Le Territoire des ombres : Le Secret des Valdemar

A good movie, at least according to this first part. It is important to know that it is the first part of two. Thing that perhaps those who wrote negative reviews did not have in mind. Maybe not Academy Awards actors, but the acting is good. Also good plot, photography and the overall atmosphere. An hour and a half of nice entertainment, a funny and well told tale , which leaves you with the desire to see the continuation. Well, maybe not worth the eight stars that I gave, but it was the only way to rise a bit the average. And in the end it is worth not less than seven. Let's hope that the second part is valid and will not disappoint the expectations.

This movie was okay. Not a complete waste of time if you have time to waste. The Gothic atmosphere and the Spanish country side were creepy and beautiful. From the start, I knew it wasn't going to be a masterpiece just purely from the way the woman walked into her boss's office like she was on a runway. This movie starts with modern times and 15 minutes in, we get what I assumed was going to be a flashback but was really the meat of the story. The actors in the olden times are much better comparably to the modern day actors in terms of acting. Also, this is apparently part one and there will be a part two, from the looks of the preview after the movie finished. It feels more like a serial than a movie.

As to the plot, like the previous reviewer stated, they forgot about the modern times after one of the characters starts telling a story about what happened in the past that made the place haunted, so there really is no story or plot for the modern part of the movie. The plot regarding the origination of the haunting was decent, was spooky at some parts, but it still felt lacking. I guess you have to watch both parts in order to really get the crux of the movie.

This movie is not self contained.

The majority of critics have been unfair to this movie. This is a nice homage to the classics of the terror genre and to the world of Lovecraft. Aficionados will enjoy the references with delight.

The story is well told and interesting enough, and though it leaves some loose ends (the second installment will see the light on October), the main story (told in a large flashback) concludes in a spectacular climax that is something to be seen.

The production values are top notch.

The only setbacks are some pieces of dialog, too long and literary, that drag the pace in the middle section.

All in all, this is a remarkable first feature from director José Luis Alemán.

THE VALDEMAR LEGACY is the first of a Spanish two-part horror film series that, despite the title, has nothing to do with the classic Waldemar Daninsky series of werewolf features starring Paul Naschy, even though Naschy himself has a small role playing a butler. No, instead this is a pure haunted house saga apparently influenced by Lovecraft's Cthulhu writings, although I'd call that a loose influence at best - certainly there's nothing explicitly Mythos related here. It starts off as the usual young-woman-visits-a-haunted house tale before moving into a lengthy back story. Sadly, the SFX are below par and the story is too long and too unfocused, just another low budget mess of a production.

... so don't start unless you intend to watch them both, preferably back to back.

It's worth it.