La secte sans nom

Claudia Gifford receives a call from the police to tell her they found the body of her six-year-old daughter Angela. Her body was brutalized and she seems to have been chosen for sacrifice by a cult they call "The Nameless". But five years later Claudia receives a telephone call from supposedly her dead daughter and that she needs her mum's help. So with the help of an ex-cop, she investigates more into this mystery and because of it, dire and disturbing consequences occur.

Effectively tense, alienating and involving is what comes to my mind when I describe the Spanish film "The Nameless". The film's stark lighting, slick detail and gloomy awe just had the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. It does have a little amount of ghastly violence and some explicit visuals and material that aren't for the faint hearted. Though, that's not what got on my nerves but more the use of dull and lifeless colour tones that pull you into cold-hearted paradise, tension builds subtly with eerie quietness, the chilling sound effects just put you on the edge with also a beautifully faint score that drowns you with emotion and that definitely puts you into a false state of mind. Mostly it was piano backing, which sorrow and pain develops from the notes potently. The depressing state of it sucks the life right out of you!

For me the plot is one of its few weaknesses, as at times situations that occurred just didn't add up and it does get a bit schematic. The first half builds on the story and suspense, but in my eyes the second half is where the plot (not suspense) became patchy and kind of faulted by the way side. The theories (about the cult) that are thrown up are indeed absorbing and the whole set-up kept me glued to proceedings as the plot is basically just glazed over without any real substance to back it, but at least it moves in a fairly snappy pace. This was due to tight editing that's swiftly unnerving and also fluid camera shots. The performances are reasonably bland, but hey this is such sombre film so you kind of accept it. Anyhow, these cardboard characters are haunted and scarred by ghosts of loved ones that fill their memories. The stylish film-making for me really added to the moody atmosphere. Evoking a sense of doom and coldness with its brood shadows filling every corner of the set and they seem to have something evil lurking within them that just eats away at you. Some scenes I was just waiting for something bad to happen, as you can just tell, but even so it still kind of gets to you. Even a humming sound would nag away at me, though I don't know if I was hearing things or that it was from the film? Towards the end you get a usual twist that didn't surprise me much, but the second one to end it was something that left me rather blank, just like the plot pretty much did. You can also see plenty of influences from other films with its story, visuals and atmosphere.

Overall, a neatly made psychological thriller that builds tremendously on atmosphere, thrills and mystery.

I had heard nothing but good things about Jaume Balaguero's The Nameless. Unfortunately I had watched The Darkness, Balaguero's second feature, prior to The Nameless so I just couldn't get excited about watching it. I had the disc sitting on my table for about two weeks before finally breaking down and watching it. It is leaps and bounds ahead of The Darkness (which I'm now sure Dimension messed up). The Nameless is based upon Ramsey Campbell's novel and, to my knowledge, is Campbell's first work to be filmed. It's about a cult called The Nameless who thinks they can achieve a level of purity by torturing the innocent. I don't want to give anything else away because the journey of the movie is very important and leads to one of the best and most fitting endings any movie ever had. If you saw The Darkness and weren't impressed, give Balaguero a second chance and see his superior thriller.

One who did not see the movie may be surprise by all the contrasting comments ranging from "LAME" to "EXCELLENT". But there is a simple answer to this: There are 2 types o movie-goers: those who let themselves go and get involved in the story, and those who stay in a safe shell of rationality and judge from the outside. So, this movie lives on atmosphere and the mood it is able to arouse, and in this it works greatly, it really scares. But to a cold-minded analisys, it reveals flaws in the plot. Anyway, I think that RATIONAL-AT-ALL-COSTS people should simply give up with horror movies: their inner cords just can't be reached... For all the other ones, you should watch this movie, becasue it is a scary movie that really scares, and features excellent acting and direction. The only right criticism regards the ending. I suppose that they could have done better, not necessarily changing WHAT happens, but possibly HOW it is described. But it is still a decent final, and the movie is a well worth experience.

I saw this film a few years back and have been a supporter of Balaguero ever since! It starts on a very disturbing note and then constantly pushes and pushes your buttons. I can only compare it to being on a torture rack and in pain from the start only to have the cogs turned constantly and very slowly increasing my agony for every minute of my time spent on it until i reach my limit only to realise that the end is SO much nastier now that they have stopped turning the cogs that a totally unforseen pain and agony is about to hit me just when i thought it was over! The tension levels are very slowly but expertly cranked up throughout this film from the opening moments until the very end...and even THEN the cruelest of climaxes awaits us. I have read comments about the ending to this film that do not do it justice or feel that it does not work. I cannot understand or share that viewpoint. Any such accusations levelled at this film are lacking. The climax is simple, yet one of the most intelligent, psychologically perverse, emotion-shredding and horrible (without resorting to blood) ever commited to celluloid. On it's own it would pack a seriously intense punch...but as the climax/pay-off/culmination of such a profoundly creepy film it is downright cruel and disturbing and a fitting finale to a soul-destroying film... Balaguero's style has been disregarded by some as too similar to that of David Fincher. Well, the similarities in LOOK are there but style isn't based on cinematography alone. The film is a beautifully dark, stylish, polished affair with menace in the shadows, angst around every corner and terror on the horizon. Dread and evil have not been portrayed this vividly for a long, long time...

You're walking through an amusement park. All the rides around you look wonderfully scary and thrilling; they taunt you as you pass them, they promise something different, something new, at journey's end.

The final ride is a fiberglass pony in front of the supermarket.

That's the "Los Sin Nombre" experience. You, the viewer, watch as the protagonist follows clues to find her daughter -- a girl supposedly tortured and killed but now, 5 years later, apparently living. With the help of the detective who handled the original case, she stumbles from clue to clue and into...uh...well, it gets hazy. A cult dedicated to "synthesizing the ultimate evil" through "the final atrocity" and "mastering pain", because "evil is a key". A good idea crops up hither and yon, and gets you waiting, waiting for The Big Finish.

After some disturbing imagery, a whole lot of "Oh, yeah?" clues, some confusion as to why this guy named Toni is following Mom around, the overuse of the "choppily-edited-video-is-creepy!" effect and the introduction of a character whom we're asked to care about and then gets whacked, the final reveal arrives...and then...uh...the movie ends.

But the final reveal is so totally mundane in relation to the rest of the film as to feel as let-down, a waste of energy spent in caring how it will end.

This film is all style -- all tired, overdone style. Oooh, look, everything's bleak and cold-looking! Oooh, look, choppily-edited nightmare imagery! Oooh, look, clues on a videotape! Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Yeah, I know, I said the same thing.

"The Nameless". It's in Spanish. There's some icky stuff and some fodder for your "Call of Cthulhu" game. Your call.

Bring some coins for that pony.