To Let is a slight, but highly entertaining, little psychothriller from Jaume Balagueró, the hottest name in Spanish horror at the moment. It was made by Wildeye favourites Filmax for Spanish TV as part of the Films to Keep You Awake (Películas para no dormir) series in 2006, a kind of Hispanic equivalent to the succesful US Masters of Horror, which basically gave some prominent genre names the chance to make pretty much whatever they wanted for the television medium. Maybe it would be an idea for one of the British digital channels to do something similar – they could wheel out someone like Norman Warren, get Clive Barker back to blighty and let some of the newer blood (Neil Marshall, Chris Smith) have a go as well.
Anyway, coming in at just under 70 minutes, To Let follows Clara (Macarena Gómez) and Mario (Adrià Collado), a young couple expecting their first child and looking for a more suitable – but cheap – flat to move into. After receiving a flyer through the post, they head to the outskirts to look at a promising sounding appartment. Despite their reservations – the area is a dump, the appartment block squalid and in need of serious renovation – they agree to be shown around by the persistent letting agent (Nuria González). Unfortunately, it turns out that she isn’t really the letting agent, she’s actually the former manager, who’s been driven mad by the iminent destruction of the block and is determined to gain new tenants, by whatever means she can. And Clara and Mario look like just the kind of people who she wants to move in…
This is a slick and effective little film. Balagueró is a highly capable genre director, and handles everything with comensurate skill; there are some decent shock moments, the pacing is good and some of the more subtle incidentals are suitably spooky. Furthermore, the whole thing is bathed in a similarly creepy atmosphere to that which he bought to his previous productions, Fragile, The Darkness and The Nameless, helped no end by the exremely horrid appartment block where it’s set (it’s something of a Balagueró trademark to have these disintigrating buildings that have somehow become populated by evil forces). And, with it’s limited running time, the somewhat limited plot isn’t allowed to drag, meaning that it’s anything but dull.
It also benefits from decent performances. Macarena Gómez had previously featured in smaller roles on Filmax productions such as Romasanta and Dagon, not to mention the S Club 7 movie S Club Seeing Double (!), and does a good job as the panicked heroine, while Adrià Collado has less to do but certainly looks the part and suffers for his art. The standout, though, is the nutty Nuria González, a popular TV and film actress who appeared in Torremolinos 73 amongst many others, and who is great fun as the sinister landlady.
I haven’t seen this one, but Nuria González to me is worth watching. She was the initial hostess of the Spanish version of THE WEAKEST LINK until she found the stress of coming up with insults for the guests too trying. She has been frequently cast as harridans.
As for Macarena Gómez, in addition to her good looks, she strikes me as a highly versatile actress.
one of the best horrors ive seen even in subtitiles, great watch and wilkl defo keep you awake at nght!
First-rate thriller, glued to the seat, transfixed.