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Carrie Underwood was brought to tears during one particularly moving American Idol audition.

During the Monday, February 2, episode of the reality singing competition, Underwood and her fellow judges, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan, listened to season 24 hopeful Hannah Harper perform her original song “String Cheese.”

After explaining that the song was written as a reflection of her experience with postpartum depression, Harper drew an emotional response from Underwood, 42.

“That’s about the most relatable song I think I’ve ever heard,” the American Idol season 4 winner, who shares sons Isaiah, 10, and Jacob, 7, with husband Mike Fisher, said. “You might be my favorite person that’s walked through those doors.”

Related: Carrie Underwood’s Best Quotes About Being a Mom to Sons Isaiah and Jacob

Something to sing about! Carrie Underwood shares two sons with her husband, Mike Fisher, and loves gushing about her little guys. The American Idol season 4 winner gave birth to the couple’s eldest, Isaiah, in February 2015. “Tiny hands and tiny feet. God has blessed us with an amazing gift!” the country singer captioned her […]

Underwood continued, “You’re one that I’m going to think about when we leave here. I’m going to be rooting for you. I loved everything about everything you just did.”

The judging trio then approved Harper’s progression to the next round of auditions.

Harper’s song’s lyrics read, “Hot Wheels and little people under my feet / Babies crying, it’s pure chaos, but I don’t miss a beat / Always knew that a nine to five wouldn’t suit me very good / But my hours are extended, that’s just motherhood.”

Of her lyricism, Harper, a mother of three, told Underwood, Richie, 76, and Bryan, 49, that her words flowed after sharing a poignant moment at home with one of her children. “I was sitting on my couch wallowing … and you have boys, you know, everybody wants to touch you,” she explained. “I didn’t want to be touched. I was just having a pity party, praying that the Lord would calm my spirit.”

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Harper continued, “My son kept coming up to me, ‘Mom, open this. Mom, open my cheese.’ I’m like, ‘Leave me alone with the dadgum cheese.”

Harper added that once she opened her son’s string cheese, she felt significant maternal responsibility. “I realized that God had put me in that place,” she told the judges. “That where I was in my house was the biggest ministry that I could ever have.”

Underwood said during a 2016 interview with Redbook magazine — when the country music singer was tackling toddler life — that working mothers need to “ask for help.” She told the outlet at the time, “Accepting help is hard for me, but I’m learning. Sometimes I feel guilty that this is my son’s life: We live on a bus and we’re in a hotel room and sometimes we’re in the middle of nowhere and it’s not so great. It’s not all glamorous. We have a nanny who helps out, especially when we’re on the road. But I’d feel guilty asking someone to watch him at home while I run to the grocery store.”

Three years later, Underwood took to Instagram to share further honest insight into her parenting journey, admitting that she can be “hard” on herself. A 2019 gym selfie included the caption, “I go into the gym and I can’t run as fast or as far. I can’t lift as much weight or do as many reps as I could a year ago. I just want to feel like myself again … for my body to feel the way that I know it can.”

After coming to the realization that she needed to go easier on herself, Underwood concluded at the time, “I’m going to take it day by day, smile at the girl in the mirror, and work out because I love this body and all it has done and will continue to do.”

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Will Trent Season 4, Episode 5.

This week’s episode of Will Trent, Season 4, Episode 5, “Nice to Meet You, Malcolm,” switches things up by putting Faith (Iantha Richardson) front and center instead of Will (Ramón Rodríguez). While investigating the murder of a matchmaker, Faith expresses her recent cynicism due to a string of bad dates, only to then meet her dream guy.

“Nice to Meet You, Malcolm,” balances between Faith’s whirlwind romance and its two major cases, as well as a hilarious subplot of Heller (Todd Allen Durkin) and Franklin (Kevin Daniels) building a stroller for Angie’s (Erika Christensen) baby, before ending on a wild cliffhanger. The episode is a fun and intense installment that sets up some really exciting storylines to come, both in terms of a major case, as well as regarding some ongoing character-centered storylines.

In ‘Will Trent’ Season 4, Episode 5, The GBI Investigates the Murder of a Matchmaker

This week, the GBI investigates the murder of a professional matchmaker named Sawyer Jennings, who ran a business called Jennings Luxury. In the hours before Sawyer was killed, he called his business partner, Liv Somerman (Marguerite Moreau), several times. Faith brings Liv in for questioning, but Liv tells her that she and Sawyer had a good partnership and that the business was doing well. The investigation then takes Will and Faith to Anna Martello (Greyson Chadwick), a matchmaking client who’d met with Sawyer at a diner the night he was killed.

