El segundo nombre

Spanish horrors are not bad at all, some are smart with interesting stories, but is not the case of "Second Name". It is badly directed, badly acted and boring...boring...boring, a missed chance for an interesting story.

Inauspicious English language feature debut from Paco Plaza, who would go on to direct horror hits such as the REC films and Veronica.

Although his skills of visual composition and evoking a sense of mood are already present, he fails to create an engaging story.

For a mystery/horror film, there is very little of either.

The odd, stilted performances by the actors delivering odd, stilted lines of dialogue only add to the film's woes.

Second Name follows the female mystery-investigation storyline that has been used so successfully in recent horror/suspense films like Ring, The Eye etc. This time round our heroine investigates the suicide of her father in strange circumstances, leading her to uncover the secrets of her own past, and the discovery of an ancient religion dedicated to the ritual killing of their first-born.

I have not read the novel but judging by the film Ramsay Campbell has crafted a clever, twisting-turning tale with that elusive what-happens-next factor that will keep anyone guessing. Direction and performances are restrained, which thankfully suits the film (none of the gimmicks that damaged the US remake of Ring). And the bleak ending really packs a punch. Recommended.

Second Name is an average mystery/thriller movie that borrows a lot from Rosemary's Baby and The Changeling but it's far from their level. 1)It fails to create real suspense and tension: it's meant to be slow and thrilling, but don't count much on the latter. There's a couple of interesting twists but... 2)It's not particularly original (that's quite an understatement) and the story is pretty much farfetched. It's one of those movies where you can't help asking yourself: but why are these people doing what they do?

In the end it's not completely bad, it's watchable, but do not expect big emotions, it's just another cliche film, keep it at the bottom of your stack and watch it when there's nothing else left)

5/10 (1=turn it off now! 2=abysmal 3=very bad 4=not good 5=watchable 6=decent 7=good 8=very good 9=must see 10=masterpiece)

I recommend the aforementioned classics instead, or Darkness (if you were looking for a more recent Spanish mystery/horror movie)

Seems like everyone forgot how to act in this movie, the lead character has 0 emotional depth think of Kristen Stewart x 100 sad , happy , angry she cant show any emotion. For a movie set in the uk the police officer looks like he has time traveled from the 1920s. And the officers wore puffy leather jackets , the story is really badly scripted the lead character makes a lot if stupid mistakes