Una candela per il diavolo

I couldn't help but think of Hostel, Frontière(s) and Vacancy after watching this film. It's not that this film is a rip-off or anything, how could it be? It was made 30 years before all of them, but it just inspires thoughts towards those similar titles because I saw them first, even though Frontière(s) and Vacancy were way better.

It Happened At Nightmare Inn was overall a very satisfying and fun film. It's about two sisters who run a family inn and they are secretly murdering everybody who they believe to be bad influences and or just bad people because of their religious beliefs, the sisters' beliefs, I mean. It's not the most profound plot, but who really cares about that with this kind of movie? The movie keeps you interested and it definitely entertains. The characters were good, plot was decent, acting was perfectly fine and the movie's atmosphere gave it that creepy, yet corny B-Movie touch that I felt comfortable with because I had felt this atmosphere before. This movie is pretty good for a low budget slasher and as a movie itself it is very enjoyable. Watch it when you get the chance, though don't be expecting too much and don't be too harsh on it if you have seen other, better, similar films.

Two Spanish sisters run a hostel which they use to knock off the promiscuous (and, interestingly enough, mostly English)female tourists that come to stay there. The older sister is a truly deranged religious fanatic while the younger is simply very weak-willed (and, unbeknownst to her sister is herself carrying on with a man in town). The "star", English actress Judy Geeson is the one who finally solves the mystery of the missing boarders (although it should have been pretty obvious to anybody), but she is, curiously enough, relegated to the status of pretty minor character.

This is perhaps a very clever movie about the reactionary and conservative nature of rural Spain at the time, fed by Catholic idolatry and rural small-mindedness. Juxtaposing these two Spanish sisters against all these promiscuous English tourists might also be some kind of comment on hedonistic Swinging London (although most people today don't associate the English with loose behavior and free-wheeling sexual attitudes). I didn't know quite what to make of the ending though which is either intentionally very ambiguous (possibly suggesting the whole town is in on what the sisters are doing) or is merely incompetent. Given the impressive track effort of director Eugenio Martin ("La Ultima Senora Anderson", "Horror Express")I suspect the former, but this is a kind of cheap effort and perhaps not up to the standards of the director's other films.

Apparently, there are also some heavily edited versions floating around. The one I saw had A LOT of nudity and violence, including the disturbing murder of the mother of a young baby (who the sisters mistakenly believe was born out of wedlock). I would find this longer version (about 95 minutes)if you want to see this, but I would also be interested in just seeing this again in a better-looking DVD version. It may be an unappreciated gem in the Euro-horror genre, but it's kind of hard to tell.

Aurora Bautista and Esperanza Roy play two sisters running an inn in Spain. Young, foreign girls come to visit but end up staying permanently. British actress Judy Geeson plays the sister of one of the girls who begins to put the pieces together of the horrors that have been going on at the inn. Director Eugenio Martin does quite an effective job with this film. It seems that the oldest sister Bautista was jilted on her wedding day by a young, pretty girl of a loose nature. Now, she is out to do God's work and rid the world of girls with loose morals and inappropriate attire. Both actresses playing the crazy sisters do stellar jobs playing off-key, psychotic women of very different natures. Bautista in particular gives a very commanding performance and is indeed very menacing. She also adds some pathos to her role. Martin builds suspense nicely and does several things very well. The use of religion as a tool of sexual repression was a thematic thread throughout. One scene has a girl die by accidentally falling in a pane of stained glass - a religious subject. When the body is removed a piece sticking in her has a bloody sword from the window stand in tact as to say this is the work of God. There are many other religious scenes and references used as well. The film is not particularly gory but there are some scenes that I found quite chilling. One with a baby as witness and then another of Geeson getting to know wine vats. The performers all do fine jobs, the direction is taut, and the script is convincing given the aforementioned two credits toward its credibility. The film does indeed have that European film from the 60's or 70's quality, but I truly am surprised that I had not heard much about this film beforehand. It is one of those minor gems you sometime are lucky enough to come across every now and then.

Though obviously inspired by PSYCHO, this truly deranged Spanish shocker features several gruesome sequences which makes the film way ahead of its time. The atmosphere is quite sinister and very threatening. Judy Geeson(of TO SIR, WITH LOVE fame) does well in her role as the pretty blonde heroine, and Aurora Batista and Esperanza Roy are indeed the most menacing inn-keepers since Mr. Norman Bates. In fact, the film's only real drawback is the poor dubbing that makes it resemble one of those cheesy Euro-Hercules flicks. Available on video for the longest time only in an old edited television version, the missing footage has finally been restored to home video. The video title of the film is: IT HAPPENED AT NIGHTMARE INN.

Back in my youth, I was a big fan of late night horror flicks, particularly from back in the late 1960's to early 1970's. Judy Geeson was something of a regular in them and again gives a credible performance. So I caught this on a very late Friday or Saturday night, and rather enjoyed it. It was nothing great, and the dubbing wasn't good, but it was watchable and moderately scary. It's about this old hotel in Spain whose owners prosper from foreign tourists, but who are also offended by many of the tourists' morals. The actresses playing the two sisters/inn keepers gave performances worth watching. Aurora Bautista was genuinely frightening as the more fanatical and violent one, and Esperanza Roy was alternately scary and moving as her younger sister, who is conflicted about their crimes. It also delivers a convincing atmosphere of an old Spanish village which is torn between its seemingly simple past and the free-wheeling modern amorality. I say it's worthwhile for ardent fans of this kind of entertainment.