Moving into a new house, a young woman learns that her increasingly paranoid reactions and psychotic breakdowns are the results of the lingering ghosts left in the house by it's concealed history from the Spanish Civil War and tries to end the curse left by that tormented history.
This one ended up being a surprisingly fun and decent Spanish haunted house film. One of the more enjoyable features found here is the rather fun and spirited storyline which manages to maintain it's sense of fear and thrills throughout here. The multitracked story manages to include a rather fun amount of thrills here by readily engaging the multiple storylines including the connection to the Spanish Civil War in the continuous newsreel footage or home videos showing the different treatments that befell all the prisoners which comes through well enough here to give this one the kind of setup for later. That backstory sets this one's best aspect, as there are some rather impressive hauntings here which make for a rather fun time when it starts to let them go in the middle half and the visuals that accompany them are a lot of fun. From her dreams and hallucinations of the ghostly figures in her bedroom taunting her by sleeping with her husband to the violent acts she believes she commits against her baby as well as the manifestations of the ghosts around the house, this one generates the appropriate atmosphere with plenty of creepy scenes. The other scenes, featuring the sounds over the baby monitors which ties the backstory into the ghostly actions plaguing the house, her hallucinations of the ghosts appearing as her children or the sounds of creaking floorboards or rattling doors, are far more traditional haunted house style shocks. These also help give this one a far more chilling atmosphere which helps to even out the religious imagery that gets incorporated into a rousing finale that evokes the best of the old-school burning-down-the-house styles so often employed before. This makes for a great ending and raises this one pretty high, although there are a few problems. One of the main issues is that it's too complicated for this type of haunted house story to make sense. This is a case of having way too much going on for its good, as there are three different backstories from the Civil War in the house, her backstory of the family troubles and the later talk involving the Church's actions here all being played out trying to piece together what's going on, and it eventually gets frustrating trying to keep everything straight. What also holds it back is that it has some rather troublesome CGI that looks bad here when it's being used despite not having a lot of opportunities, and although the film doesn't exploit it this stands out for the use overall. That said, it's not as bad as the other issues here.
Rated R: Language, Violence and Nudity.
