La comunidad

Julia(Carmen Maura)is a temp at real estate agency, her first job is to show some clients around a recently vacated apartment in an old district. The apartment is to Julia's surprise fully furnished with all mod cons and much more and with the former tenant being deceased, this gives her the idea of having a romantic meal there with her husband as its nice and bright and warm, their place is damp and cold. During a romantic liaison the ceiling falls in from the apartment above and hundreds of cockroaches fall on them, when the fire fighters arrive to check out the flat above they find the tenant deceased and decaying, Julia finds a map there and which she believes might lead her to some hidden treasure, as the deceased was a lottery millione, sure enough she finds 300 million pesetas in cash stashed under some floorboards. With all the neighbours acting curious and following her, she takes up temporary residence until she can escape with the loot.

Darkly comic thriller thats a mix between Shallow Grave and Polanski's The Tenant, with well rounded oddball characters set in a claustrophobically old apartment block. its refreshingly surprising at almost every turn, the only non surprising thing being, we the viewer know its going to be virtually impossible to escape easily with the money. As the film develops we learn the real dark truth being La Comunidad, as the pace simultaneously races, the deeds become ever more darker. Beautifully directed by the versatile Spanish director Alex de la Iglesia, it's a pleasure to watch, as he mixes comedy and horror to perfection.The film as a whole is not strictly horror, but there's plenty of bravura horror scenes here to keep horror fans like myself very happy indeed.

A terrific dark tale by Alex De La Iglesia with a phenomenal Carmen Maura. The film is a crazy relative of Polanski's "The Tenant" and Donovan's Apartment Zero" It takes the sinister neighbors from those two masterpieces and creates something unique. Tension and laughter alternate and commingle in a constant state of euphoria. Compelling viewing for lovers of dark comedies, this is one of the most surprising and entertaining I've seen in a long time.

In Madrid, Julia (Carmen Maura) is a broker of fifty and something years trying to sell an old apartment without garage, but downtown and well located. When she visits the place with her clients, she realizes that the apartment is ready for living, having all furniture and outfits. She decides to stay in the apartment for a couple of days with her loser mate while performing the sale. There is a water infiltration through the ceiling from the upper apartment and the firemen are called. They find the neighbor, an old man, dead in a very dirty apartment. Julia finds by chance three hundred millions of pesetas in his apartment, but becomes trapped by the other weird neighbors that want to get the old man's money for themselves. This suspenseful tale of greed, with lots of black humor, is another great movie of Aléx de la Iglesia (of `Mutant Action', `The Day of the Beast' and `Perdita Durango' among others). Alternating crime and thriller with very dark comedy in bizarre situations, it is an excellent entertainment for fans of this genre. I liked it a lot. This movie was awarded with the Goya Award. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): `A Comunidade' (`The Community')

The last movie I saw directed by Alex de la Iglesia was the disappointing 'Perdita Duranga', which had very little of the inspired invention and originality of his brilliant horror comedy classic 'The Day Of The Beast'. It always felt like a bit of a compromise to me - Iglesia takes on Hollywood and loses. 'Common Wealth' sees the director back in Spain, and back in complete control, and what we end up with is a first rate thriller cum black comedy. Almodovar regular Carmen Maura leads a great ensemble cast in this hugely enjoyable movie. In some ways reminiscent of other "unexpected windfall" movies like 'Shallow Grave' and 'A Simple Plan', Iglesias then takes the basic plot premise in new, unforeseen directions. The viewer is left constantly surprised, and the film is engrossing right until the very end. Highly recommended!

Alex De La Iglesia is one of a triumvirate of Spanish directors whose deliciously black comedies have found a sizeable audience outside of Spain (the other two being Bigas Luna and the master Pedro Almodovar). Iglesia's debut ACCIONE MUTANTE was a wonderfully perverse low budget sci-fi parody, but it was his super-dark horror comedy THE DAY OF THE BEAST that first brought him international recognition, and a brief and unlikely stab at Hollywood with the entertaining PERDITA DURANGO.

LA COMMUNIDAD shows that Iglesia has matured a *lot* as a film maker, and feels much slicker and more accomplished than his earlier films. Carmen Maura (Spain's finest actress) plays an estate agent with a gift for telling lies, who discovers a stash of money in an appartment she has to show to some clients. She thinks this is what her life has been waiting for, but she doesn't count on THE COMMUNITY that inhabits the appartment building.

LA COMMUNIDAD is a wonderful thing - a horror movie about ordinary people. Forget mutants, satanists or the devil himself - none of these are as scary as the guy next door! Iglesia brings out the darkest side of our human nature, bringing out delicious black comedy, horror and thriller elements without the need to invoke anything supernatural or fantastical.

Iglesia's direction is assured - helped no doubt by having a veteren like Maura in the lead role. The pacing of the film is spot on, and the atmosphere and tension is built to great effect. The film is creepy, crazy and builds to real edge of the seat tension. The characters are all wonderful, and the cast give great performances. A great piece of work!

9/10