La llamada

I only knew this 75 minute obscurity existed because it's a featurette on The Hanging Woman DVD released by Troma. After watching the excellent extras including an interview with Hanging Woman director Jose Luis Merino and Ben Tatar, director of dubbing for Sweet Sound, I decided to watch the film,produced by Sid Pink during his Spanish period. It turned out to be one of the best ghost movies I've ever seen, incredibly creepy, disturbing and chilling. I thought it was better than any ghost story I've ever seen including The Univited and The Haunting; very close in a way to the Euro equivalent of the original Carnival of Souls in style and mood. The black & white location photography is perfect and the music score during key moments is equally chilling. Without violence, monsters, gore or editing/camera tricks, Sweet Sound creates an unsettling, spooky ambiance that clings long after the troubling ending. I don't recall reading about this movie in Sid Pink's autobiography. Thanks to Troma for finding a good print and including it.

The title of these strange movie, "La llamada", that means the calling, alludes to the phone calling by Dominique, the French girl who was in love of the Spaniard Pablo. In fact, it´s a calling from the dead´s limbo. Their love was too strong to die: an airplane crash has ended with his life, but she refuses to disappear from live´s world. In a script that would remind to the horror fans to a film shooted some years after, "Neither the sea nor the sand", the action begins with the couple and their naive love (perhaps too naive, too much sugar). Then, the film changes and all is weird, very, very ambiguous. We don´t know, as the main character, the real truth. Some readers would remember the pace of the soft fantasy and horror tales by Julio Cortázar in a hard to see film, even in its original country, that deserves a chance (enjoy the interpretation of Emilio Gutiérrez Caba, a very well known actor in the spanish theater scene). Photographed in glorious black and white, contains a superb climax where Pablo goes to France and meets the Dominique´s haunting house and their ghastly relatives. Beware of the ghosts!

A low budget Spanish ghost story, although watching it it's just as much a romance as it is ghostly. It involves a young couple who pledge to love one another forever, even after death, and sure enough the girl is soon killed in a tragic accident. However, she returns to the guy, who refuses to believe that she's dead, but then odd things start happening. This is an oddly restrained little film, well acted and with a few spooky moments, but perhaps a little too subtle and slow for its own good. Certainly not a patch on the gothics being made by Margheriti and Freda during this period.

I saw this movie in its Americanized version titled "Sweet Sound Of Death" with some pretty horrendous dubbing but was still hypnotized by its enchanting spell. A young couple make a pact to love each other even after death and that whichever dies first should contact the other. Thus begins a very unusual ghostly love story where that iron wall between life and death becomes nothing more than a translucent curtain. The two actors in this film who play the couple (Emilio Gutiérrez Caba and Dyanik Zurakowska) are so strikingly beautiful that, coupled with the atmospheric settings and stylish shots, make this creepy love story a very gratifying site for the eyes. I would really like to see this one in its original language with English subtitles as I did feel that the bad dub job detracted from its overall intensity.

Pablo (Emilio Gutierrez Caba) is in love with Dominique (Dyanik Zurakowska) , who he wishes to marry. The girl leads him to a graveyard, where she convinces Pablo that should either of them die , then she will return and will help him to prepare for the afterlife . She leaves Madrid on a vacation in Bretagna , but there things go wrong . Pablo receives a call the next day. It is Dominique.

This is a gothic horror in Italian style more than Hammer-British films . An enjoyable and interesting story of ¨Amor Fou¨ developing itself little by little until a creepy and astonishing finale . An unfairly unknown and undervalued film, "La Llamada" is one of the best horror productions that Spanish cinema has been able to give , thanks to its excellent direction , an outstanding performance by both actors , as their chemistry and complicity is really palpable, all seasoned with an excellent script that fits perfectly in the winter Madrid at the time. Concerning a supernatural story in which young man and his sweetheart who promise should either of them die, the other will return and help them prepare for the eternity , but then things get awry . Special mention for the successful photography in black and white by cameraman Francisco Sánchez and the perfect atmosphere, which manages to turn such a bustling and booming city into an apparently dead and ghostly one , adding an evocative and intriguing musical score by Anton Garcia Abril . The story rests on the shoulders of a very young Emilio Gutiérrez Caba as the good-looking youngster who is visited by his late girlfriend's ghost and initially pleased by her return, he soon realizes she's trying to lure him again , being one of his first jobs of his long career that continues nowadays , and the gorgeous Dyanik Zurakowska as the attractive girlfriend who dies en route , she's frankly sensational, however she had a short career . Both of whom perfectly represent young people with their whole lives ahead of them, until death leads them down dangerous paths . While secondary Carlos Lemos plays the mature and Víctor Israel plays, as always , a strange guy . Adding other support cast such as Paco Morán and Tota Alba who are magnificent in their brief interpretations as well . To comment that the film had two versions , the Spanish version of 88 minutes that was unfairly treated at the Sitges Festival in 1968, and the one that premiered in the United States with 76 minutes that eliminates the epilogue that gives another twist to the astonishing story .¨The Call¨or

This underrated film competently written/directed by Javier Setó should be a must-see for all those who defend Hispanic fantaterror. Filmmaker Javier Setó was a craftsman who wrote/produced/directed a lot of films in all kinds of genres , such as : ¨Abuelita charlestón¨, ¨Pelusa ,¨Pan, amor y Andalucía¨, ¨Maravilla¨,¨Saeta rubia¨, Ha pasado un hombre¨ ,¨El puente del diablo¨ , ¨Mañana cuando amanezca¨, ¨Duelo de pasiones¨ , ¨Pasaporte para un ángel¨ , ¨Fantasía española¨ , ¨Flor salvaje¨ , ¨Las otoñales¨ , ¨El escándalo¨, ¨Han robado una estrella¨ , ¨El globo azul¨ , ¨El valle de las espadas¨ , ¨Bronce y luna¨ , ¨Mercado prohibido¨, ¨Viaje al vacío¨, ¨Long-Play¨ , ¨Querido profesor¨ , ¨Tabú¨, ¨¡Viva América!¨ , until his early death at 43 .¨La llamada¨(1965) is an offbeat and unusual movie , full of discoveries that one must see twice to appreciate how the supernatural is devouring reality. Rating : 7.5/10 , above average . Essential and indispensable watching for Spanish Gothic fans.