On The 3rd Day (Al Tercer Día) With Bloodthirsty Vampires
On The 3rd Day is a Spanish-language horror movie that follows a woman and her son. While driving along a dark road one night, they get into a particularly nasty car crash. Cecilia (Mariana Anghileri) loses consciousness and when she awakes, she finds herself alone in her vehicle that has veered off the road. Also known as Al Tercer Día the title directed by Daniel de la Vega ramps up the mystery. Opting to segment the film into scattered pieces, Cecilia embarks on a journey to try and put the night’s events back into place.
Visually striking, Cecelia wears a yellow jacket throughout that throws a stark contrast to everything else in every scene. Stripped of color, On The Third Day goes through the motions of making the audience care about this mother looking for her son. And we do. Her past is peppered with plenty of relationship goals that are the exact opposite of what any couple is looking for. Her ex-husband is an obvious bully who has no problem throwing fists when required.
Cecelia teams up with a doctor from the hospital who in turn keeps local authorities at bay as he tries to uncover her missing memory. The fact that she blatantly suffocates a woman in her adjoining room doesn’t go unnoticed though. The motives of why anyone assumes Cecelia isn’t a threat is probably one of the reasons On the 3rd Day movie failed overall. The police suspect Cecelia might have had something to do with her son’s disappearance but without a body, they can’t prove anything.
Classic Vampire Horror
When the narrative finally loops back to the other car in the accident, the wounded driver has a hostage. He’s taken a woman to an underground basement and wants her to know “that’s not her blood.” In the opening scenes of On the Third Day, a lady broken down and standing at the side of the road leads to the crash itself. If all this sounds a little disjointed it is. The timeline for the horror and fantasy movie moves along in a weird sequence of events. While often this type of editing works well, here it created a bit of confusion.
There is no emotional connection to any key characters aside from Cecelia and her son Martin. This makes it difficult to understand the motivations of the people who want to help her. While I liked the introduction of a therapy session with a hypnotist, by the time it’s introduced the mystery is somewhat solved. Looking back on On the 3rd Day, there is a lot to like. It’s moody and dark and the ending packs a bit of punch. Additionally, the final moments of On the 3rd Day movie are somewhat disturbing. As a whole production, however, the film just feels weird.
On the 3rd Day is rated
2.5 What’s inside the box? out of 5
On the 3rd Day Where to Watch Al Tercer Día
On the 3rd Day (Al Tercer Día) Where To Watch:
