The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh

let's face it, the majority of horror movies out there just aren't that scary. so, if you're a horror fan - ask yourself this question:

When was the last time I watched a horror movie that ACTUALLY gave me the chills?

if you came up with a movie or two that truly got under your skin at one point or another during the film(s), you know that those involved with those movies are true horror fans. The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh is also one of those types of horror movies.

for his first go at a full length, Rodrigo Gudiño let everyone know that he's here for one reason only: to strike genuine fear via filmmaking. granted, the premise is something you've seen a million times. without saying too much, the premise is the straight forward 'Alone In the House' approach. which usually is an indicator that the movie you are about to see is something you'll forget about five minutes afterwards because you've seen it a million times.

if you can appreciate the technical side of filmmaking, then you can appreciate the way The Last Testament was made. speaking honestly, i can say that about five minutes in i already judged this movie with a "Yep. Here we go. AGAIN..." attitude. i imagined a bunch of first year film students critiquing every shot and pointing out technical 'mistakes' with such aspects like lighting, camera work, acting, this, that, and whatever else they bore each other with.

but there's something to keep in mind: Gudiño focuses on the story. he puts all his eggs into the first step in filmmaking - writing a good story FIRST, then move along to the other stuff. which doesn't always apply to horror movies (although, sometimes that's not a bad thing.) this story is the most important part. so if the snarky film students point out every little rookie mistake with the filmmaking process of a rookie first film, so be it. in ten years, the jokes on them. in ten years they'll realize Gudiño's first attempt was only his warm up. his foot in the door. while they're sitting around forcing out critiques and secretly wishing they were in Gudiño's director chair.

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An antiques collector inherits a house from his estranged mother only to discover that she had been living in a shrine devoted to a mysterious cult. Soon, he comes to suspect that his mother's oppressive spirit still lingers within her home and is using items in the house to contact him with an urgent message.

Despite both having characters named Rosalind Leigh, this film has nothing to do with "The Sculptress", the 1993 crime novel by English writer Minette Walters. So if you are looking for an adaptation, you are looking in the wrong place.

This actually a pretty good film. While simple on plot, the atmosphere is excellent, the voiceovers are chilling and the overall color and lighting in the cinematographer is spectacular. This is an above average film simply for the way it was shot.

This movie has a very low rating, one that it does NOT deserve. As this movie is more of a suspense building religious horror film designed for people who are interested in watching an intelligent "Hitchcock style" film that will grind on your nerves and make you look twice in the shadows. I am afraid that many viewers were expecting a slasher style blood and guts jump-scare movie. Not so with this one. Ghosts, demons and dark iconology scare the viewer into a dark place. This is a good film, one that achieves its goal of installing terror and making you think about it afterwards. Bravo to the director on creating something unique in a genre overrun with splatter fest and cheap gore.

Watch this one if you have a keen intelligence and want something different.

Heh... I am not at all surprised that this film has such polarized reviews. As you can likely tell by many of the Summaries, people either think it is very good or hate it. The reason being is VERY simple. Whenever you have a very low key 'Horror' film or especially a Ghost Story, unless you are the kind of person who really specifically enjoys these kinds of movies, you are just gonna sit there and think 'What crap!' and be totally bored. Thus the 1 and 2 star reviews that you see here...

I've pretty much given up on people realizing that when they come here to dump all over a specific kind of film that they would NEVER like anyway, it is of absolutely NO help to others who may be looking for this type of film and want to know if it is a good one. It's like if you hate old-style, Classic B-Westerns, and you come here and review a film like that and then say how awful, corny, and stupid it is. How helpful is that to other people who happen to LIKE old B-Westerns. Not terribly much... But, people just do not seem to get that.

Anyway, sorry to digress a bit, but I really wish people wouldn't waste all our time and do that. The story and pacing is SLOW... It is ALL about mood and atmosphere with a good layer of Psychological overtones. Also, it is nominally a Ghost Story, which either you like them or your don't. And, it is a SLOW, moody Ghost Story with VERY little in the way of violence or quick-edits or any overt or graphic imagery. So, if you are on of these people who love films like 'HOSTEL' or 'SAW' or 'THE MARTYRS' or 'HAUTE TENSION', you probably will get almost nothing from this movie at all. Again, precisely the reason for many of the poor reviews that you see here.

As I mentioned, a lot of this film is Psychological, mainly because you are pretty much experiencing it from the point of view of the one guy who has come back to his old home where he was raised. One thing that I really did like was the set decoration, the imagery and the cinematography and lighting. It was very effective in creating the mood of the story. Also, I really liked the soundtrack; although the story and overall mood were very low-key, the soundtrack itself reminded me of some of the more adventurous Horror film soundtracks that I really liked that were more common in Horror films about 40 years ago. It is a nice counterpoint to the slow mood of the rest of the film and can build quite a nice crescendo of suspense in a couple of scenes.

There is a lot of religious imagery, which along with the look of the rest of the film was pretty creepy and effective in adding to the mood. The story is deliberately vague so that the audience doesn't REALLY know quite what is going on. The voice-over narration of the mother who has died and what is revealed about the way he was raised adds to the texture of the story, such as it is. Not to be too specific, but the end was rather mystifying and I cannot honestly say that it was clear to me as to what it meant. But, the way it was done still packed a nice little punch at the end of the film.

Basically as you can likely tell by now, this is NOT your usual modern-day, MTV-induced, shaky-cam, found-footage Horror film. It is very much a throwback to Classic Ghost stories, and very low-key ones at that. So, if you have no real interest in those types of films, then you probably won't care for this one. BUT... if you DO have an appreciation for slow, ambiguous, Psychological, and very moody Horror films, then yes, like me, you probably will will find it intriguing and entertaining.

I don't know what other users expected or wanted to see...But I actually liked this one.

Gudiño's first shot at not shorts. He quite nailed it! Gudiño takes us into the very self of his characters; we get to know them, to feel what they felt.

Guy enters mother's home in hopes of selling, because she has passed away; guy starts to feel, hear, see things...It looks like the very same formula, but, Gudiño takes it one step up, if not a couple more.

Innovation finally arrives in this genre. A great start to build a pretty good future for Gudiño.