Les enfants d'Abraham

Seems like everyone forgot how to act in this movie, the lead character has 0 emotional depth think of Kristen Stewart x 100 sad , happy , angry she cant show any emotion. For a movie set in the uk the police officer looks like he has time traveled from the 1920s. And the officers wore puffy leather jackets , the story is really badly scripted the lead character makes a lot if stupid mistakes

Inauspicious English language feature debut from Paco Plaza, who would go on to direct horror hits such as the REC films and Veronica.

Although his skills of visual composition and evoking a sense of mood are already present, he fails to create an engaging story.

For a mystery/horror film, there is very little of either.

The odd, stilted performances by the actors delivering odd, stilted lines of dialogue only add to the film's woes.

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.

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.

Second Name is an average mystery/thriller movie that borrows a lot from Rosemary's Baby and The Changeling but it's far from their level. 1)It fails to create real suspense and tension: it's meant to be slow and thrilling, but don't count much on the latter. There's a couple of interesting twists but... 2)It's not particularly original (that's quite an understatement) and the story is pretty much farfetched. It's one of those movies where you can't help asking yourself: but why are these people doing what they do?

In the end it's not completely bad, it's watchable, but do not expect big emotions, it's just another cliche film, keep it at the bottom of your stack and watch it when there's nothing else left)

5/10 (1=turn it off now! 2=abysmal 3=very bad 4=not good 5=watchable 6=decent 7=good 8=very good 9=must see 10=masterpiece)

I recommend the aforementioned classics instead, or Darkness (if you were looking for a more recent Spanish mystery/horror movie)