This cult supernatural mystery from 1979 is a deeply strange cheese dream of a film from Spain, in which almost the entire opening 10 minutes unfolds in a jittery quiet. There are some longueurs and some pop-eyed silent-movie acting from one of its leads, yes, but also a deeply unnerving, enveloping atmosphere of dread.
At least some of its fascination stems from the marginal involvement of the young Pedro Almodóvar, who did voice-overdubbing for one female character. Director Iván Zulueta was to maintain his connection with Almodóvar from then on and much of Almodóvar’s procedure can be traced back to this influential film: the rapture for movies (what a character here calls “cinemania”), the double-stranded narrative, the queer euphoria and the importance of extended flashbacks.
