Recently orphaned Jorge goes to live with his Grandmother in the country. He kisses his parents grave and claims to have absorbed their spirits. The Grandmother is a tyrant who loved her dead son (a little too much it seems)and feels that Jorge is him, reincarnated. The woman is a tyrant and rules the place with an iron fist. The house is full of strangeness as her other son lives there and fools around with the maid (whom he beats because she fools around with a local), the Grandfather who reveals why he actually married the spiteful harridan, and finally Grandmother's daughter who has been locked up in her bedroom because her lover was killed 8 years ago in a political assassination. Jorge soon learns from the locked away Aunt, that the spirits of his dead parents are available to him as children that only he can see and play with. As the adult world continues to intrude into Jorge's, he starts to lose the ability to be in touch with the spirits of his dead parents until, at films' end, he admits his Aunt disappeared (most likely from suicide) and with that, his ability to communicate with the dead.
This film pretty much disappeared off the face of the earth until it resurfaced at Spain's Sitges Film Festival in 2016. It is a perfect example of quiet horror as every thing that occurs could just be Jorge's yearning for his dead parents (we never learn how they died). The performances here are everything. Ana Maria Noe as the Grandmother is both hated and pitied. She played a Rosa Kleb type killer in the James Bond parody, Operation Kid Brother and has a face that would stop a clock. Francisco Ruiz as Jorge seems natural and encompasses all the emotions an 8 year old might have. The belief in spirits, magic and other worldly accouterments seem natural to him. Terele Pavez as the maid introduces an element of sexual tension that occurs whenever she enters a room. It was because of her, that Sitges resurrected the film as a tribute to her long career. It may just be the quality of the print, but browns dominate both interior and exterior shot scenes. It accentuates the feeling of the past, especially when the children appear. Not for everyone, but if you yearn for a creepy, nostalgic well acted genre film, this one may just be the ticket.
This film pretty much disappeared off the face of the earth until it resurfaced at Spain's Sitges Film Festival in 2016. It is a perfect example of quiet horror as every thing that occurs could just be Jorge's yearning for his dead parents (we never learn how they died). The performances here are everything. Ana Maria Noe as the Grandmother is both hated and pitied. She played a Rosa Kleb type killer in the James Bond parody, Operation Kid Brother and has a face that would stop a clock. Francisco Ruiz as Jorge seems natural and encompasses all the emotions an 8 year old might have. The belief in spirits, magic and other worldly accouterments seem natural to him. Terele Pavez as the maid introduces an element of sexual tension that occurs whenever she enters a room. It was because of her, that Sitges resurrected the film as a tribute to her long career. It may just be the quality of the print, but browns dominate both interior and exterior shot scenes. It accentuates the feeling of the past, especially when the children appear. Not for everyone, but if you yearn for a creepy, nostalgic well acted genre film, this one may just be the ticket.
