‘Barreda’ (2026) Prime Video Movie Review - Husband, Father, and a Murderer

I will generate a warning here: Barreda isn’t an easy watch at all. The Argentine crime drama revisits one of the country’s most chilling cases: the 1992 murders committed by dentist Ricardo Barreda, who ended up killing his wife, mother-in-law, and two daughters inside their family home in La Plata. Rather than treating this case as a sensationalised murder, the makers have treated this as an examination of how horrifying crime transformed the sections of media and society.

The plot succeeds well because of Luis Machín, who delivers a controlled performance as Barreda. He does not play the character as a cinematic monster. Machín builds the character as an unsettlingly ordinary man whose restraint, mannerisms, and self-justification become an increasingly disturbing watch. But even with all this, Barreda remains the centre of attraction for obvious reasons. The makers question the public fascination with the killer and attempt to shift the attention towards the four women whose lives were reduced to background details. Now this is a crucial move as a lot of us hardly knew about these four women who were his victims. That is also a great strategy because this gives us a never-before-seen outlook towards the case.

Carla Peterson and Mercedes Moran are equally important in contributing to the overall impact of the film. Their performances bring an atmosphere of tension and unease to the household, which is crucial to show us what was exactly going on. Maite Lanata and Margarita Páez, too, play roles that attempt to restore the women who were overshadowed by Barreda.
 
And if you think that there is plenty of graphic violence, then no, you are wrong. Instead, the makers have carefully managed to create discomfort with the help of silence, domestic spaces, character behaviour, and gradual accumulation of tension.  That building of tension scene by scene by scene is enough to make you anxious and also sweat in anticipation of what is going to happen next. The makers indeed worked cleverly in this aspect of the plot. The backdrop of the 1990s also helps establish the social atmosphere that surrounded the case, when news via television, newspapers, and public opinion was enough to turn a case into a national obsession. We see how one thing led to another, and soon enough, everyone was only talking about the case. Sometimes it's hard to imagine how, without social media, this case was in everyone’s mind. This examination is conducted pretty well.

The pacing of the plot is also brisk. So you won't get the time to feel bored. The storytelling and the overall work on the plot have been done so well that we, as the audience, are given enough time to get a grasp of what is going on in the show. The only issue is that though the makers wished to focus on the other side of the case, the narration is still full of him. Of course, we can’t ignore his role, and we do appreciate the makers' attempts, yet there is a slight contradiction to what we are shown. However, this is something that can be easily ignored because the rest of the execution is pretty good.

Final Score- [7/10]
Reviewed by - Neerja Ch
Follow @NeerjaCH on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times