Nameless (Los Sin Nombre)
| Year: | 1999 |
| Director: | Jaume Balagueré |
| Writer: | Jaume Balagueré/Ramsay Campbell |
A very promising start, in what looked like a serious cinematography and acting job in the contemporary religious horror story (the realism promising great things when the horror materialised).
Trouble is, the horror never materialises, and even when it's hinted at in the final 60 seconds of the film, it's a copout (perhaps to a miniscule budget) and a letdown.
A woman's young daughter (or so she thinks) is brutalised and murdered by a religious cult. Years later, she starts getting phone calls, apparently from the daughter (now 11). She enlists the help of the policeman who worked on her case years before, and a fairly typical 'horror film detective work' plot ensues. The plotting from there is a slow ramble that zeroes in on the religious cult but the payoff is disappointingly thin.
Despite the slowness and mostly absent (yet expected) terror, the filmmaking prowess is apparent in the lighting, photography and art direction, but they alone don't make a movie.
Trouble is, the horror never materialises, and even when it's hinted at in the final 60 seconds of the film, it's a copout (perhaps to a miniscule budget) and a letdown.
A woman's young daughter (or so she thinks) is brutalised and murdered by a religious cult. Years later, she starts getting phone calls, apparently from the daughter (now 11). She enlists the help of the policeman who worked on her case years before, and a fairly typical 'horror film detective work' plot ensues. The plotting from there is a slow ramble that zeroes in on the religious cult but the payoff is disappointingly thin.
Despite the slowness and mostly absent (yet expected) terror, the filmmaking prowess is apparent in the lighting, photography and art direction, but they alone don't make a movie.