O Segundo Nome

Daniella Logan (Erica Prior) sees her world turned upside down when her father commits suicide. Telling her catatonic mother the news, Daniella is startled when the mom responds with the word "Josephine" and it sets her on an investigation into her past. The second of Filmax's Ramsey Campbell adaptations (after Jaume Balagueró's THE NAMELESS), this isn't as good as the first one, but it is probably just as dark and disturbing. Seriously, Campbell loves him some screwed up families. Director/co-writer Paco Plaza - who would later co-helm two of the REC films with Balagueró - doesn't have as good a style and tends to lay blasting violins pretty thick over the more emotional moments. It is still pretty engaging and has some twists that you think you have predicted, but then you get swerved again. Also has one of the bleakest endings I've seen in a long time. Amazingly, this wasn't picked up by the Weinsteins during their spending sprees and hasn't seen a U.S. release.

Flat Spanish horror movie (shot in English) by the producers of the excellent Los Sin Nombre. Like Los Sin Nombre this is based on a Ramsey Campbell book. Both movies are also similar in that they deal with religious fanatics and endangered children, but while many of the same elements may be in place the second time around this movie doesn't deliver any big thrills or generate much suspense. The performances are bland and the director doesn't seem to have any idea of how to ratchet up the tension even though the story is inherently creepy and should have yielded a much more suspenseful film. Part of the problem lies in the script--the police detective here is so ludicrous and incompetent that his every scene becomes painful to watch and the heroine is simply too passive to generate much sympathy. She seems to be in a valium haze throughout the whole movie and never shows the urgency that would be vital for creating some sense of momentum in the still-born material. See Los Sin Nombre or that same director's Darkness instead.

Spanish terror has been a source of good films over the past few years, many of them even frankly better than their American competitors. However, after having seen this film, I think it is one of the weakest and least interesting Spanish horror films I have ever seen.

The whole story revolves around the mysterious suicide of Daniella's father. Very shaken by these loss, she visits her mother, who is in a psychiatric ward, in order to give her the news, but she calls her by another name. This small fact, associated with the desecration of her father's grave and the appearance of a disturbed stranger who claims to be her real father, set the girl on a search for the real reasons why her father decided to kill himself, discovering that he was associated with a ancient ultra-radical religious sect: the Abramites.

Well, the film has good premises and begins from a promising starting point. But everything is so slow and the film drags on so much that it becomes tiring and, after a certain moment, predictable. Another problem with this film, I think, is that it delivers much of the mystery too soon, taking away from the story a lot of strength and impact. The tension that is almost a prerogative of Spanish horror is so thin and arises so sparse that it hardly feels. The ending is, at the very least, a disappointment. I don't mean to say that all films should have a happy ending, but I think it was a weak ending to what the film promised.

The cast is headed by Erica Prior, who does what she can but does not have, I think, the ability and experience to do better. Perhaps the bet on a more experienced or charismatic actress would have been better. Craig Hill was convincing in his role, along with his real-life wife, Teresa Gimpera. Craig Stevenson, John O'Toole and Frank O'Sullivan do well in what they can do, but they are not enough to support the film, they just give as much support as possible. The rest just appear.

Technically, it is a regular film that does not stand out in any way. The best technical aspect here is the good cinematography, dark and misty, essential to keep the tension that the film, at cost, is able to build. Soundtrack also helps, but it doesn't stand out. The song at the ending seemed especially unreasonable. It could have been maintained but without voice, like an instrumental or piano solo, achieving in this way, I believe, much more impact.

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.

After the suicide of her beloved father, the biologist Daniella Logan (Erica Prior) visits her catatonic mother in a mental institution to tell the tragic event and her mother calls her "Josephine". Daniella goes to the cemetery and finds that her father's grave had been opened and his corpse was profaned. She decides to investigate, and receives a message of a diabetic priest, Father Elias (John O'Toole), who tells her about an ancient fanatic religious sect of followers of Abraham that kills the first child. Later, she meets a weird man, Toby Harris (Craig Stevenson), who claims to be his legitimate father. Daniella continues seeking the truth about her origins and discloses very dark secrets about her family and friends.

"Le Segundo Nombre" is a great low paced horror movie and the association with "Rosemary's baby" is inevitable, in spite of having different stories. The non-linear and intriguing plot is complex and very well tied without any flaws, with an interesting mystery and disclosing a very dark secret in the end. I only do not understand why a Spanish movie is released spoken in English instead of in the original language. Hollywood complex? My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Segundo Nome" ("Second Name")