La cabina

I have not seen this film for a while but I have seen it several times on TV and I have never forgotten it. It is a film with minimal dialogue and pieces of classical music. The story is simple. A man takes his son to school. On the way home he enters a telephone box which has its door slightly ajar, like a venus fly trap waiting to snare its victims. He finds it is out of order and cannot open the door. He is helpless. People try but fail to get him out. Then the phone company's truck arrives along with several men. I won't reveal anymore but the finale is terrifying and shocking and is unforgettable. I first watched this movie when I was eight-years-old and after I wouldn't go into a phone box for a while in fear of being trapped inside. One of the truly great films.

Horror is often associated with Gothic imagery . Think of how many classic horror films have thunder storms sweeping over bleak desolate moorland and there in the middle of the frame lies a foreboding castle . But often banal everyday objects can be used for instruments of horror . Classic DOCTOR WHO was very good at this and one of my earliest memories was watching the story Terror Of The Autons where a child's doll came alive and tried to attack the Doctor's companion Jo Grant. The Pertwee era was full of this type of imagery where the banal suddenly became dangerous . It continues today and 35 years from now middle aged people will say they are instinctively frightened to look away from statues

LA CABINA follows this type of trend . Spain has a rich history of morbid cinema and perhaps this 1972 horror short is the closest the country came to having an equivalent of DOCTOR WHO . Everyone knows what a phone box is and before everyone had a mobile phone we all used a public phone box which were dotted around cities , towns and villages. No one gave them much thought and after seeing this LA CABINA you'll never look at a phone box in the same way again as the story starts off in a everyday manner and becomes more and more terrifying as an unnamed man finds himself trapped in one

Earlier tonight I saw a documentary by Mark Gatiss where he stated Spainish horror didn't confront its fascist past until Guillermo Del Toroarrived on the scene but I disagree . You don't have to read between the lines very much to realise LA CABINA is a statement on fascism . The trapped man could be a marrano converso or a leftist or any other undesirable living in a fascist regime . It's interesting too that the man's fate takes place for the most part in public and one wonders what excuses would be offered by the witnesses ? " I didn't hear anything , I didn't see anything , I didn't know what was going on " . It's also co-written by Jose Luis Garci whose later work often used the transition from Francoism to democracy as a theme

That said if anyone watched this as I did on Channel 4 sometime in the late 1980s the political subtext would be quickly forgotten by the audience but the gloomy ,doom laden ending wouldn't . I'd even forgotten what the title and I'm glad I've found out " The Spanish film about the man trapped in the telephone box " is called LA CABINA

When I was a child I played outside. I was happy. I did not know about life. I skipped school. I looked at the stars. I was innocent. I loved purely the girl I saw across the street. I was happy. I like films that move me. 'Soft' films like Field of dreams. I'm not a critic. I like happy endings. This is not a film I would have chosen to watch. I tuned in to this once by accident when I was young. It has never left me. I'm not happy I watched it. It changed me. It stole my childhood. I would not have missed it for the world. To this day I speak of it. No one I know has ever seen it. I always wondered if I imagined it. Having seen IMDb I now know it was real. Now I have worse fears. Was this really a film or a message sent to just a few to warn us. A warning. A WARNING. I would have missed it for the world. Oh God.

A day like any other. Men rushing to work, children heading off to school. A group of workmen install a glass telephone booth in the courtyard of a residential building complex. A man enters the booth, finds the phone inoperative, and realizes the door has closed and locked behind him. He struggles in vain to free himself, gradually drawing a crowd of jeering spectators. A number of good citizens enlist their aid in freeing the increasingly agitated man, but to no avail. The aforementioned workmen suddenly return, and effortlessly disengage the booth from its foundation, loading it(and the frantic captive) onto the bed of their truck. A long drive from the city to the outlands commences...the man tries desperately to signal passers-by for help, but his perdition is met with mocking indifference. He sees another truck hauling a similar booth, also with a man trapped inside...the two exchange glances, each wearing a face of helpless confusion. Upon arrival at the destination point, the man learns the grim reason for his quandary...it is a reason devoid of purpose...cruel, evil, and perpetuated by nothing more than its own pointless enterprise. Meanwhile, back in town, workmen are installing another phone booth.

One of the finest short horror films of the 70s, LA CABINA presents a classic ontological argument within a narrative as nihilistically comical as it is deeply despairing. Somewhat like a TWILIGHT ZONE episode subtly underscored with bitter notes of pointed political commentary, it remains as shocking and deliciously mordant as the day it was made.

8/10.

I share a similar experience to many of the other posters regarding this short movie.

Late at night, over twenty years ago, flipping channels. I'm not a big fan of foreign language films but sometimes a rare gem comes along that never leaves you.

Despite having no real dialogue, you understand everything that is happening and you can follow the story from it's innocent beginnings to it's dark ending.

I have largely forgotten many of the details of this film, but it is the overall effect that stays with you long after the movie has finished.

I think the phone box was originally in a plaza and I remember the lorry ride with the hapless man on display in the over-sized 'fish bowl' for all to see.

One of those gems that rarely gets shown again. Definitely a contender for BBC FOUR to broadcast. Especially given it's short running time and provoking nature.

I think I'll email them!