up in the convex mirror to see Jon from 2008, waving the gun outside the store, while Jon sees in the mirror the image of Nico in 2018. In the mirror, Jon screams at Nico over and over to run, and Nico runs to safety just as bullets fly. Outside, he tells his mother he wasn't afraid.

In 2008, the police officer shoots and kills Jon, who was able to save Nico's life by getting him to run. After he dies, Nico is born.

Cast

Reception

The Warning received mixed to negative reviews from critics. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 50% score based on eight reviews.[5]

Jonathan Holland of The Hollywood Reporter gave a negative review, writing, "As a director, Calparsoro has repeatedly promised to deliver something special, but has never quite delivered: The Warning, whose final third makes logical sense, but relies too heavily on unlikely coincidence, continues that trend."[3]

In Forbes, Travis DeShong summarized the film as disappointing, writing, "The only thing worse than a bad film is a disappointing one. Nothing stings quite like a film failing to deliver on its premise, especially if that premise shows promise. Spanish director Daniel Calparsoro's thriller, The Warning (El Aviso), an adaptation of the novel by Paul Pen, is capably assembled but doesn't fulfill its own potential, betraying glimpses of a richer story than the one we actually get."[4]

Jordi Costa of Spanish newspaper El País (Spain) compared the film to episodes of Lost criticized the storyline, writing, "Calparsoro puts his professionalism at the service of a story that does not create enough belief in the improbable so that the viewer is imbued with the mystery. It leaves the impression that even a good part of the cast has serious difficulties in believing in this story."[6]

Joe Reid of Decider.com gave the film a more positive review, writing, "A well-acted and surprisingly affecting thriller, all things considered, and a satisfying mystery, if not a shocking one."[7]

References

  1. ↑ Hopewell, John (19 September 2013). "Spain's Morena Sets Up L.A. Operation (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  2. ↑ Hopewell, John (21 September 2014). "Morena Films: Thinking Outside the Box". Variety. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  3. 1 2 Holland, Jonathan (30 March 2018). "'The Warning' ('El Aviso'): Film Review | Miami Film Festival 2018". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  4. 1 2 DeShong, Travis (31 July 2018). "Netflix's 'The Warning' Is A Gripping But Incomplete Spanish Thriller". Forbes. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  5. ↑ "The Warning (El aviso)". rottentomatoes. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  6. ↑ Costa, Jordi (23 March 2018). "Crítica | Hinchando la paradoja". El País (in Spanish). Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  7. ↑ Reid, Joe (25 July 2018). "Stream It or Skip It: 'The Warning' on Netflix Intertwines Math and Murder". Decider. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
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