If the entire world told you that someone you loved didn’t exist and acted like you were crazy for thinking so, would you just accept it or do everything you could to prove them wrong?  Shudder’s latest exclusive film On the 3rd Day touches upon this very issue.  It boasts creative and creepy visuals, with a mystery/thriller vibe that works most of the time…

Amnesia
Following an intense car crash, Cecilia wakes up having no idea where her son is who was in the car with her.  She embarks on a mission to try and find him, all while something strange and sinister seems to be going on in the background.

Set and filmed in Argentina, the movie has a variety of interesting locations that help create the world that it’s in.  And by the third act, things take a strange turn into supernatural horror that was definitely set up before, but it still feels like it sort of comes out of nowhere.  It’s a bad third act necessarily, it just feels like it followed a different movie.

However, what really holds the film back, at least the version they have on Shudder is the fact that it’s dubbed rather than subtitled.  Granted, this is usually a personal preference among fans (although I will argue that subtitled is objectively better), but the main issue is that the dub itself isn’t a particularly good one, and it comes off like watching a dubbed 60’s Godzilla movie.

Modern Giallo?
However, perhaps we’re judging this film too harshly.  Sure the voice acting in the dub feels melodramatic and over the top, but given the movie’s unique visual style and mystery elements, it might just be that On the 3rd Day is trying to be a giallo movie.  And that does change things a bit.

Given director Daniel de la Vega’s previous track record with mysteries, it wouldn’t be out of the question for this to have been his intention.  Everything from the bad dub to the strange genre shift at the end might all be intentional components to make this movie as surreal and dreamlike as possible.

So whether or not you enjoy On the 3rd Day will very much depend on what kind of horror film you’re looking for.  If you want something more serious and dramatic, you can probably skip this one, but if you want something more unusual and bizarre with a giallo-inspired feel, it just might be the film for you!

What did you think of On the 3rd Day?  Let us know in the comments!

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