Blame

When the single mother nurse Gloria (Montse Mostaza) has financial difficulties, her colleague and friend Dr. Ana Torres (Nieve de Medina) invites her to move with her six year-old daughter Vicky (Alejandra Lorenzo) to her old big house where she runs a gynecologic clinic. In return, Gloria would assist Ana in her clinic in the afternoons. Sooner Gloria finds that Ana dedicates to abortion in her clinic, and also that she is lesbian and has a crush on her. When Ana gets pregnant of her lover Javier, Ana proposes an abortion, and after more than three months, the reluctant Gloria accepts her offer with tragic consequences.

The underrated "Películas Para No Dormir: La Culpa" is a macabre and very well constructed tale of guilty and madness with an intriguing screenplay with an unpleasant but realistic theme and a surprising plot point. The director Chicho explores the great cast (unknown in Brazil) and the characters are perfectly developed, with magnificent performances of Montse Mostaza, Nieve de Medina and the promising Alejandra Lorenzo. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Quarto da Culpa" ("The Room of the Guilty")

Part of a six-part series of Spanish made-for-TV movies entitled SIX FILMS TO KEEP YOU AWAKE, BLAME is a hard-hitting ghost story about an abortionist. It's a film that's light years ahead of current Hollywood competition and has more in line with the creepy, slow-moving perils of modern Asian horror cinema. That's right: despite the disturbing subject matter, this is an old-fashioned film through-and-through in which the scares come from noises in empty rooms and inexplicable occurrences rather than any shocking killer babies a la the IT'S ALIVE films and their B-movie ilk.

Blame benefits from a uniformly excellent cast that includes a young child actress whose fragile yet sinister performance recalls Heather O'Rourke of POLTERGEIST fame. The direction is assured and confident, leading to a beautiful looking movie that makes the best out of its rather mundane, otherwise nondescript locations: the run-down house, for instance, in which much of the film takes place, is almost a character in its own right. In the end, this is a film about the difficult topic of abortion and all the complexities that go with it: it's utterly moving, sometimes heartbreaking and very upsetting. By the end, it's become a far more intelligent and mature reflection on the topic than we, as viewer, had any right to expect, and I can't recommend it enough.

While watching this movie I was trying to determine when it was made. From the appearance of it (and props like the phones) I guessed maybe in the early 1990's. - but if I was going by the blatant anti-lesbian, anti- abortion propaganda of the movie I would guess that it was from the 1970's or older. Imagine my surprise when I found out from IMDb that this offensive piece of crap (which really doesn't even qualify as a horror film) was actually made in 2006. I can't remember the last time I saw something so disturbing (in an incredibly offensive sort of way) that was made within the past 10 years. There were numerous moments while watching the movie that I wanted to shut it off, but I kept hoping for the payoff, some kind of legitimate scare, but it never came.

¨Blame¨ deals with Ana (Nieve de Medina) , a gynaecologist , invites Gloria (Montse Mostaza), a nurse and friend from the hospital, and Gloria's daughter Vicky (Alejandra Lorenzo) , to come and live with her . It opens just as does many a murder mystery, with the covered body of a woman being dragged along the floor and leaving a trail of smeared blood . Later in the film, it must be assumed that the body is that of the mysterious and absent "Christine", but this thread of the story - like that of the weird guck on the stairwell and the religiously fanatic neighbor (Mariana Cordero) - is completely forgotten by the film's end . The crux of the film revolves around the unwed mother and nurse named Gloria and her young child Vicky and Gloria's colleague Dr. Ana Torres , who offers to let Gloria and Vicky come live with her in her big house where she runs a gynecological practice . In return , Gloria should assist in the practice in the afternoon after work . The house, a section of which is used as a private clinic, is light , cheerful and peaceful . Nevertheless, all the good the friendship between the two women provides , turns into dark , creepy and sinister . In fact , there is something sinister alive in there . But Ana has a crush on Gloria and soon learns that she is not only a lesbian carrying a flame for her, but that Ana also expects Gloria to help perform first-trimester abortions . Things go wrong when Gloria is soon pregnant once again . Ana gives her an ultimatum: terminate the baby or terminate the living situation. After she finally chooses the former, the aborted fetus disappears just as Vicky begins to carry around and talk to a tin box. Wracked with guilt, Gloria chooses to bow out and leave the house during the next abortion, returning just in time to find mysterious happenings. Could the unknown murderer also be the thief of Ana's aborted fetus? Could it be little Vicky? The religious spinster next door? A horrific secret is hidden in the attic !.

