The Nameless (1999)

I don't know which movie other reviewers have seen, but this is far from scary. There are neither jump-in-your-seat scenes nor is there a brooding atmosphere; the main feeling is depression, mixed with a bit of boredom on my part. Apart from the last 20 minutes or so, there isn't anything much happening anyway. It starts veeery slowly, and only picks up the pace a tiny bit later. For about a third of the movie, it isn't even clear what the story is, there is no discernible plot apart from a grieving mother and an ex-cop who has also suffered. Then there is a story, but a very disjointed one with too many characters (what was the point of this guy Tony and his tattoo?), none of which are being developed to any extent. One might think it all builds up to a horrifying climax, but no, at the end there's just a comically smug uberbaddie, and the "purely evil" girl does nothing but shoot him and herself. – On top of that, there's the typical "scary movie" silliness, one guy goes in alone and gets killed, then the cop goes in and gets killed, then the mother goes in alone, all without calling the police. WTF?! – On a positive note, the cinematography is okay (does everything have to be in tones of gray nowadays though?) and the main actors are decent (though far from brilliant). – There are two things which can make a scary movie good: Genuinely frightening moments, or a compelling idea; preferably both. Here there is neither.

The movie starts with a lot of promise. But it unfortunately meanders off without any logical flow. The main culprit is the story - I was hoping for a taut storyline but felt cheated with holes filled storyline. The story and directing are mediocre at best. The female protagonist is the only saving grace. I am not a big fan of the horror genre but I do love my share of thrillers, esp foreign. This, sadly, doesn't fit into either genre. I do want to give props to the background music. That helped me manage to keep invested in the movie to the very end. In summary, a disappointing and predictable venture. Go for it only if the alternate choices are badly made recent American flicks. If not, skip it.

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.

I thoroughly enjoyed much of this movie, but it is the careless of the directing that left me feeling short-changed. The characters are good and atmosphere excellent, however the director was very poor when he did his story boards and the reporter should have been introduced earlier in the film instead of appearing out of nowhere as a major player. Even if it had been a couple of very short scenes he participated in, it would have added to the flow and texture of the film.The director fails to paint his picture fully at times and substitutes convolution for story telling. And the denouement while effective is slightly illogical and ill-conceived. The final five minutes are inconsistent and lack cohesion, making the final scene lose any power. The director has created distrust with the viewer, and I for one went away feeling slightly robbed. A great build up let down by a lazy and ill-conceived climax.I give it good marks for the first three quarters of the film and for the great camera-work and moodiness. The film should have been slightly longer and much more better handled. If there is different version or director's cut of this film then I would like to see what it could have been!!!!