Le Territoire des ombres : Le Secret des Valdemar

First part of the Valdemar saga full of horror and fantasy based on stories by the master H.P. Lovecraft , being followed by "The Valdemar Legacy II: The Forbidden Shadow" . ¨The Valdemar legacy¨(2010) upon short stories by the undisputed expert of the terror H.P. Lovecraft , telling an incredible story of horror , monsters and including fantastic touches . As it packs creepy scenes , suspense , plot-twists , tension , chills , thrills with sensationalistic scenes . Luisa Llorente (Silvia Abascal) , an expert on taxation of old buildings , had the formidable task of going to evaluate the Victorian home of Lazarus Valdemar (Daniele Liotti) and his wife Leonor Valdemar (Laia Marull) , but she's not been heard from . There are several flashbacks about the Valdemar marriage , and subsequent detention of Lazarus accused of false medium practices and swindles . This mansion harboring a terrible and eerie occult secret . After she mysteriously disappeared , Maximilian (Eusebio Poncela) , president of her company and head of Inmoverance , engaged the services of a private detective (Oscar Jaenada) to help find her . Two expeditions go out in search of her : first is Nicholas Tramel (a little variation of Nicholas Flamel , one of the biggest alchemists in entire history) a detective hired by Maximilian Colvin (the president of the company Luisa works for) along with Dra. Cerviá (Ana Risueño) , and the other comprised of coworkers Ana (Norma Ruiz) and Eduardo (Rodolfo Sánchez) . But soon they will discover that it is not the first disappearance at Valdemar mansion . Then , Tramel , Eduardo and Ana are kidnapped and locked . Later on , the group escapes through a cave where they are attacked by a horrible creature and things go wrong . At the end takes place a satanic invocation by means of the diabolic book ¨El Necronomicon¨ using weird formulas and spells . Including a final ritual where emerges a astonishing monster from the darkness , it is the own Cthulhu , the most famous evil god created by H.P. Lovecraft .

The plot of "The Valdemar legacy" is inspired in the H.P. Lovecraft's universe , it was better paced and more interesting than the second installment , as the rest of the tale untold in this part is narrated in ¨The Forbidden Shadow" . . As filmmaker José Luis Alemán mixing some ideas created by the Rhode Island's writer from short stories and novels such as "The Hound" ,¨The shadow over Innsmouth¨ , "The Pickman's Model" , ¨The Call of Cthulhu¨ and about ¨Mythos of Cthulhu¨ , a horror saga about an evil deities called the Outer Gods and Great Old Ones , two evil races of gods that they ran the universe in an ancient past , before the mankind arose . There also shows up the famous black magic book ¨Necronomicon¨ which supposedly contains strange rites , presages , curses , and the history about Great Old Gods and Outer Gods . The picture packs thrills , chills , terror , fantasy and lots of blood and gore . Furthermore , unrelenting twists and turns as when the protagonists discover the truth at a nightmarish ending of impressive horror . B-entertainment with a fairly suspenseful and horrifying story about an ancient fanatic religious cult of followers of Cthulhu . This tale about some young people involved into a twisted intrigue begins well and grows more and more until a breathtaking finale . In the film shows up some actual historical roles : the series-killer Belle Gunness performed by Laura Toledo , the ax murderer Lizzie Borden interpreted by Vanesa Suarez , Bram Stoker who was writer of "Dracula" who was played by Lino Brasse and Aleister Crowley who was an expert in the occult and he is deemed to be one of the most famous black wizards , being well acted by Francisco Maestre . Support cast is acceptable , such as Silvia Abascal as a houses appraiser who had recently gone to the Victorian mansion Valdemar to conduct an inventory of property ownership when she suddenly disappears . And other known television actors as Rodolfo Sancho , Ana Risueño , Jimmy Barnatán and Jesús Olmedo . Being Paul Naschy last movie and the film is dedicated to him . Adequate production values as well as good makeup on the freakish frightening creatures and overwhelming digital effects . Dark and colorful cinematography by David Azcano , being shot on location in Comillas , Cantabria . Frightening and atmospheric musical score by Arnau Bataller . It has a follow-up : José Luis Alemán's sequel to his own Spanish horror flick La Herencia Valdemar, titled ¨Inheritance Valdemar II: The Shadow Prohibited (or La Herencia Valdemar II: La Sombra Prohibida)¨ results to be inferior to previous part .

Other films about the H.P. Lovecraft universe are the followings : Reanimator (1985) by Stuart Gordon with Jeffrey Combs ; Re-Sonator (From Beyond) (1986) by Stuart Gordon with Jeffrey Combs , Barbara Crampton ; Cthulhu Mansión (1992) by Juan Piquer Simón with Frank Finlay ; In the Mouth of Madness (1994) by John Carpenter with Sam Neill , Julie Carmen ; and Dagon (2001) by Stuart Gordon with Francisco Rabal .

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.

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.

A good movie, at least according to this first part. It is important to know that it is the first part of two. Thing that perhaps those who wrote negative reviews did not have in mind. Maybe not Academy Awards actors, but the acting is good. Also good plot, photography and the overall atmosphere. An hour and a half of nice entertainment, a funny and well told tale , which leaves you with the desire to see the continuation. Well, maybe not worth the eight stars that I gave, but it was the only way to rise a bit the average. And in the end it is worth not less than seven. Let's hope that the second part is valid and will not disappoint the expectations.

This movie was okay. Not a complete waste of time if you have time to waste. The Gothic atmosphere and the Spanish country side were creepy and beautiful. From the start, I knew it wasn't going to be a masterpiece just purely from the way the woman walked into her boss's office like she was on a runway. This movie starts with modern times and 15 minutes in, we get what I assumed was going to be a flashback but was really the meat of the story. The actors in the olden times are much better comparably to the modern day actors in terms of acting. Also, this is apparently part one and there will be a part two, from the looks of the preview after the movie finished. It feels more like a serial than a movie.

As to the plot, like the previous reviewer stated, they forgot about the modern times after one of the characters starts telling a story about what happened in the past that made the place haunted, so there really is no story or plot for the modern part of the movie. The plot regarding the origination of the haunting was decent, was spooky at some parts, but it still felt lacking. I guess you have to watch both parts in order to really get the crux of the movie.

This movie is not self contained.