When Angels Sleep (2018)

Crossing the line

By: JWBM

This Spanish made thriller is essentially about a perfect storm of events leading up to someone getting hurt from one bad choice after another. It doesn't outright lay its cards on the table, but it instead requires you to individually process the situation by leaving room for interpretation to some debatable aspects: from an over-worked society, trying to be everywhere at once for your family, to not accepting responsibility. No one in this film is capable of listening, asking for help, or following the rules. It's like watching a preventable, horrific train wreck from a little thing called stubbornness we often succumb to.

What's different over your typical story is it blurs the lines between good and bad. There is no hero or better person, though there may be a villain in some form of the definition. There may be someone to root for, or nothing they may do may be relatable in the slightest and get on your nerves. It depends on your patience, morals, or stand points to analyze and pick apart the layers. Sure, the police and the courts would have something to say about it, but it's at a gray point where things turn into a tangled mess. It reminds me in some ways of the beginning of "Breaking Bad," though with different people in different circumstances. Specifically where the character initially crosses the line, and then after is locked into creating his own framework that's at a complete 180 from the societal norm for the sake of his family.

The majority of the film takes place in rural areas at night, so attempting to watch this with any shred of light in the room and you may end up squinting. Its mode of action starts to shuffle itself back and forth with driving this way, running that way, or fighting over here. The performances—I'd recommend the Spanish language version over the dubbed—from the two leads gives this a certain divide, where oh-crap-I-messed-up desperation meets I-took-some-scary-drugs panic. Some of the latter was amped up to the extreme to further the narrative. While possibly true to the state of confusion and distortion of reality, it still can come across as about as fun as attempting to argue logic with your aggressive, drunk friend.

While not a perfect execution of its more action oriented scenes or its more complex themes, the film—while also not a pleasant or appeasing experience in the normal sense—is still worth a go if you're looking for a challenging debate between your friends.

Rating: 6/10

Director: Gonzalo Bendala (Asesinos inocentes)
Actors: Julian Villagran, Ester Exposito, Marian Alvarez
Info: IMDB link
Trailer: YouTube link

Ánimas (2018)

Family, friends, and loved ones

By: JWBM

This Spanish made film is a deep-rooted, psychological look at a connected group of relationships, but unlike any other you may have seen before. In a creative twist, it deals with moving on from negative aspects of family, moving away from old friends holding you back, and moving closer to new ones that may bring on a shimmering hope of light to all of the enshrouding darkness. One can only dream.

This maintains an overall downbeat vibe with a mix of symbolism and hidden meaning: such as material objects and sense of time playing tricks. The film is strange and allusive; with interactions and dialogue that are as slippery as tap shoes on ice. Though it's also well-crafted in that it moves with a sense of grace and allure. It's part drama, mystery, and thriller, with the intention to alternate tones in order to peel back the bruised layers and get to a more ripe resolution. It's more show than tell, delivering a share of slow burn atmosphere that causes your thoughts to mainly linger around a particular evolving apartment complex that takes on a life of its own. One can hide or seek help.

"Ánimas" maintains a great balance between being artful, emotional, and stirring all at once. While this has some thrilling moments to rile the senses, this is far from action oriented in order to become intimate with the characters and settings; it flows more dream-like, bordering on nightmarish at times than anything else. The main star, Alex—played by Clare Durant—delivers a dynamic performance: from self-loathing, to caring of others, and then looking for a sense of need and purpose related to her family and best friend Abraham. Ultimately, the obscured though measured messages in the film tend to stay with you. Such as showing us the careful balance of being alone and in our own head growing up; pessimism is a rain cloud that will eventually blow away, but, even with help, it's up to us to take charge and make that change. One can do more than just dream.

Rating: 8.5/10

Director: Laura Alvea, Jose F. Ortuno
Actors: Clare Durant, Ivan Pellicer
Info: IMDB link
Trailer: YouTube link

The Haunting (2009)

Moving to the outskirts never helped anyone's health

This gradually paced supernatural film from Spain gives a little twist on its own history and unfolds with a leaning more for human drama than popcorn entertainment. "The Haunting" is also a deeply involved mystery with several, sometimes cluttered layers that eventually narrow into a main point. It gives more subtle hints than outright telling the viewer what is going on at first to the point of a tinkle or a text message later and you could have missed a key element till they re-explain in the latter portion of the film.

