{"id":223,"date":"2008-06-25T09:04:26","date_gmt":"2008-06-25T09:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mattblake.wordpress.com\/?p=225"},"modified":"2008-07-02T20:09:20","modified_gmt":"2008-07-02T20:09:20","slug":"to-let-aka-para-entrar-a-vivir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/latest-news\/to-let-aka-para-entrar-a-vivir\/","title":{"rendered":"To Let aka Para entrar a vivir"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"To<\/a>To Let <\/strong>is a slight, but highly entertaining, little psychothriller from Jaume Balaguer\u00f3, 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 <\/strong>(Pel\u00edculas para no dormir<\/em>) series in 2006, a kind of Hispanic equivalent to the succesful US Masters of Horror<\/strong>, 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.<\/p>\n

Anyway, coming in at just under 70 minutes, To Let <\/strong>follows Clara (Macarena G\u00f3mez) and Mario (Adri\u00e0 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 Gonz\u00e1lez). 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…<\/p>\n

This is a slick and effective little film. Balaguer\u00f3 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<\/strong><\/a>, The Darkness<\/strong> and The Nameless<\/strong>, helped no end by the exremely horrid appartment block where it’s set (it’s something of a Balaguer\u00f3 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.<\/p>\n

It also benefits from decent performances. Macarena G\u00f3mez had previously featured in smaller roles on Filmax productions such as Romasanta <\/strong><\/a>and Dagon<\/strong>, not to mention the S Club 7 movie S Club Seeing Double <\/strong>(!), and does a good job as the panicked heroine, while Adri\u00e0 Collado has less to do but certainly looks the part and suffers for his art. The standout, though, is the nutty Nuria Gonz\u00e1lez, a popular TV and film actress who appeared in Torremolinos 73 <\/strong>amongst many others, and who is great fun as the sinister landlady.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To Let is a slight, but highly entertaining, little psychothriller from Jaume Balaguer\u00f3, the hottest name in Spanish horror at the moment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[124,181,226],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewildeye.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}