The Nameless (1999) DVD

The Nameless

Trying to reach the limits of evil... But evil has no limits. Five years after a young girl was murdered, and when her mother seemed to have started to recover, a telephone call once again shatters her existence: "Mummy, it's me... come and get me".

Starring	Emma Vilarasau, Karra Elejalde, Tristan Ulloa, Brendan Price
Director	Jaume Balaguero
Studio	PIAS UK
Run time	DVD: 1 hr 42 mins
Certificate
Genres	Horror, World Cinema
Language	DVD: Spanish
Dubbed	English
Subtitles	DVD: English
Released	DVD: 11 Sep 2006 Production year: 1999
Format	DVD

Most helpful member's review of The Nameless
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10 out of 11 people found this review helpful

Creepy stuff!

I'm not going to say anyhting about the plot, because it's better to discover that for yourself, but

I watched this in the dark on my own when I was quite sleepy and it freaked me out! Some of the editing is a bit over the top and doesn't really work with the slow pace of the film, but it's a decent chiller and has genuinely scary moments. The end was a disappointment after all that the film had built up to, but well worth a watch.
- - Ben Dixon from Southampton
  - Posted 15 Nov 2006 14:19
Most recent members' review of The Nameless
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9 out of 10 people found this review helpful

Trying to reach the limits of evil... But evil has no limits.

Following the horrific murder of their six year old daughter, Claudia and her husband divorce under the pressure. The years pass, and Claudia lives a life of quiet torment, especially around the anniversary of Angela's death. Then one day, Claudia gets a phone call from her daughter asking her to come and get her....

Directed by Jaume Balagueró, this atmospheric Horror falls flat for many reasons. The pacing, whilst setting up the tension well, can be extremely slow at times, almost tipping over into boredom.

For me, Claudia was an uninvolving and unsympathetic protagonist, which really prevented me for caring about her plight. Marginally better was Karra Elejalde as ex-cop Bruno who decides to help Claudia find her daughter. Other supporting characters pop in and out of the film with stilted regularity, with some of them not even being introduced properly until they've been in the film for half an hour, making the film even more confusing.

The soundtrack is maddeneingly repetitive, signposting how we should be feeling at certain moments, even when it is clearly obvious without it.

The plot itself is incredibly self involved, to the point of being pompous, concerning a daft cult trying to achieve the 'perfect synthesis' of evil, led by the fanatical Santini (Carlos Lasarte)

Where the film does succeed is the imagery. Spain is beautifully captured, looking every inch the brooding gothic city. Every shot drips with dread (most notably an early scene in a beach house), creating quite a few tense and creepy scenes. Unfortunately, the tension that promised so much peters out in an incredibly dull climax, with one of the most unsatisfying twists I've seen in a long time.

The few gore scenes are handled stylishly, especially a quite graphic autopsy scene, but the gore stands second place to the pervasive dread in the first half of the film.

I would reccomend watching it in the original Spanish with English subtitles (complete with spelling mistakes), as the English dubbing differs wildly, changing the meaning of several key scenes.
- - HyperMediocrity from Bristol
  - Posted 03 Apr 2007 20:43
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