The morbid discovery of a girl tortured and mutilated beyond recognition is identified as the daughter of editor Claudia (Emma Vilarasau) and her husband Marc (Brendan Price) thanks to a fairly rare leg defect (one leg bone is shorter than the other). After years Claudia is still unable to accept her apparent death and has fallen into an addiction to medical drugs. When her dead daughter Angela calls her mother hinting that in fact she may be alive Claudia ventures to a now-deserted clinic hinted by her daughter. There she comes across a wall covered with onyric angelic pictures. Soon, with the help of recently retired cop Massera (Karra Elejalde), they start to investigate the possibility that her daughter may still be alive.
Spanish horror has come up with a deeply appealing horror formula, which detaches itself from the mindless gore of the French or American scene, while avoiding formulaic repetitiveness so widespread in Asian ghost flicks. Movies like "Tesis" and "The Nameless" initiated the whole boom, which gave room for the creation of instant classics such as "The Orphanage". As such "The Nameless" seems to be most inclined towards the atmospheric brilliance of early Argento movies, while showing a much more well formed understanding of dramaturgy and character building, which gives the movie a touch of realism. Thus creating a skin crawling experience, which may not terrify, instead introduces a lingering sensation of unease. The concept behind the story isn't new, actually very similar to "Martyrs", where the sinister ordeal is the creation of a deranged cult (the titular Nameless) led by an idea that perverted angelic divinity is key to achieving a profound state of being. Inasmuch as the whole backbone of the group ideology is pretty far-fetched fortunately it is not detrimental to the overall story, requiring simply a slight suspension of belief.
Jaume Balagueró's debut feature (future movies include "Rec" and "Fragiles") signified a stark achievement for the Spanish cinema industry, proving it had capacity to compete in the American dominated genre and even outdo them. Various key awards at Fantasporto or Sitges confirmed something was abuzz in Spanish horror, maybe yet without a true visionary to be the poster-boy, but with quality abundant to outdo Americans with quality (not quantity). Its stylish European cinematography and pacing feels much better suited for horror movies, something well understood by Italian legends or i.e. Stanley Kubrick, but somehow forgotten by the jump-cut era of modern 'sophisticated' filmmaking. Fright requires build-up, not jumps and cuts, so a lingering shadowy scene slowly unravelling the terror works much better than a sudden burst of noise. The tension is nicely constructed around an investigative plot, which helps build the story consequently slipping in unravelled secrets, murky revelations and then bringing about the well-wrought denouement, showing how controlled and focused Jaume Balagueró direction is.
Spanish horror has come up with a deeply appealing horror formula, which detaches itself from the mindless gore of the French or American scene, while avoiding formulaic repetitiveness so widespread in Asian ghost flicks. Movies like "Tesis" and "The Nameless" initiated the whole boom, which gave room for the creation of instant classics such as "The Orphanage". As such "The Nameless" seems to be most inclined towards the atmospheric brilliance of early Argento movies, while showing a much more well formed understanding of dramaturgy and character building, which gives the movie a touch of realism. Thus creating a skin crawling experience, which may not terrify, instead introduces a lingering sensation of unease. The concept behind the story isn't new, actually very similar to "Martyrs", where the sinister ordeal is the creation of a deranged cult (the titular Nameless) led by an idea that perverted angelic divinity is key to achieving a profound state of being. Inasmuch as the whole backbone of the group ideology is pretty far-fetched fortunately it is not detrimental to the overall story, requiring simply a slight suspension of belief.
Jaume Balagueró's debut feature (future movies include "Rec" and "Fragiles") signified a stark achievement for the Spanish cinema industry, proving it had capacity to compete in the American dominated genre and even outdo them. Various key awards at Fantasporto or Sitges confirmed something was abuzz in Spanish horror, maybe yet without a true visionary to be the poster-boy, but with quality abundant to outdo Americans with quality (not quantity). Its stylish European cinematography and pacing feels much better suited for horror movies, something well understood by Italian legends or i.e. Stanley Kubrick, but somehow forgotten by the jump-cut era of modern 'sophisticated' filmmaking. Fright requires build-up, not jumps and cuts, so a lingering shadowy scene slowly unravelling the terror works much better than a sudden burst of noise. The tension is nicely constructed around an investigative plot, which helps build the story consequently slipping in unravelled secrets, murky revelations and then bringing about the well-wrought denouement, showing how controlled and focused Jaume Balagueró direction is.