Anna tells Will and Faith that she’d recently been matched with a wealthy man named Brody Evans (Logan Michael Smith). Brody drugged and sexually assaulted Anna, and she told Sawyer, who’d confronted him and had planned to expose him. Brody has an alibi for the time that Sawyer was killed, and Will and Faith realize that Liv killed him. Brody wired Liv $100,000 to keep Sawyer from exposing him, so she killed her own business partner. Liv had gone to a lot of trouble to craft a fake alibi, but thanks to a street camera, Will and Faith are able to prove that she’s guilty.

In ‘Will Trent’ Season 4, Episode 5, The APD Investigates a Bank Robbery That Is More Than Meets the Eye

Image via ABC

While the GBI looks into Sawyer’s murder, the APD investigates a bank robbery where one person was killed. The only evidence they have are photos of the robbers wearing animal masks, as well as a tattoo on the arm of someone wearing a cheetah mask. Ormewood (Jake McLaughlin) is now done with chemo, and this is his first case since returning to the field. He feels good – almost too good as he notices that his vision is better than it was before his tumor, and his senses are heightened.

The investigation into the tattoo takes Angie and Ormewood to one family, but they’re unable to narrow it down to one of the ten siblings. During the investigation, they have an elevator run-in with Faith and Will. It’s mostly pleasant, but Will doesn’t know how to be around Angie now, even though he’s still been chatting with Ava (Julia Chan). A hurt Will leaves the elevator while Faith and Angie are talking about the baby. Later, Angie and Ormewood finally find the owner of the bank vault, a man named Wyatt Fernsby (Marc Levasseur). Wyatt is attempting to end his life when they find him, but Angie and Ormewood save him.

Wyatt reveals that he works for Biosentia Pharmaceuticals. The company made him shred documents for work, but he kept a copy in his safe deposit box. Someone from the company found out that he had the copy, so they stole it. Afraid of what his former company would do to him, Wyatt tried to end his life. It’s not yet revealed what is in the documents, but it’s bad enough that Wyatt won’t speak about them without a lawyer present. The case is much more than a bank robbery – it was a company trying to hide its illegal activities by hiring an accomplished team of robbers to steal the evidence for them. Because of this, Angie and Ormewood then take this case to the GBI.

‘Will Trent’ Season 4, Episode 5 Gives Faith a New Love Interest – and Delivers a Shocking Twist

Image via ABC

Faith goes to a hotel bar for a date with a guy she met on an app, but he gives her the ick before he even gets there. Faith cancels the date, but she is soon swept off her feet by a charming stranger named Malcolm (DeVaughn Nixon). Faith and Malcolm have the perfect night together. The only problem is, she gave him a fake name and job when they first met, and this lie could end up ruining everything between them. Malcolm just gets better the more Faith learns about him. He’s the wealthy owner of the hotel where they met, and he’s enamored with Faith.

Three dates in, things are looking promising for Faith and Malcolm. He puts in a lot of effort and money to make her feel special, and he remembers the little things that she tells him. For a while, it looks like Faith’s lie will be the thing to make this romance collapse. There’s also another exciting obstacle that this episode sets up. In the elevator, Ormewood teases Faith about spending two nights in a row away from home, but there’s a hint of something else beneath his teasing. Sure enough, while on a stakeout with Will, Ormewood and Will have a surprisingly deep talk. Will suggests that Ormewood’s heightened senses are his way of rediscovering who he is after his body failed him. The two joke about Faith’s new romance, but when Will says offhandedly that Faith is happy, Ormewood looks heartbroken when he asks, “She seem happy to you?”

This stakeout scene has two major reveals. Ormewood’s feelings for Faith seem pretty clear at this point, though not outright stated, but they’re not a surprise. This potential romance has been developing since they moved in together last season, and it makes perfect sense. The second reveal of this scene is a major twist. Ormewood found the robber who wore the cheetah mask with the unique tattoo. While investigating this person, Will and Ormewood learn that the robber is Malcolm, and that Faith is with him at that very moment. Will calls Faith to warn her, and the episode ends there, with Faith now having to find a way to keep from blowing her cover, while dealing with this devastating news.

Will Trent airs Tuesdays at 8:00 P.M. EST on ABC.

