Film per non dormire: affittasi

Mario (Adriá Collado) and his pregnant girlfriend Clara (Macarena Gómez) are trying to find in a short period a new apartment to live since they have sold their apartment and they need to move in fifteen days. When Mario finds an attractive advertisement in his mailbox, he convinces Clara to visit the place with him. He drives to a far area in the periphery and meets the real estate agent in front of an old building in an abandoned neighborhood. When the couple sees the apartment, they do not like it but they are forced to stay.

"Para Entrar a Vivir" is the weakest movie that I have seen from the excellent Spanish series "Películas Para No Dormir". The gore story has good performances, but the screenplay is awful, destroying a promising plot and transforming what could be a sort of "Misery" in a hysterical collection of unreasonable attitudes. For example, why would the couple leave their car in a rainy day to visit such dreadful building in an isolated area? They are in the control of the situation many times, but they always take the wrong decision or Clara is hysterical and let the insane lady revert the situation. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Morada do Perigo" ("Housing of the Danger")

It won't keep you awake but it won't exactly send you to sleep, either.

'To Let' is a creepy and unnerving Spanish horror that, to my bemusement upon looking it up after seeing it, was made for television. This works with and against the film: the fact it was made for TV means it will have been produced with the conformities associated with television, namely time limit which is a shame because if the film had been starched out a little further, I feel it would have been a lot better. The film clocks in at just over an hour but what an hour you get – there will be suspense, an atmosphere, dread and plenty of nasty little scenes to keep you occupied.

But then again I'm going to go back to the constraints that keep the film from being great. Because of the limitations faced with this made for TV production, the film must treat its subject matter like a sprint more-so than a marathon and that means instead of establishing the couple at the beginning, we begin with them in a car going to the apartment – it would also eliminate the flashbacks included half way through which, to me, felt a little out of place. Again, the constraints work against the brilliant idea. There are scenes in the film in which the little old lady who runs the apartment acts in a caring and, to her, natural manner. The scene in which she helps the female of the dreaded couple cook a meal for the injured other half feels all over the place because this landlady is supposed to be the antagonist of the story and to have her flash between good and natural and evil and nasty is a little frustrating due to the character's inconsistency.

But rather than go on about what I would have liked to have seen had the film been longer, I will say that the film works overall as the piece that it is. The idea is excellent and the film captures its own premise brilliantly by utilising its location of an apartment building. I've been to Spain twice in the last two and a half years and on both occasions I stayed in an apartment building run by a landlady – eerie as it sounds. But the large, marble walls that greet you when you enter and surround you unless you are in your respective room work really well here. So do the open, echoing corridors and staircases that just add menace to the situation and location. So the apartment location works wonderfully well here and credit to the director for capturing a location that resembles a real life locale so much, because I've been there and stayed in two respective apartment buildings in the Mediterranean region and I can tell you; just the 'look' and 'feeling' of being there is captured 100%.

So along with these ideas of getting right the setting and most of the other aspects of mise-en-scene, To Let is not just let down by its shortish runtime. But then again, perhaps it is because the logistical flaws that begin to creep in toward the end can only really be put down to its short run time: the film is a sprint, not a marathon and thus must round things off quickly by speeding up its plot points and revelations. There are times in the film when you think the characters will either be smarter or more bloodthirsty. I'm going to reference another 2006 horror film similar to this one; Eli Roth's first Hostel attempt. When Paxton finds himself in the situation he's in when the film enters its final third, he knows its kill or be killed and as a result shoots and chops his way out of trouble - he has gone from 'innocent', fun-loving young adult to killer and that's exactly what I would have expected in this film.

The truth is the characters of Mario (Collado) and his twin-protagonist girlfriend are still just too nice to strike out. Mario cannot attack the old woman with a mêlée weapon in the kitchen soon enough and when Mario's other half and another captive are in an elevator trying to escape, the land lady's face comes right up to a grill: the hostages have a sharp knife at their disposal and will win the battle if they had just used it right there. By this point, and especially when another character whom we thought was a captive but is actually on the landlady's side is released, the couple at the start are not smart enough or fit enough to survive and it's a shame that their idiocy sees them come so close to loosing out in the end.

