Violent and tense film with some strong scenes and very well starred by Patxi Andión. A new doctor (the soon-to-be deceased actor/singer Patxi Andión) arrives in a small Spanish town. He is a doctor who is dedicated to healing and doing his job with total conviction of what he does. As soon as he starts to meet people, he notices the strange behavior of the population and is surprised. The young people make fun of him, the local chieftain and wealthy man named Gonzalo (Agustín González) seems to be a kind of leader and meanwhile some neighbors invite him to leave the town when he tries to ask about the situation. All his questions go unanswered. His neighbor (Beatriz Elorrieta, the director's sister) is the town teacher, she is a charming and pretty young woman, and lives with her younger sister. The newly arrived doctor and the teacher develop a sincere friendship from the first moment, which grows into love, but this gives rise to the jealousy of a third one -who considers that she is reserved exclusively for him- and it results in fateful consequences.
A fairly acceptable thriller with loud action, violent events, unexpected plot twists and a spectacular finale full of terrible happenings. Javier Elorrieta's "La noche de la ira" is a chilling story with some terror and revenge, full of underlying social and political criticism, exploring the situation of drug addicts who were rampant at that time; Fortunately, thanks to methadone and the proper treatments, the painful effects of drug addiction were slowly and partially alleviated. The film explores crime and punishment, and the effects that both have on society.
The film turns out to be a crossover between the subgenres of 'quinquis' and 'revenge', in the style of Michael Winner's Death Wish with Charles Bronson, and one cannot disregard the influence of 'The Most Dangerous Game' a novel by Richard Connell that has had many film versions (the most classic is the one directed by Irving Pichel, Ernest B. Schoedsack, starring Joel McCrea, Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong) dealing with the subject of human hunting. And the film also has some resemblance to 'Coto de caza' (1983) by Jorge Grau, in this one also a lawyer (played by Assumpta Serna) of good principles who believes in the social regeneration of criminals is involved in an outbreak of violence when she is forcibly attacked, resulting in the usual final vendetta.
In addition to the two main artists, Patxi Andión and Beatriz Elorrieta, in ¨La noche de la ira¨ there are a number of already established Spanish supporting actors, such as: Aldo Sambrell, Lina Canalejas, Terele Pávez, José Vivó, Lola Gaos and a special mention for Agustín González who excels as the local chieftain; as well as others who are about to take off such as: Alejandra Grepi, Tony Fuentes, Valentín Paredes and Isabel Ordaz.
The film is very eighties style, both in the direction, as in the usual marks developed in the American thrillers of the 80s; as well as in the tense music made with the usual synthesizer following the canons of that time. And also adding nice songs in English such as: ¨Oh Lord¨ with music by Javier Elorrieta himself and performed by Doris Cales.
The film was professionally directed by Javier Elorrieta. It was not a box office success and was harshly criticized by Spanish critics, although not abroad, where it has a "cult" status in certain quarters. Javier Elorrieta is the son of the prolific and late director José María Elorrieta, a filmmaker who directed all kinds of film genres. Following his father, Javier began directing a Western in 1975 entitled "If you want to live... shoot" with James Philbrook and Frank Braña, actors who acted alongside his ancestor and he followed by a very good film: ¨The long night of the white canes¨ (1979) with José María Rodero and Quique San Francisco playing two blind men in a state of grace. After that, Javier specialized in the horror thriller genre such as: ¨Noche de la ira¨, ¨Pacto de Brujas¨ , ¨Rojo intenso¨ and also in comedy such as: ¨Demasiado caliente para tí , ¨Los gusanos no lleva bufanda (The naked target)¨ in which none other than Anthony Perkins worked; being his greatest success a new version of ¨Sangre y arena¨ (Blood and Sand 1989) starring international actors such as Sharon Stone and Chris Rydell. La noche de la ira 1985 is a decent thriller of acceptable and passable realization that is necessary to rediscover, but for which it is perfect remastering is necessary, since the existing copies are really lousy. So we ask that the 'Spanish Film Library' or the production company or whoever is involved carry out a good image cleaning so that we can enjoy it in all its splendor, since it rightly deserves it.