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Release Date

January 3, 2023

Directors

Howard Deutch, Eric Dean Seaton, Holly Dale, Lea Thompson, Patricia Cardoso, Sheree Folkson, Bille Woodruff, Erika Christensen, Gail Mancuso, Geary McLeod, Jason Ensler, Mark Tonderai, Paul McGuigan

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Writers

Inda Craig-Galván, Henry ‘Hank’ Jones, Karine Rosenthal, Adam Toltzis, Antoine Perry

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• 

  Ramón Rodríguez

  Will Trent

• 

  Erika Christensen

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  Angie Polaski

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Pros & Cons

• This episode sets up a compelling case for both the GBI and the AD, with a major plot twist regarding the central suspect.
• This episode centers the characters and their individual conflicts, delivering some important moments for its best dynamics.

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Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell was admitted into the hospital after suffering “flu-like symptoms” over the weekend.

According to a statement provided to People by a representative for McConnell, 83, on Tuesday, February 3, the longest serving Senate party leader in U.S. history checked himself into a hospital one day prior.

“In an abundance of caution, after experiencing flu-like symptoms over the weekend, Senator McConnell checked himself into a local hospital for evaluation last night,” the statement read.

The Kentucky Republican’s statement also noted that his prognosis is “positive” and he is receiving “excellent care.”

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It concluded, “He is in regular contact with his staff and looks forward to returning to Senate business.”

It is unclear how long McConnell is expected to remain in the hospital.

Us Weekly has reached out to a representative for McConnell for comment.

The politician has publicly shared his health issues over the years, while a recent fall that took place in the hallway of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., was witnessed and filmed by reporters.

Shared by local Louisville, Kentucky, news outlet WHAS11, via its YouTube account on October 17, 2025, a video of the incident also captured McConnell walking while assisted by the arm of a colleague just prior to his fall.

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Celebrities and other high-profile figures are sharing their well-wishes for former President Joe Biden. Biden’s office announced on Sunday, May 18, that the former U.S. president has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. “Last week, President Joe Biden was seen for a new finding of a prostate nodule after experiencing increasing urinary symptoms,” said a statement. […]

The tumble occurred while McConnell was being questioned over his perspective on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

His Capitol Building fall marked the third public fall of 2025, and the politician has publicly fallen twice in the building in total.

McConnell also suffered a public concussion after tripping and falling inside Washington’s Waldorf Astoria in 2023. His recovery involved reliance on a wheelchair, per reporting at the time by NBC News.

He has also demonstrated public freezing episodes over the years, several of which were captured by news outlets during press conferences. The results of the episodes have left McConnell completely non-responsive in the face of questioning.

Related: Piers Morgan Reveals He’s Been Hospitalized, Details Surgery and Recovery

Political commentator Piers Morgan has been hospitalized and is detailing his painful ordeal, including necessary surgery. “1. Tripped on small step. 2. In a London hotel restaurant. 3. Fractured femur,” Morgan, 60, wrote via X and Instagram on Sunday, January 18, giving succinct details regarding his recent hospitalization. “4. So badly I needed [a] new […]

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McConnell has held the seat of Kentucky since 1985 and is currently in his seventh Senate term. From 2007 to 2025, he also served as the leader of the Senate Republican Conference. He announced last year that he would not seek reelection in 2026.

In 2015, McConnell, who has been married to former government official Elaine Chao since 1993, was first listed as one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world. He was awarded the same honor in 2019 and 2023.

He is a polio survivor, having endured a polio attack in 1944 when he was two years old. His upper left leg was paralyzed as a result of the attack. Successful treatment from medical staff at the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institution for Rehabilitation at the time, prevented McConnell from developing a permanent disability.

Space travel has been a subject that has long fascinated filmmakers, as the silent classic A Trip To The Moon was one of the earliest examples of cinema predicting real events. Although the science fiction genre has frequently speculated about the possibilities of space travel, the 1969 NASA lunar mission visualized what it would actually look like, leading to an even greater expansion in imagination. Although it is one of the most important historical moments of its century, the NASA space trip to the lunar surface was not fully realized on film until the 2019 documentary Apollo 11, which assembled previously unseen footage to explore every step of the journey. It’s not only one of the most brilliantly crafted documentaries of the 2010s, but an important work of historical documentation that serves as a reminder of what technological advancements have achieved.

The footage of Neil Armstrong stepping onto the lunar surface is an undeniable part of popular culture, but the technology did not exist to distribute all the footage of the NASA mission in 1969, given the amount of material. It was only after director Todd Douglas Miller and his team of editors spent the time to search through hundreds of hours of both footage and audio experts that they were able to pinpoint the most important material needed to tell the story, all whilst polishing the quality to meet contemporary standards. The result is a documentary that has none of the hallmarks of the medium; Apollo 11 plays so seamlessly that someone with no knowledge of the situation could mistake it for an original piece of dramatic filmmaking.