Thrilling and horrifying tale being well-paced and displaying mystery , horror and creeepy scenes . This tale belongs to "Historias Para No Dormir" series , it is four independent horror stories that pay tribute to the classic format of Narciso Ibáñez Serrador, directed by and starring well known names in Spanish cinema, such as Rodrigo Cortés, Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Paco Plaza and Paula Ortiz directing "La broma", "El doble", "Freddy" and "El asfalto" respectively . Narciso Ibáñez Menta dominates the scenario providing thrills and suspense enough , providing a spine-chilling psycho-drama with an interesting but lesser than credible premise, including terrific performances . The picture succeeds because the thriller , tension , as well as a superbly written script delving into the human psyche in such extreme situation and dealing with a surprising intrigue with plenty of twists and turns . ¨Blame¨ packs very much has the feel of European classic horror films of the 60s and 70s , due to , among other things , its languid , slow pacing , its general mysterious aura, its color scheme , its oddly sordid take on both lesbianism and abortion, the loose ends in the storyline and the downbeat non-ending . Indeed, the only things that differentiate Blame from any given superior Eurosleaze classic of yesteryear is Blame's total lack of naked flesh , soft-core sex and copious blood . These ordinary ingredients would have helped make ¨Blame¨ a much better and most commercial film, it nonetheless exhibits a certain morality and fascination for the supposed sleaziness of lesbianism and abortion . It is , the key points of which are very much based on traditional anti-abortion and anti-lesbian issues and as mentioned before , were usually given the full sleaze treatment in the nice films of yesteryear instead of the restraint shown in ¨Blame¨ . Here the well played protagonists are always dragging their pasts behind them towards the room upstairs. ¨La Culpa or Blame¨ turns out to be adequately creepy , but the creepy tone of the film is actually somewhat misplaced , for despite all its susprises and ghostly red herrings , in fact the film is anything but a ghost story .

It contains spotless pictorial as well as evocative photography by magnificent cameraman Jose Luis Alcaine , Almodovar's regular , he pulls off a photography with juicy atmosphere . Jose Luis Alcaine is deemed to be one of the best Spanish cameramen with a long and prestigious artistic career. He was first cinematographer to use fluorescent tube as "key" lightning in the 1970s ; Alcaine photographed successes as ¨Amantes Pasajeros ¨, ¨13 Rosas¨, ¨Rivales¨, Roma¨, ¨Reina De España¨ , ¨Altamira¨ , among others . Furthermore , a willingness almost perfect of the elements of each frame , every scene , every place . As well as frightening and suspenseful musical score by Victor Reyes . Still, even without sex and excess bloodshed , in this last directorial work of Narciso Ibáñez Serrador he carries out a nice effort dealing both lesbianism and abortion into symbols of squalid, disquieting horror that he actually achieves an in-the-end superfluous sleazy feel to the scattered , character-driven plotline, a plotline that picks up and drops threads like an epileptic before reaching its unexpected climax . And although ¨Blame¨ or ¨La Culpa¨ does suffer from some ups and downs and a diffuse script , the depressing final scene does indeed leave an effective feeling of doomed and tragic horror. The picture was competently directed by Narciso Ibañez Serrador who was considered the Spanish Alfred Hitchcock and one of the most important directors and producers in Spain. Narciso Ibáñez Serrador worked especially for TV getting his biggest hits with ¨Un Dos Tres Responda Otra Vez¨ , ¨Mis Terrores favoritos¨ , ¨Waka Waka¨ and TV films as ¨La Zarpa¨ , ¨El Regreso¨ , ¨El Televisor¨ , ¨Pesadilla¨ and of course ¨Historias para no dormir¨ with several episodes played by his father , Narciso Ibañez Menta , another expert on terror . Chicho Serrador also directed for cinema two known terror masterpieces : ¨The Boarding School¨ and ¨The Island of the Damned¨ .

This is probably one of the lesser movies from the "6 Films to keep you awake" series of Spanish horror films.

The theme of the film reflects social biases from the 1950's era Spain. It is a mild horror film, overridden by its social themes.

The all female cast is excellent. The story is sound, with some red herrings.

Basically, the director drives home his social commentary through a supernatural intervention near the end of the film.

A unique, targeted message.