Trip Day 9.
On February 7th, my wife and I went on a trip to sunny California. We started in LA, visiting a friend for a couple of days, and over the next week slowly drove up the coast to finish things up in San Francisco. It was rad! But, it made watching a movie every day/writing about it quite difficult. As committed as I am to this thing, I can't justify missing out on a potentially once-in-a-lifetime trip to blog about a terrible indie-slasher, you know? Plus, I think it's wise to occasionally do things with your spouse.
So things will be a little different for the next 11 entries. I managed to watch the movies, but rather than writing about them as I normally do, I'll do a quick little synopsis, a little imdb research, quote some of the reviews (can you do that?) and bounce off of them. Followed up with my general impressions. Okay, thanks!
California is pretty sweet.
It Happened at Nightmare Inn
Two sisters run an inn in Spain. They are both a little older and seem bitter that life has been passing them by. They are also crazy and religious, which is never a good mix. They start to take offense at the loose morals of some of their female guests (or is it repressed jealousy?) and begin killing them. One of their victims has a sister who is starting to get suspicious, and begins nosing around the inn. Will the sisters be able to cover up their crimes? Will our heroine sister make it out alive? Tune in to find out!
imdb plot keywords, because they are occasionally funny:
sister / tourist / spain / hotel / killed by broken glass
In case you ever wanted to have a marathon with movies where people are killed by broken glass, I guess.
Reviews:
Both actresses playing the crazy sisters do stellar jobs playing off-key, psychotic women of very different natures...The film is not particularly gory but there are some scenes that I found quite chilling. One with a baby as witness and then another of Geeson getting to know wine vats
-Thanks "BaronBl00d" via imdb
This is spot on - both Aurora Bautista and Esperanza Roy do an excellent job as the sisters. Both have their moments - Bautista is the more unhinged, violent one, and gets scenes filled with righteous anger, and Roy plays the more beta sister - more emotional, and with more repressed emotions. There are a couple of scenes that stick out as being particularly rough - the tone of the film is considerably more grim than I expected, considering it shares a disc with the goofy Memorial Valley Massacre.
This is perhaps a very clever movie about the reactionary and conservative nature of rural Spain at the time, fed by Catholic idolatry and rural small-mindedness
-Thanks "lazarillo" via imdb
I didn't necessarily notice this at I was watching it, but it's certainly an interesting take on things. I've always been fascinated by horror films that manage to be entertaining while critiquing certain elements of society at the same time. Looking back, it's hard to say if this was an intent of the filmmakers, but it's certainly a valid perspective. It's worth noting that just about everyone that they go after is a tourist from Britain - they do not often kill native Spaniards.
It's hard to classify this movie as anything. It's not really a slasher, since there are simply not enough killings for that and for an horror/thriller it simply isn't exciting enough. But that doesn't make this movie necessarily bad really. It's just a bit of a different movie that takes its own course with its story and I must say that the movie is pretty well done... Seems like Spanish film-makers back in the '70's try to create a same sort of horror sub-genre that was so popular in Italy, around the same time
-Thanks "Boba_Fett1138" via imdb
Honestly, it's almost more of a character study/drama about these two sisters that happen to kill people. You get to know them enough that there are times where you actually feel a little bad for them. At least, one of them. And yeah, it's well done. Apparently there are several versions floating around out there though - I may have watched the TV cut, which people on imdb were really hating on. I still thought it was effective enough. Although the "real version" sounds like it has far more blood/nudity, so maybe that would have more of a exploitation/horror/slasher feel to it. I guess that would be the way to go - if I come across it some day I'll definitely check it out.
Final Thoughts:
It Happened at Nightmare Inn is kind of off-kilter and a bit surreal-feeling at times. But definitely a unique and entertaining horror film. Worth a watch if you can get into an oddly-paced film.
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