‘Apollo 11’ Is Edited Like No Other Documentary

Apollo 11 is unique when compared to most documentaries because the film does not include any talking heads, introductory information, narration, or recreations that would break the momentum of the story. What’s being shown is taken from the original film negatives recorded during the original mission, which were only used as a matter of historical record. A majority of these videos were never displayed to the public, giving Apollo 11 the opportunity to blend in unseen aspects of history. The story of the mission itself is so filled with stakes that there was no need to provide any sort of additional drama. It was a sign of bravery on Miller’s part that he trusted the audience to have some degree of awareness of the situation, but it also doesn’t take a scientific expert to enjoy Apollo 11. Even for those who don’t know every step of NASA’s process or understand the different programs that are being cited, Apollo 11 provides a complete portrayal of the many different departments that played a role in the spectacular achievement.

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Seeing the image crystalized in such vivid detail is almost jarring, as the imagery is so crisp that it nearly feels like the film is taking place in real time. Although Apollo 11 obviously did not show every step of the process, as the mission itself was preceded by years of research and testing, the film helps to contextualize the enormity of NASA’s achievement. Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin may have walked away with the most fame, but the scientists who planned the ordeal, the engineers watching the controls, and the journalists who helped to record the event all played a part in pulling off a groundbreaking leap forward for mankind. The focus on showing the team effort is not only an important theme to convey, but an explanation for something that otherwise might seem like science fiction.

‘Apollo 11’ Is an Important Historical Time Capsule

Apollo 11 was given a limited distribution in IMAX theaters, as the scope of the imagery was so detailed that it justified the extended format. Miller was precise in directing the story to show which details would be most important to highlight at given times; even if the process was filled with some slower moments, Apollo 11 is able to navigate between different players involved so that the pacing never came to a halt. There are also components of the film that were left out of most newsroom accounts at the time, including the manner in which NASA prepared for different potential outcomes. It’s easy to forget that the mission could have ended in tragedy, and that there was no guarantee that NASA had both conceived of any possible issues with the mission and properly prepared to deal with them.

Apollo 11 is as detailed of a historical encapsulation as historians could ask for, but it also shows the emotional effect that documentaries can have. No recreation would have the same impact of seeing the real reactions of everyone involved in Apollo 11, as the film does seem to celebrate a grandiose moment that expands beyond any one person, institution, or country. Interestingly, Apollo 11 came only a year after Damien Chazelle’s First Man dramatized Armstrong’s personal journey during the same period; the films serve as perfect companion pieces, as First Man is a creative version of the grounded facts that Apollo 11 brought to life. Nonetheless, Apollo 11 was such a laborious documentary to put together that it feels like an achievement in its own right, and one that benefits all involved. Not only should it serve as an inspiration for those interested in the science of space travel, but as an indication to aspiring filmmakers what the medium may be capable of.

Apollo 11 is now available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.

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Release Date

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March 1, 2019

Runtime

93 minutes

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Director

Todd Douglas Miller

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To say that the Netflix catalog is a hit-or-miss situation is hardly controversial nowadays. As a matter of fact, the same statement can be made about almost all of our giant, non-curated streaming services. It isn’t that rare for amazing movies and TV shows to pop up on these platforms, but quite often they tend to get buried under piles of titles that range from okay at best to horrifyingly bad. If you’re a horror fan, for instance, you might have missed one of the coolest, scariest, most disturbing films to hit Netflix in quite some time, arguably one of the best to hit our screens this year. After all, to finally come across Luis Javier Henaine’s Disappear Completely, one has to dig deep — almost as deep as the movie’s main character in his search for a cure to the curse that threatens to turn him into a kind of living corpse, a karmic punishment for his own misdeeds as a photojournalist specialized in crime scenes.

After premiering in 2022 at Austin’s Fantastic Fest, Disappear Completely debuted on Netflix in April 2024. And while it made its way to the streamer’s Top 10 in its native Mexico, it has struggled to find an audience in other countries where it is readily available. It’s a pity: Henaine’s film has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and it is indeed a gem that deserves to be seen. Why it has not conquered audiences worldwide is hard to say. Perhaps Netflix hasn’t marketed it enough, or maybe it’s something to do with that pesky one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles. After all, it isn’t rare for international films — particularly genre films — to be overlooked only to be, years later, included in lists of underrated projects.

