Pakt des Blutes

Inauspicious English language feature debut from Paco Plaza, who would go on to direct horror hits such as the REC films and Veronica.

Although his skills of visual composition and evoking a sense of mood are already present, he fails to create an engaging story.

For a mystery/horror film, there is very little of either.

The odd, stilted performances by the actors delivering odd, stilted lines of dialogue only add to the film's woes.

Second Name is an average mystery/thriller movie that borrows a lot from Rosemary's Baby and The Changeling but it's far from their level. 1)It fails to create real suspense and tension: it's meant to be slow and thrilling, but don't count much on the latter. There's a couple of interesting twists but... 2)It's not particularly original (that's quite an understatement) and the story is pretty much farfetched. It's one of those movies where you can't help asking yourself: but why are these people doing what they do?

In the end it's not completely bad, it's watchable, but do not expect big emotions, it's just another cliche film, keep it at the bottom of your stack and watch it when there's nothing else left)

5/10 (1=turn it off now! 2=abysmal 3=very bad 4=not good 5=watchable 6=decent 7=good 8=very good 9=must see 10=masterpiece)

I recommend the aforementioned classics instead, or Darkness (if you were looking for a more recent Spanish mystery/horror movie)

After the overrated success of Amenabar and Balaguero, Spanish Horror Movies spread like a disease in the increasingly sad world of horror movies. The result is all in films like El segundo nombre, a TV-like production bad written, but acted and directed even worse. I didn't read the Ramsey Campbell book, but I'm sure that the author of The Doll Who Ate Its Mother didn't have much in common with this terrible production. Avoid it at any cost, unless you're searching for a quiet sleepy night in a fresh movie theater. 2/10

The movie was good yes, with some surprising mysteries. However, the ending not only unravels various mysteries, it unravels the plot of the movie to stupidity.

Anyone that knows their bible (well) will realize that this "cult" breaks numerous Commandments. -Thou shalt not lie -Thou shalt not bear false witness -Thou shalt not kill

Their actions make the whole cult a contradiction to religion (ie. trying to earn God's favor by condemning themselves)...

Plain stupid.

Spanish horrors are not bad at all, some are smart with interesting stories, but is not the case of "Second Name". It is badly directed, badly acted and boring...boring...boring, a missed chance for an interesting story.