Twinned with this, the music playing throughout sounds like it's from some 1950s, American sci-fi B-movie and it is difficult to get your head around the fact that the antagonist is, after all, a little old lady who I doubt would put up much of a fight if properly challenged. This made me wonder during the film: what if the landlady was actually a male? The film would've been much more savage since it is the girlfriend who is chased and humiliated for most of the early exchanges and there could've been some great scenes where the landlord is fought, beaten but then is strong enough to get back up again and continue the chase. Still, with a longer time allowance; more money and bigger exposure I guess anything is possible.

This movie clocks at around one hour, and accomplishes what most modern thrillers struggle to do in twice the time. It gets to the point pretty quickly, but gives a straight, well defined portrait of the main characters without using any "super obvious" scenes to do that. While in the process it actually utilizes pretty much every cliché of the whole "kidnapping" scenario of horror movies (like for example "the hills have eyes" by the late Wes Craven)but in the best way possible. It manages to hold the viewer at the edge of the seat for every single second, surprisingly without ever feeling predictable.

The cinematography and imagery is appropriately beautiful. The worn out color palette fits the ugly urban location perfectly and helps in creating tension throughout the movie. You could even say that (taking into consideration the extremely limited cast) even the weather and the building themselves are supporting characters in the film.

What is really worth mentioning is that this is one more Jaume Balagueró film that breaks the mould of American horror films by having the story placed in an apartments. With the obvious exception of Roman Polanski's "Apartment" trilogy, most American thrillers are set into suburban locations and big, very big houses. Although these houses are very scary (mostly due to their abundance of entry points, making the villains job much easier) this is not very realistic considering more than most people worldwide live in blocks of flats and cant' actually relate to that "50's America" scenery.

Top up all of the above with a great psychological/social study on people who are obsessed with other peoples lives and you've got an excellent, disturbing and actually very "thrilling" thriller. The only drawback I can think for this movie, is (as noted by most reviewers) the main characters lack of decisiveness at points, which, kind of feels like a mechanism for the film to go on.

Amazing, one of the best horror films i ever seen. Maybe the history is not the best, maybe there isn't an screenplay, but i like it. The performances of Macarena Gomez & and Nuria Gonzalez are smashing. Adria is a jackass but he makes the movie continues with their own way. I don't know why the people was waiting a big scrip, when the movie was actually made for t.v., so, i think is a good movie cause you don't need the all drama to make a very good horror movie, just take great actors, create very scary characters, and put great music, that's all that it cares sin my opinion. Great great great, i can't say any other word. A fast and fun movie, Spain really shows that they know how to do horror movies, they are kicking Japanese asses.

I don't know if it's been mentioned yet, but I just wanted to point out the minor discrepancy from the original title to it's English translation. Literally the title reads, "To Enter to Live," though the actual way it would be conveyed, or should be interpreted should be more along the lines of "Ready to Rent" or "Ready to Move In." Two possible headings that those who have ever rented might be familiar seeing in the classified ads.

Though it seems to have received some rather harsh criticism (not entirely unjust) from some reviewers here, anyone who is thinking of watching this should know that it is a film made for television in Spain and IN THAT RESPECT, is far superior to almost everything you'll see on U.S. television in the horror genre and in many cases outside of it. I'd compare it to the old HBO series "Tales From the Crypt" but without the comic book nuance, or that ridiculous crypt keeper.

This film will probably not be well received by many jaded horror fans mainly because it does have a few annoying, "why didn't she!?" "why didn't he!?" and "why did they even both from the start!?" moments throughout the course of its 1 hour and 8 minute run. However, all that can't (or really shouldn't) supersede the fact that it is well directed, suspenseful and loaded with visceral horror from nearly beginning to end.

I'd be more inclined to give this a solid 7, but for the sake of other reader's expectations a 6 will suffice. Good story and plot that could've been executed better, but why not go in and take a look around for yourself? You might not even notice the peeling paint and it could be an inspiring stop on the way to something better.