Would you sleep with your lover if she had come back from the Other Side?
The cover art of Spectre makes a promise of a very good looking film and while the cinematography truly was awesome and everything looked absolutely beautiful, the film itself proved to be one pretty dull mother. Having recently just seen, and enjoyed, another Spanish horror film called The Baby's Room that was also, just like Spectre, part of "6 Films to Keep You Awake" maybe I was just too excited since the last one delivered way past my expectations. Spectre on the other hand was not really horror in the true meaning of the word, it was more like a drama and with that I must admit that as a drama film it worked well, but since I was expecting (and was promised) horror it didn't quite do it for me. Even though I wasn't too pleased with this Spanish little flick, when thinking about it later on it did actually have a few things to offer... but as a horror flick, no siree!
As for the plot, it's very hard explaining it without giving too much away but basically it's about this 16 years old dude named Tomás who's living in a small village in Spain, where people are very religious may I add. A lady named Moira (that has a sweeeet butt) lives in an old house and since she hasn't been seen in the village (or in church for that matter) since she moved in, the people in the village naturally think there's something wrong with her. Actually, they're all pretty much sure she's a witch and that the Devil himself visit her at night for some good ol´ porkin´ activity. Tomás and his friends are of course curious to whether any of these rumors are true so one day they decide to sneak around the house to maybe get a glimpse of the witch. But clumsy Tomás falls flat on his ass right outside her house and his friends takes off leaving him laying on the ground. He later wakes up in a bed inside the house and sees that Moira's no ugly old witch but infact a very pretty young lady. He falls in love with her and starts visiting her on a regulary basis but maybe some of the rumors regarding the witch and the Devil were true after all... or were they?
What was explained above was the plot of like half of the movie as it, all the way through, mixes past with present and so jumps back and forth, a lot, between showing Tomás as a teenager to showing him as a grown old man visiting his childhood home because of a mysterious letter he got sent his way. Spectre has a story that is quite interesting and for most parts makes it worth watching, but like with so many other films it just doesn't have that spark to it in the end. I was pretty disappointed when the credits started rolling and was thinking something like was this the best ending they could come up with. 3/4's of the movie was somewhat impressive but the last fourth went down the drain. Another thing is that if you have a problem with slow-paced flicks, this is not a good pick at all because this has slow written all over it. Still, it has some quality stuff to offer (except for that it's a stunning film), but if you're looking for scares, blood or clever twists, look elsewhere.
Spain might be the new Japan or Korea, they produce some awesome stuff and then when the wheels are in motion you get more rocks than gold in the long run. But if you search every rock real close I'm sure that there will be glimpses of, if not pure, gold every once in a while.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Películas para no dormir: Regreso a Moira, 6 Films to Keep You Awake: Spectre
MOVIE YEAR: 2006
DIRECTOR: Mateo Gil
WRITING CREDITS: Mateo Gil, Igor Legarreta
GENRE: Horror, Drama
CAST: Juan José Ballesta, Natalia Millán, Jordi Dauder
COUNTRY: Spain
RUNTIME: 80 min
RATING: 5/10
Spectre Website/IMDB Click here
Spectre Trailer
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