What Is ‘Disappear Completely’ About?

Image Via Manticora

As it is so new in the world of streaming, Disappear Completely still has a chance of being recognized in its time. The film, which relies more on psychological horror than on traditional jumpscares, is a character study surrounding a man’s relationship with his profession, and his family. The premise is creative and terrifying from the get-go: Santiago (Harold Torres), a photojournalist who sells pictures of crimes and accidents to tabloids, falls victim to a curse after shooting a particularly gruesome scene featuring a still living, but completely unresponsive politician partly devoured by rats. Unbeknownst to him, Santiago’s camera has captured the presence of a demonic entity that traps him in the same web as the senator (Juan Sahagun) he just photographed. Little by little, Santiago starts to lose all of his five senses.

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As Santiago races against time to find a cure for his predicament, going from doctors to shamans to the very demon that has hexed him, his girlfriend, Marce (Tete Espinoza), faces troubles of her own. Pregnant with Santiago’s child, she wishes to have the baby and build a happy family. However, Santiago claims that they are not ready to have a child, and pressures her to have an abortion. This relationship with Marce and his unborn baby ends up being essential to how Santiago deals with his curse, being completely responsible for sealing his fate. By the end of the movie, just as he is about to lose the eyesight that is so dear to him, Santiago refuses to deliver his child’s life to the demon in exchange for everything he has lost and therefore becomes forever locked in a tomb made of his own flesh.Mixing an urban vibe with folk horror, Disappear Completely is a movie that dabbles in witchcraft, superstition, and politics, with the cursed senator having been victimized by a political rival. However, the focus of the plot is Santiago himself. The movie asks us to place ourselves in his shoes, forcing us to wonder what it would feel like to be in such a terrifying predicament. The final scenes make this invitation to identify with the main character all the more obvious: as Santiago is losing his sense of hearing, we can barely understand the sounds around him. Eventually, in the blink of an eye, the whole movie goes quiet. As he loses his sight, the image becomes blurry, until it… disappears completely. Seven long, despair-inducing seconds of dark screen stand between the last image of Marce calling Santiago’s name and the film’s end credits.

‘Disappear Completely’s Director Was Intentional About Creating a Personal Film

Image via Mantícora Distribución

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Director Luis Javier Henaine was intentional in creating an immersive, realistic experience for the audience while filming Disappear Completely, as he shared during an interview with Eye For Film. Rather than relying on jump scares or musical cues, he aimed to “make a more personal film with more down to earth issues,” while still balancing the element of witchcraft and folk horror. He said:

“Here in Mexico, witchcraft is something that people take very seriously and something very, very real for the majority of our population. And I like to reflect that in a way. So, all the time, I was trying to say, ‘Okay, this has to look real, this has to feel real, this has to be very realistic.’ And that’s how I tried to go throughout the whole film, with the production design and with the cinematography and with everything. Our references were real things, how people behave in these environments. . . ”

Placing the audience in Santiago’s shoes is one of the reasons Disappear Completely is so unnerving – it feels personal. At the heart of the film is Santiago’s struggles with being a potential father and a supportive partner for Marce. When reading the script, Henaine envisioned “a very immersive filmmaking style,” one that would make the audience active participants rather than passive observers of Santiago’s slow descent into a tomb of his own flesh. “I thought it would be great to just when, when he starts losing his sense of hearing, just play slowly with the whole film as well, make it subjective, put the audience in the character’s mind,” Henaine explained.

‘Disappear Completely’ Presents Photography as the Ultimate Horror

Disappear Completely presents us with a kind of horror that would be disturbing no matter who it befell. Still, when we take into consideration Santiago’s profession, the film gains additional layers. At the same time that Henaine and his fellow screenwriter Ricardo Aguado-Fentanes ask us to identify with Santiago in his plight, they also make it pretty clear that he is someone we should despise. Santiago is not a tabloid photographer because that’s the only job he can find. On the contrary, he seems to enjoy taking pictures of mangled bodies and even attempts to make it into a form of high art. The movie shows us that he has fun creating tasteless titles for the stories that will accompany his pictures, and right in the beginning we learn that he is trying to sell some of his photos to art galleries. This is, in itself, terrifying: in a way, the biggest horror in Disappear Completely is becoming the subject of one of Santiago’s photographs.

