El sonido de la muerte

With this type of film there always seems to be a sentimental this-scared-me-as-a-kid review. And I supposed this one is no exception. I saw it once on TV as a kid. It scared me. I've never forgotten it. And I never saw it again until recently when I picked it up as a discount DVD.

As others have said this is a very low budget effort from Spain that employs a cheap gimmick to scare it's audience. It's monster is not seen, only heard. And what is heard is a particularly creepy series of sounds.

But the problem for the film's detractors is that this gimmick seems to work.

Like the famous swimming pool scene in the superior Cat People, it tricks the audience into imagining something more horrible than what could be shown.

The movie's greatest asset is that it's director seems to know how to scare his audience. For instance there are long, sustained shots in which very little happens. But this serves to create tension, causing us to wonder, "What is coming next?"

In watching it again, I kept thinking how well this would have worked as a radio play. The way it uses only sound and narrative to frighten the audience, it reminded me of Wyllis Cooper's classic The Thing on the Fourble Board.

For those who need vivid color, big stars and intrusive CGI effects, let them rent Anaconda.

And for those who have trouble suspending disbelief over the film's gimmick: Who's to say there weren't any invisible dinosaurs? How would we know?

When a group of isolated people in the Greek mountains set off a cave explosion, they are menaced by an invisible shrieking dinosaur that had been buried for eons.

As it happens, director José Antonio Nieves Conde was fairly prolific from the 1940s through the 1970s. Unfortunately, he was mostly prolific in Spain, and therefore little known in the United States. I wonder what other gems he has to offer and how easy they would be to track down...

This film also features the debut of Ingrid Pitt, which has to be worth something. This is a cheap horror film (invisible dinosaurs are about as inexpensive as it gets), but having Pitt in there makes it quite important in retrospect...

From the opening credits introducing the cast members scampering across the wilderness, pursued by an unknown assailant, you know you're going to get something a little different and that promise lives up to expectation in this Spanish thriller. A trio of treasure hunters converge on a haunted cave searching for an elusive cache of rare antiquities that has evaded them since their first brush when they were soldiers in WWII. But after discovering what may have been the long lost chest, they inadvertently release a terrible, shrieking creature that also happens to be invisible.

More than meets the eye to this cast, with Amercian James Philbrook cast as the stoic, unofficial leader of the trio (the other two Casas and Bodalo), his girlfriend Polish bombshell Ingrid Pitt in her film debut, while the ill-fated Soledad Miranda is the leading lady, a rising star who died prematurely in a car accident only a few years following this film. All the cast discharge themselves with professionalism and tact, no hysterics or over-zealous rants, very measured, solid performances. I thought Lola Gaos as the superstitious Greek housekeeper - whose frequent warnings go ignored until too late, - was a highlight, the scene in which she fetches the water, suspenseful and exceptionally well photographed.

There's plenty of atmosphere in the black and white cinematography, decent sets and calculated suspense, the film's multi-pronged climax is engaging and leads to an unexpected conclusion that won't disappoint. Perhaps the only faux pas is the fictitious Greek setting and characters, all of which looks and sounds very Spanish. Better than expected, worth a look.

Back in the old days of television, with no cable and only 3 channels available, I was still very lucky to be able to catch some fine horror gems like this one, along with other more-scary films such as 'Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things' and 'Twisted Brain'. For years I never knew what the title of this film was, I just knew it was an invisible monster who screeched loudly and slashed people's faces & bodies apart! I loved the scene with the flour, where they had layed it across the floor, so you could see the creatures' foot-steps coming closer to them, holed-up in the cabin....it's a far-fetched film, but I loved it as a kid but could never place the title & never saw or heard of it again...until a few months ago! There is a video dealer in NYC who helped me discover its' title and I was able to buy it off ebay (oldies .com has it also) and am proud to have been able to find this old gem! It may not be for everybody, but there's something about a horror film, when seen as a kid or teen....it will always stay with you and to find it again is kind of like finding a lost love or family member! I give it 6 out of 10 stars ******

I remember first seeing this film on television back in the 1970's. At that time I watched it in the middle of the night. It played right after Brides of Blood. At the time I didn't know what the film was called but years later I read about the title in a film book. Now I have been able to see the film again after nearly 30 years as it has become available on DVD (although a poor print). The film still has it's scary moments and is notable as being Ingrid Pitt's first film as well as featuring Soledad Miranda. I can't give the film a high rating as it is very slow overall but the sounds the creature makes as well as the death scenes are very well done for such a low budget film.