The Uninvited Guest

THE UNINVITED GUEST is not your typical thriller. It's an example of taking a well-worn premise and turning it inside out and upside down. You may find yourself "figuring it all out", only to be twisted and flipped right along with the plot.

The story's "hero", Felix (Andoni Gracia) is an emotional wreck. This actually adds to the suspense, since he's more vulnerable and apt to mess things up. This also makes him a more believable character.

If you like bizarre, novel thrillers that don't spoon-feed you every answer in prefabricated fashion, then be sure to invite this GUEST in for the evening...

Oh what a film - great story, great actors, great direction! Totally original, unpredictable and captivating, this movie proved to be the film experience of the month. Free of all kinds of clichés, it's a good example of a deep and disturbing old world thriller, which can be horrifying and funny at the same time. Perfectly written and grasping, it draws the viewer into a twisted world which could be surrounding each one us. Without stressing the paranoid aspect or attempting to brainwash the spectator, it manages to create a believably claustrophobic atmosphere and yet offer a very humane look upon loneliness and fear without introducing any evil characters or violent situations. I can't help but applaud the authors of this film and give it the full 10 points.

A young, thorough architect separates from his girlfriend and finds himself alone in a huge house. What could happen if an unknown man, after asking for using your phone at night, vanished from your living room while you were politely waiting in the kitchen? This is a rather unclassifiable movie. Between drama and thriller (and even a bit of disturbing comedy), it does look lushly filmed -Variety words-, well paced and definitely different from most first movies shot in Spain. Although the film suffers from a few hesitating moves, and it is not for lazy, easy-going audiences, it's well worth watching and contains some really bright, new ideas. One more turn of the screw around loneliness, voyeurism and affections - but a really interesting one.

Is it possible to live in somebody's house hiding all the time and avoid that the inhabitants there detect your presence? Well, that's the question this original story deals with. "El habitante incierto" keeps the audience on the alert, 'cause you don't really know what's going on. That plot remind me of Ki-Duk Kim's "Bin Jip" (but that's the only point in common between these two movies).

The movie has a good script, though some dialogs are rather affected and there are a couple of characters that are not well defined. Anyway, the film as a whole really thrilling and brilliant, and the actors are quite reliable (specially Mónica López who plays two different roles).

In short: a nice choice.

*My rate: 7/10

Felix is an architect reeling from the recent split from his long time girlfriend. Now living alone he in a very large house, he pesters his former lover daily, to come home. One night his door bell rings, Felix jumps up to answer it, hoping its her, but it's a stranger wanting to use his phone, Felix is reluctant to let him use it, but eventually gives in. He leaves the man to have some privacy and goes to his kitchen, where he waits for him to finish, after a short time, Felix returns to the phone to see what's keeping the man…but he's not there. Felix calls out to him, but there is no answer, he checks the house thoroughly thinking the man may have been out to rob him, but again there is no sign of him. Felix locks up the house and retires to bed. He then starts to hear faint noises around the house, could the man be still in the house? Again he finds nothing, this continues for a couple of days until finally he thinks he has cornered the intruder, he calls the police who come immediately and again find nobody. Is there an intruder at all or is Felix going slightly crazy or is there some other reason? The Uninvited Guest touches on a theme that would scare the living daylights out of anybody, an intruder in your own home, the twist here is that its pure mental torture on Felix as he doesn't know for sure that there is someone. The success of a film like this is first of all down to its script and it's a good one, its very clever and delivers plenty of twists in an otherwise simple plot line. The film is actually turned on its head halfway through with one of those clever twists I already mentioned that adds immensely to the thrilling ride, this is one of those films that keeps giving right until the end, I haven't quite analysed all the twists to see if they make any sense, but that doesn't matter as this is a classy enthralling film, one I didn't want to end.