A Susan Sontag quote that opens the movie gives us the key to interpreting the story in this sense. “Photography converts the whole world into a cemetery. Photographers, wittingly or unwittingly, are the angels of death.” In Disappear Completely, a still picture is not just a tomb in a graveyard because it depicts someone who might already be dead, but because having your picture taken is already a kind of death. You become unmoving, unfeeling, blind, and deaf, all at once. You might say something, of course, in the sense that all works of art say something, but you will never again respond to any stimuli.

When he is cursed, Santiago is doomed to become one of his own photographs. His fate is, in a way, an ironic punishment: he has condemned so many dead people to a living death that he will, himself, become a tomb in the cemetery that is the entire world. Disappear Completely is definitely a movie with something to say, and it turns its eyes specifically to the art of creating images. To an extent, it is even fitting to watch Santiago’s downfall happen in a movie instead of, say, reading about it in a book, for the image is essential for us to understand what is happening to him. As we gaze at Santiago, we wonder if what is happening to him might one day happen to us as well. After all, in the age of smart phones and social media platforms where privacy goes to die, haven’t we all produced our own fair share of images that trap people in a single, unchangeable moment?

‘Disappear Completely’ Also Focuses on Santiago’s Relationship with His Unborn Child

Image via Mantícora Distribución

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But while photography, particularly Santiago’s kind of predatory photojournalism, and its meanings are at the center of Disappear Completely, Henaine and Aguado-Fentanes also go beyond the professional aspect of their protagonist. Well, in a way. Santiago’s relationship with Marce and their unborn child is marked by his career: it is because he hasn’t yet succeeded as a serious photographer that he believes it isn’t yet time for them to have a baby. When confronted with the opportunity to preserve the one sense that he needs for working in exchange for his child, though, Santiago chooses to let himself disappear completely.

Santiago sacrifices himself for his unborn child and, by extension, for the sake of Marce’s happiness. After all, she is the one who wants to have a child. But will Marce still want that baby now that her life has been upended so completely, now that she doesn’t have Santiago by her side anymore? What he does is completely remove himself from Marce’s life, thus leaving her alone to make a decision about her pregnancy and deal with the consequences. It is a selfish choice, but the reality is that there is no decision that Santiago could make that would not be selfish, as trading his baby’s life for his senses would prove tragic for both him and Marce. Either way, the demon forces Santiago to wallow in the selfishness that has ruined his life.

Disappear Completely ultimately wraps up with a fitting conclusion for Santiago. In his infinite suffering, he decides that the world would be a better place without him, for there is no answer that would satisfyingly end his suffering. He has already done too much to be forgiven. He’s already drowned in hubris, having been a man who mocked the death of others and who refused the happiness of the woman who lived with him. He turns the world into a cemetery and thus deserves to be buried alive. Is it a sad conclusion? You bet it is. But, quite often, the best horror stories have a tinge of tragedy to them.

‘Disappear Completely’ Is One of the Best Horror Movies to Hit Our Screens in 2024

Image via Mantícora Distribución

With all of that in mind, it is no stretch to call Disappear Completely one of the best horror movies of 2024, despite having started its festival run all the way back in 2022. After all, what counts is when a movie is made available to general audiences, and, even in Mexico, Disappear Completely only managed to get itself a proper theatrical release in February of this year. And, well, considering how divisive the year has been for its horror releases, to watch a movie that isn’t particularly revolutionary, but that does the basics so well can feel like a breath of fresh air. Sure, movies like Longlegs and The Substance have won over hearts and minds all around the world, but they have garnered equally large legions of detractors. As for Disappear Completely; well, it’s not the kind of film that will change your conceptions about what horror can be, but it will definitely scare you and make you think about the themes being laid out on screen.

This should by no means be construed as negative criticism of the film. Simple and straightforward doesn’t mean mediocre. You don’t have to purport to change the genre to create something truly sublime. Sure, a The Bear-like meal at a Michelin-starred restaurant might be life-changing, but a good, old bowl of mac ‘n cheese can be just as tasty and satisfying. From Huesera: The Bone Woman to When Evil Lurks, Latin America has been producing some incredible horror films over this past decade, many of which are available on Prime Video, Netflix, and other streaming services. Thus, why stop at one amazing work of art? After you finish this beautiful, tragic, and terrifying film, take a few days to expand your spooky horizons. Results may vary, of course, but you certainly won’t regret such a rich meal.

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Release Date

February 29, 2024

Runtime

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106 Minutes

Director

Luis Javier Henaine

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Writers

Ricardo Aguado-Fentanes, Luis Javier Henaine

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