It Happened at Nightmare Inn (1973)

Button up that dress missy, or else...

(This review is for the Cheezy Flicks DVD version at 67 mins.)

This little Spanish flick is a horror tale that no doubt deals with death and macabre, though "It Happened at Nightmare Inn" is more about morals and beliefs and the length some will go to to uphold them.

Two sisters in a modest and traditional village have a fear of change from the invading counter culture of the times that foreigners are creeping in with. Scantily clad young women strut their stuff to drooling men, as well as others stay out late and are up to the devil knows what. Some old school folks are embracing of this new era, while others just scoff at the idea. Our sisters, on the other hand, feel it's their right to take matters into their own hands with the guests that stay in their inn but don't always check out.

"It Happened at Nightmare Inn" is a flawed movie that asks some questions that still hold true to some parts of the world today even if it wasn't able to flesh out everything it set out to do. The film is only mildly energetic and often anticlimactic with quick and to the point violence, as the story moves at a moderate pacing with more time spent on seeing the sisters' fears and delusions pile up. The filmmakers give us the ol' amateur detective subplot that feels cut and pasted for mystery's sake with a foreign woman searching for her sister that was last seen at the inn. The mechanics involved with translating the story to the screen make one feel more distant than involved to the specific motivations of the whole belief debate. Neither does one care what happens to the woman searching for her missing sibling as she doesn't feel like a grounded character. Some of the hiccups stem from this particular DVD version, which is edited.

Rating: 4/10

Director: Euginio Martin (Death at the Deep End of the Swimming Pool, Horror Express)
Stars: Judy Geeson, Aurora Bautista, Esperanza Roy
Link: IMDB