London Film Festival 2014. BFI South Bank, 8/10/2014
A stone's throw from festival-opening Imitation Game, the screening of this debut feature from Juanfer Andrès and Esteban Roel, two lecturers at a Madrid film school, is at the opposite end of the glamour and budget scale.
The film tells the story of Montse, who has been bringing up her teenage sister after their mother died in childbirth and whose father has been missing since shortly after the start of the Spanish Civil War. Things are complicated as Montse has severe agoraphobia and is unable to step outside their apartment, possibly as a result of her overbearing father who has a habit of manifesting himself and admonishing her when she is anxious. Montse's envious and abusive relationship with her sister morphs into full blown lunacy when their neighbour Carlos falls and injures himself outside the girls' door. Montse is instantly attracted to him and sees him as her salvation, while he becomes an increasingly unwilling house guest.
The film is masterfully paced and builds in intensity until the climactic scene where houseguest and sister attempt to escape Montse's clutches. Though pitched as a horror comedy, the plot is entirely believable due to the screenplay's gradual and deliberate development of Montse's state of mind. Themes of religious, sexual, and familial repression are explicitly but seamlessly incorporated. While the film draws influence from US and UK films like Misery, Shallow Grave and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, the directors also cite 60s and 70s Spanish horror, which I look forward to learning more about. There is a wonderful scene in which Montse grasps at a chance to regain normalcy and sanity but is prevented from going further down this path by a vision of her father. This scene lends the film a humanity and elevates it above the genre. Macarena Gomez is entirely believable in the role of Montse, and the makeup and special effects are very naturalistic, and document the derangement without getting schlocky. The cinematography makes the most of the indoor location and small cast without feeling limited.
An accomplished debut from Andrès and Roel, and I eagerly anticipate their next project. 4.5/5
Trailer link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSCO95qb4Ss
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