The Valdemar Legacy

The majority of critics have been unfair to this movie. This is a nice homage to the classics of the terror genre and to the world of Lovecraft. Aficionados will enjoy the references with delight.

The story is well told and interesting enough, and though it leaves some loose ends (the second installment will see the light on October), the main story (told in a large flashback) concludes in a spectacular climax that is something to be seen.

The production values are top notch.

The only setbacks are some pieces of dialog, too long and literary, that drag the pace in the middle section.

All in all, this is a remarkable first feature from director José Luis Alemán.

... so don't start unless you intend to watch them both, preferably back to back.

It's worth it.

THE VALDEMAR LEGACY is the first of a Spanish two-part horror film series that, despite the title, has nothing to do with the classic Waldemar Daninsky series of werewolf features starring Paul Naschy, even though Naschy himself has a small role playing a butler. No, instead this is a pure haunted house saga apparently influenced by Lovecraft's Cthulhu writings, although I'd call that a loose influence at best - certainly there's nothing explicitly Mythos related here. It starts off as the usual young-woman-visits-a-haunted house tale before moving into a lengthy back story. Sadly, the SFX are below par and the story is too long and too unfocused, just another low budget mess of a production.

The comment made by that reviewer from Canada "I didn't expect much from the Spanish Cinema" is so broad and unfortunate about the Spanish cinema that is almost pitiful.

My previous comment was deleted (by a very sensitive reader no doubt) and I'm very sorry (and worried) to see that is so easy for anyone to erase other people commentaries when they do not coincide with their own: Dark Age minds living and interacting now, in the XXI Century.

I could write a long list of magnificent Spanish directors and movies produced in Spain, but I don't think it worthy of my time trying to enlighten closed and prejudiced minds.

To the movie: It isn't the Second Coming, of course, but it isn't the worse movie ever made either. The production is acceptable, the settings and atmosphere quite good and the plot interesting enough to have a pleasant time watching it.

One is left waiting for the second part (something I never saw) since I'm rewriting this review a long time after my first deleted one and since then I completely forgot about the sequel to this picture. In general: Quite an acceptable pastime.

"La Herencia Valdemar (Valdemar's Heritage) is the first of a two-part story based on tale written by H. P. Lovecraft. It's the last picture of Spanish actor Paul Naschy whom career is linked to terror (specially with his classical character "Waldemar Daninsky". It is a very good film, with many topics of Cthulhu stories but in the good side. Film has two parts, one in present time, when the character of Silvia Abascal has to make a study about the value of an ancient mansion (Valdemar House); the second one is in the 19th century, and explains the origin of the mansion. There are many little things for smiling, as the names of some minor characters or the handle of the staff of Eusebio Poncela character. An interesting point is the fact that the film had no public money, a good exception in Spanish cinema. Secuel of the film is now in post-production.