It Happened at Nightmare Inn

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.

I have no idea where the English title comes in and the movie is a little heavy handed and obvious but so very enjoyable. Moves at a good pace and if Geeson is a bit weak, the same could not be said of the killers or the kills. Set in a small Spanish village two sisters run modest hotel and take exception to the influx of mini skirted and hot panted 'dollies' from England. Murder seems a bit of a harsh reaction but with God on your side and the Catholic church much can be justified. Excellent performances by the mature sisters who seem harmless enough initially but then we learn one has secret liaisons with a youngish boy and the other takes to spying on boys bathing in the nude. So carried away does the most villainous sister get watching the kids splashing about that when she finally begins her return to the hotel there is an amazing scene where she is caught running through rough vegetation and she becomes almost ecstatic under the self imposed flagellation. Excellent stuff with time for shots of locals seemingly truly amazed at the scantily dressed invaders.

Two sisters run a hotel in some village in Spain, preparing meals for their guests, being hospitable and friendly, and killing young women whom they perceive as slutty, a perception that seems to include 99% of their young female guests, save for Laura, a conservatively clothed lady who is looking for her sister.

That'll be the sister who was accidentally killed for sunbathing topless on the roof of the hotel a mere five minutes prior to Laura arriving. The sisters tell Laura that her sister left early that day, which is an excuse she'll be hearing often regarding other guests. Slowly, Laura starts to figure out what's going on, but it could be that she's already too late to save herself...

This one has a kind of run of the mill plot but is saved by having two interesting murderers. One sister is a timid type who has a clandestine relationship with the young man who helps out at the hotel, while the other is the more aggressive type, constantly judging others while barely repressing her own sexual feelings, while her frustration manifests itself in murderous ways. There's a bit more depth to the two of them than just maniacal killers.

The major problem is not with the film itself, it's with the various presentations of it you'll potentially stumble over. Under the name of It Happened At Nightmare Inn the film runs for about 70 minutes, and it's recommended that you watch it under the name of Candle For The Devil, but there version I watched of that is also heavily cut. The Spanish version seems to be the most complete, because without that you'll have practically no idea of what's going on as such a hack job has been done on the film. While not over the top in terms of gore, you're still missing out on all the nudity and gore, so what's the point? The most shocking murder of the film is cut out almost completely, which harms the impact of the film greatly.

I've read somewhere that this is some kind of political allegory on the Franco regime, but I wouldn't have figured that out myself.

Just finished watching IT HAPPENED AT NIGHTMARE INN, and though I'm thinking I saw one of the heavily cut versions--this distributed by Cheezy Video--I still thoroughly enjoyed this film. Judy Geeson's character was smarter than usual for these sorts of films, the sisters were truly frightening, and the small town hypocrisy added dimensions to the narrative that I was not expecting.

I'm not sure where or when I'll find a near-definitive version of this film, but I'll certainly be on the look out for one. Good to see Geeson in this film, too. She was believable and sympathetic. And now I'm just blathering on to meet the idiotic, arbitrary IMDb 10 line review requirement, but I do recommend this film. Great for Saturday night viewing.

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.