Episode Guide
The House of the Damned The Cursed Doll The Woman from El Molino Something’s Knocking at the Door The Devil Dances before Easter Released on March 31st, one can’t help but feel Haunted: Latin America should have been released a day later – because this show is a joke. In its most basic form, Haunted: Latin America spins together “Real” stories through one family’s eye-witness account, with plots ranging from possessed dolls through to haunted houses. These incredulous accounts are accompanied by absolutely no facts or figures, along with narration over cheesy re-enactments. Latin America’s version of Haunted is just as disappointing as its American cousin. Aside from the first episode, the four other stories here clock in at around 30 minutes or so, following a pretty rigid structure. The opening 5 minutes or so introduces us to the basic outline of this story, as families gather together in a darkened room, candles dancing in the background. From here, everyone settles in and either take it in turns to narrate or listen silently to one eyewitness account. Either way, the stories range from your typical creepypasta online to farfetched accounts that rely on you suspending a lot of belief. The first episode, for example, hinders on a woman noticing toys moving around the house – even though she has two young children. They claim not to be involved but hey, kids lie right? From here, the stories range from dolls moving about and conjuring insects through to a man claiming to be haunted by an evil spirit all his life. What’s particularly irritating here though is the title tag at the start claiming “this is a true story.” Sure, these people may be telling what they believe to be true but as we’ve seen from numerous different shows, court trials and even documentaries, eye-witness accounts are not accurate and can easily be distorted. Plus, your mind can play tricks on you too. The re-enactments themselves wouldn’t actually be that bad if the acting was a little better and the overlaid narration was cut out. With both includes, it negates any of the potential jump scares or creepiness that this show could have conjured out of good faith. The closest thing to a scare here comes from anyone leaving this show and believing the stories are true. As I said before, with no facts, figures, interviews or archival footage from that time to back up these claims, it’s no different than listening to a camp fire story. And even then, it’s not clear if they’re all actually related family members or planted actors. Either way, Haunted: Latin America is a frightening show. It’s frightening that this was commissioned to air and the five stories range from the ridiculous to easily waved away through psychological issues affecting said individual. Given the sheer number of different supernatural and spooky stories out there, this is one you should steer well clear of.