Blanca is found barely alive by priests in a room with others dead around her. She awakens from a coma at an elderly age and gets released by a priest named Miguel de Azpeitia in the sanatorium she's been cared for at. Azpeitia picks up an old film clipping on the ground that Blanca dropped and confronts another priest about feeling guilty for sinning from a prior incident involving a prostitute who could produce miracles but was locked away against her will, only to end up killing herself. Meanwhile a maternity ward doctor named Francesca moves with her husband Pedro, months old baby Pablo and daughter Rosa to a large country manor that was used by a recently deceased bishop called Juan Lorenzo Prada but was a school some 50 years before that. Her husband is worried about her obsessively protective nature of the baby. He's at work while she stays home on leave, only for her to become worse and worse when she claims to hear unexplainable noises and has random hallucinations of little girls that lead her to the attic where something of a dark nature happened. The daughter and Blanca confirm her suspicions, though her husband and boss think that it's her mental health causing her to act erratic from someone lost that was close to her ten years past. Francesca believes differently and contacts Azpeitia through Blanca who looks into it with an investigation to unlock the truth and to possibly absolve himself from his past sin.

"The Haunting" deals with religious politics and hypocrisy in how saints come to be named and miracles made official to the public. The behind the scenes process is selective to the point of manipulation and misconduct. The film is also about letting go of someone from your past, along with trust from mother to son, to then husband to wife even when the odds are stacked against. The movie has some predictability and more than a few cliches but it also manages to throw in some unique qualities and red herrings to its story--some confusing, others a nice diversion--to where it will go next. Though it doesn't always treat its material as edge-of-your-seat gripping or more dangerous when something bad does happen. It seems like Francesca is more helped and warned than harmed to the point of dodging any physically threatening elements and aiming more towards righting those wronged. There are still a few confrontations but the film is more laid back in its delivery of how it gradually unfolds with a sense for drama and mystery than outright horror. It still gives enough pauses and layers to give room to think and develop even if it lacks a continually nervous or jarring nature. The acting--in Spanish--is adequate and believable but the weaving story and well-timed direction seem to be doing a little more of the leg work than having them lug this solely on their backs.

This carries a formula of the upstarting-family-moves-into-a-haunted-house subgenre--ominous signs, local priest, random appearances with ghosts pointing in certain directions instead of telling what they want, along with writing in blood on the walls and all--but it comes with its own individual backstory and characters that feel like people instead of devices put into scenarios to just produce a scream. This is a borderline case of an R rating with one sexually suggestive situation and a few scenes involving blood. Ghost fans just looking to turn their hair white might be disappointed as this isn't outright terrifying as it's more made to be steadily evolving and intriguing with more revelations than sensations. This still has a few chills and a certain secretive atmosphere that's for your eyes only till the truth is unlocked...but can it ever really be with such powerful opposition on both sides of the fence? There are some eerie sounding choirs accompanied with an organ that can be heard in the background that are more demonic than divine sounding. This uses a neat idea to connect scenes of past and present with old, scratchy film reels from the Franco era that gives a little twist on Spanish history that can be appreciated by others not from said country as well.

Rating: 7/10

Director: Elio Quiroga (The Dark Hour)
Link: IMDB

Fragile (2005)

A determind night nurse in a troubled hospital

Amy Nicholls, an American, is called in to replace another night nurse named Susan who unexpectedly left. They're in the process of moving supplies and eventually patients out of Mercy Falls Children's Hospital on the Isle of Wight in southern England. Things are rushed, people are passive and a share just want to clear out and finalize the whole fiasco after a train accident created a delay. They're on a skeleton crew with Amy, the night doctor Robert and an orderly to look after eight remaining special case children, along with a nurse named Helen in alternate shifts.

The old building gives in to some creaks and malfunctions that are at first coincidental and logically explained. Though a trouble-making child named Maggie claims it was a mechanical girl named Charlotte that she uses alphabet blocks to communicate to, with the staff thinking she's just bored and isolated with no parents to care for her. After getting convinced from an incident herself, Amy looks into the records of Simon--a boy who suspiciously broke his bones--which leads her back to Susan and two psychics. With risk of losing her job or sanity, Amy edges on as a catalyst because she believes that something doesn't want to let them leave and to make them suffer despite everyone else brushing the growing number of incidents under the rug with excuses and false reassurances. When more turn over to uncovering the truth, it changes into a race against time to save the children before the deteriorating hospital consumes them.

"Fragile" eventually works into a thriller like pacing for its latter portion with a well timed little twist and some tragedy and sentimental moments. The rest of this English and Spanish made picture flows well enough and has a balance to all sides with events progressively moving along step by step without jumping ahead. Though it starts to feel somewhat like a basic and straightforward formula in areas. Partly of the one random, supernatural occurrence at a time type, and the other part of the "I have to do what's right no matter the odds" kind that's usually seen in murder or political thrillers where morals come into play and the person acts as a crusader. Some areas play out with some predictability and you can depend on it since its upkeep is somewhat simplistic and measured out to the point of having little fat hanging or drifting scenes. Though to its credit, it's a movie that doesn't get muddled or look back and retread, but instead manages to maintain a forward outlook till the growing tension can be released and resolved. Expecting something brand new here and you might be disappointed as it's more tried and true with a few aspects and characters shuffled around.

