Territoire des Ombres: Le Secret des Valdemar

"La Herencia Valdemar (Valdemar's Heritage) is the first of a two-part story based on tale written by H. P. Lovecraft. It's the last picture of Spanish actor Paul Naschy whom career is linked to terror (specially with his classical character "Waldemar Daninsky". It is a very good film, with many topics of Cthulhu stories but in the good side. Film has two parts, one in present time, when the character of Silvia Abascal has to make a study about the value of an ancient mansion (Valdemar House); the second one is in the 19th century, and explains the origin of the mansion. There are many little things for smiling, as the names of some minor characters or the handle of the staff of Eusebio Poncela character. An interesting point is the fact that the film had no public money, a good exception in Spanish cinema. Secuel of the film is now in post-production.

You could be forgiven thinking this is a TV movie of the week two parter (this one being part 1 of course). But the movie begins quite strong. The actors seem to really get behind the concept and the mystery is building slowly, but in a good way.

Of course this being only half the experience means that some characters are just being introduced more or less, so you can see where they will take this with part 2. The late great Paul Naschy is one of the better known actors in this, though don't expect his role to be big (especially considering the age he was when he shot it). For fans of his work this oddity will work, but some may think he should have had a better "farewell" movie. As it is, the movie does fail to live up to its good beginning.

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.

First part of the Valdemar saga full of horror and fantasy based on stories by the master H.P. Lovecraft , being followed by "The Valdemar Legacy II: The Forbidden Shadow" . ¨The Valdemar legacy¨(2010) upon short stories by the undisputed expert of the terror H.P. Lovecraft , telling an incredible story of horror , monsters and including fantastic touches . As it packs creepy scenes , suspense , plot-twists , tension , chills , thrills with sensationalistic scenes . Luisa Llorente (Silvia Abascal) , an expert on taxation of old buildings , had the formidable task of going to evaluate the Victorian home of Lazarus Valdemar (Daniele Liotti) and his wife Leonor Valdemar (Laia Marull) , but she's not been heard from . There are several flashbacks about the Valdemar marriage , and subsequent detention of Lazarus accused of false medium practices and swindles . This mansion harboring a terrible and eerie occult secret . After she mysteriously disappeared , Maximilian (Eusebio Poncela) , president of her company and head of Inmoverance , engaged the services of a private detective (Oscar Jaenada) to help find her . Two expeditions go out in search of her : first is Nicholas Tramel (a little variation of Nicholas Flamel , one of the biggest alchemists in entire history) a detective hired by Maximilian Colvin (the president of the company Luisa works for) along with Dra. Cerviá (Ana Risueño) , and the other comprised of coworkers Ana (Norma Ruiz) and Eduardo (Rodolfo Sánchez) . But soon they will discover that it is not the first disappearance at Valdemar mansion . Then , Tramel , Eduardo and Ana are kidnapped and locked . Later on , the group escapes through a cave where they are attacked by a horrible creature and things go wrong . At the end takes place a satanic invocation by means of the diabolic book ¨El Necronomicon¨ using weird formulas and spells . Including a final ritual where emerges a astonishing monster from the darkness , it is the own Cthulhu , the most famous evil god created by H.P. Lovecraft .

The plot of "The Valdemar legacy" is inspired in the H.P. Lovecraft's universe , it was better paced and more interesting than the second installment , as the rest of the tale untold in this part is narrated in ¨The Forbidden Shadow" . . As filmmaker José Luis Alemán mixing some ideas created by the Rhode Island's writer from short stories and novels such as "The Hound" ,¨The shadow over Innsmouth¨ , "The Pickman's Model" , ¨The Call of Cthulhu¨ and about ¨Mythos of Cthulhu¨ , a horror saga about an evil deities called the Outer Gods and Great Old Ones , two evil races of gods that they ran the universe in an ancient past , before the mankind arose . There also shows up the famous black magic book ¨Necronomicon¨ which supposedly contains strange rites , presages , curses , and the history about Great Old Gods and Outer Gods . The picture packs thrills , chills , terror , fantasy and lots of blood and gore . Furthermore , unrelenting twists and turns as when the protagonists discover the truth at a nightmarish ending of impressive horror . B-entertainment with a fairly suspenseful and horrifying story about an ancient fanatic religious cult of followers of Cthulhu . This tale about some young people involved into a twisted intrigue begins well and grows more and more until a breathtaking finale . In the film shows up some actual historical roles : the series-killer Belle Gunness performed by Laura Toledo , the ax murderer Lizzie Borden interpreted by Vanesa Suarez , Bram Stoker who was writer of "Dracula" who was played by Lino Brasse and Aleister Crowley who was an expert in the occult and he is deemed to be one of the most famous black wizards , being well acted by Francisco Maestre . Support cast is acceptable , such as Silvia Abascal as a houses appraiser who had recently gone to the Victorian mansion Valdemar to conduct an inventory of property ownership when she suddenly disappears . And other known television actors as Rodolfo Sancho , Ana Risueño , Jimmy Barnatán and Jesús Olmedo . Being Paul Naschy last movie and the film is dedicated to him . Adequate production values as well as good makeup on the freakish frightening creatures and overwhelming digital effects . Dark and colorful cinematography by David Azcano , being shot on location in Comillas , Cantabria . Frightening and atmospheric musical score by Arnau Bataller . It has a follow-up : José Luis Alemán's sequel to his own Spanish horror flick La Herencia Valdemar, titled ¨Inheritance Valdemar II: The Shadow Prohibited (or La Herencia Valdemar II: La Sombra Prohibida)¨ results to be inferior to previous part .

Other films about the H.P. Lovecraft universe are the followings : Reanimator (1985) by Stuart Gordon with Jeffrey Combs ; Re-Sonator (From Beyond) (1986) by Stuart Gordon with Jeffrey Combs , Barbara Crampton ; Cthulhu Mansión (1992) by Juan Piquer Simón with Frank Finlay ; In the Mouth of Madness (1994) by John Carpenter with Sam Neill , Julie Carmen ; and Dagon (2001) by Stuart Gordon with Francisco Rabal .

I stumbled upon the 2010 Spanish horror mystery "La Herencia Valdemar" (aka "The Valdemar Legacy") by random chance here in 2021. And reading that the movie was based on H. P. Lovecraft works, of course there was not a moments doubt of me having to sit down and watch it.

Well, writer and director José Luis Alemán might have been reading H. P. Lovecraft, but "La Herencia Valdemar" was not even remotely close to being Lovecraftian in any aspect, neither in storyline contents nor in atmosphere. This was just downright a gothic supernatural horror mystery.

Sure, the writer threw in the likes of actual people such as Aleister Crowley and Bram Stoker into the storyline to spruce things up, but it just didn't really amount to much of anything noteworthy. In fact, you have to venture about 80 minutes into the movie, and the movie runs for 104 minutes total, so it was just too little, too late.

Sitting through "La Herencia Valdemar" was brutally trying. This movie was an ordeal to get through. And it was especially bad since up until 80 minutes into the movie it was essentially just filler to set the stage and build the atmosphere. And then the movie's climax was unleashed around 80 minutes in, and it was about as anti-climatic as it could be. It wasn't worth the wait at all.

The acting performances in the movie were adequate, I suppose. It was hard to tell because the actors and actresses literally had nothing solid to work with in terms of a proper script, storyline or character gallery. I wasn't familiar with a single performer in this movie, and that is usually something I enjoy in a movie, but that fact just didn't apply to "La Herencia Valdemar".

For a horror movie then writer and director just failed to deliver anything wholesome or even entertaining. So this was a swing and a miss of a movie.

My rating of "La Herencia Valdemar" lands on a generous three out of ten stars. The movie was just downright slow paced, uneventful and boring.