The abandoned second floor is a dismal place with grime and deterioration. The creepy looking villain that fittingly lives there--that's in the physical form instead of CGI with various contraptions and contorted face--looks effective despite a short amount of screen time. The co-stars are typically set up with specific archetypes--stern boss, shoulder to cry on, information guy--and do their parts well enough since they're not always required to step over with a wide arc of range. Though Yasmin Murphy, who plays Maggie, carries a distinct voice for her age and manages to transition from a bored brat to sympathetic for her ailment and abandonment situation. Elena Anaya, as Helen, feels the most realistic person--as opposed to a caricature or cinematic invention--as a foreigner in another country with a back and forth temperament of the pushed around employee who's job gets on her nerves. Calista Flockhart starts out somewhat neutral and almost comatose--on purpose or not is hard to say since she's popping pills here. She has a few break out scenes from her lull that go from cracked up and stressed out, to then eventually able to carry the strength of those around her as a commanding hero of sorts.



Rating: 7/10

Director: Jaume Balaguero (The Nameless, Darkness)
Stars: Calista Flockhart, Richard Roxburgh, Elena Anaya, Gemma Jones, Colin McFarlane, Susie Trayling
Link: IMDB

Week of the Killer (1973)

Your soup will never be the same

This is a gradually paced Spanish drama on the downbeat side about a man named Marcos who shirks responsibility, whether it be for doing something more with his life or accounting for his own actions. He works at a slaughter factory and lives in a measly residence on the outskirts of town with his brother. He leads a simple life by laying about without his shirt, frequenting the nearby eatery with a waitress that is friendly, as well as running into an acquaintance who walks his dog and lives in the nearby high-rise apartments. Marcos and his steady girlfriend Paula are showing a little public display of affection when out on the town. They take a taxi and the driver midway through slams the breaks and tells them to get out. Marcos refuses to pay and the taxi driver assaults him and his girlfriend. Marcos grabs a nearby rock and clobbers the irate man on his head and they leave. The newspapers reveal the taxi driver died and the girlfriend's conscience starts to grow. She gives her boyfriend the ultimatum of him going to the police or she won't marry a man with a life of lies. In the heat of the moment, he kills her rather than face potential consequences for the action of the first murder. From then on out the dominoes fall faster than he can stop them from spiraling out of control by just killing more and more whenever someone is on to him.

"I know a lot of people who get ill when they see blood. You're not the same way about blood," says a friend after he gets cut and Marcos responds back with, "No, doesn't bother me in the least." The film insinuates that by him working in a factory day in and out killing animals, that he can be numb when it comes to murdering another human being to the point of not even flinching. Even his brother becomes surprised by his actions, which is reason enough to say that his absence of feelings came about later, rather than picking the slaughterhouse job because it's in his nature. Killing one type of flesh is for sustenance and murdering the other is a choice that affects his freedom, though that line starts to get blurred and co-merge with him. He's not just lying and stealing, but something that ends all ties to just anybody but people that care about him. He essentially jumps right into it to protect a life that's somewhat simple, reserved and uneventful otherwise. It makes the picture somewhat gloomy in that there's little to gain from it and hold onto. Despite some protests to stay away, every other person keeps seeing the bodies in his house and he decides to carry the remains in a sports bag only to blend the human remains with animal meat in a grinder at the factory he works at with no one the wiser. Yet, poetic justice wasn't what he expected. Someone has a collective eye on him and the final result of the film is somewhat unexpected but also depressing for those involved.

This had some decent performances, with Vincent Parra doing more physical acting than speaking. The setups are sometimes extended for atmosphere as well as to give the actors some room to breath their roles. The US title "Cannibal Man" makes this out to be just an exploitation film, though it plays on some morals and social commentary of early '70s Spain, with premarital sex, a potential same sex relationship, animal slaughter, murder and how the rich and poor are viewed and treated differently. It gives the movie a little more to think about instead of going for a straightforward experience of the macabre. Though it does show some blood and a little gore, such as the after effects of a clever to the face. There are also real shots in a few areas of a slaughter house with cows getting their throats cut and blood drained all over the floors and then carcasses being split down the middle to divide up the meat. The majority of the deaths have a reason behind them, instead of him going out of his way to hack people up, though the girlfriend's death felt too abrupt and made him out to just have an anger problem rather than other possibly deeper issues. The nudity is just one scene above the waist. The filmmakers made the Marcos character out to be a product of society rather than doing it entirely as an individual. His social status played a role to how the events got so out of control: police believing the rich rather than the poor, someone who cuts flesh all day for the people, doesn't always differentiate when it's being done to people. Though having that perspective for him isn't going to be like "The Bicycle Thief," as he's not just robbing somebody, but committing murder to cover up facing responsibility.

Rating: 7/10

Director: Eloy de la Iglesia (R.I.P. 2006) (Glass Ceiling, No One Heard the Scream)
Stars: Vicente/Vincent Parra, Emma Cohen
Link: IMDB

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