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1980-10-19
N/A
95 min
A young girl's husband rents a lovely home just outside of Madrid so she can spend the last three months of her pregnancy in peace and luxury. Unfortunately, just as they arrive at the home, the girl realizes that it is the place where she had secretly had an illegal abortion some years before. The clinic is long-gone, but this doesn't ease the woman's disquiet. Things get even worse when she learns that her upstairs neighbor is the old abortionist's assistant.
While I can't say that "Aquella casa en las afueras" is on the whole a monotonous movie, sadly, I have to admit that I had a really hard time focusing on it and it's a real shame because I had higher expectations. The story gives the impression of being one of these really absorbing psychological thrillers that nobody knows about, regardless of how magnificent they are. The fact that Alida Valli, who earned my respect in "Suspiria", is one of the main actresses in the film, also led me to believe that I was going to be enchanted by her acting alone. Now that I have finally seen this film, after looking for it exhaustively, I suppose it works as an evident proof of how bad it is to anticipate our judgement and a gentle reminder of not doing it ever again. By that, I don't mean that I didn't get any pleasure at all out of "Aquella casa en las afueras", but frankly, I expected more than a simple slow moving thriller with some decent moments of tension throughout the last minutes.
I usually write a short synopsis to the movies I review, but this time, I'm going to make an exception, since "Aquella casa en las afueras", unfolds the most revealing and worth mentioning parts at some point in the last minutes. Writing a summary in this case, would be some kind of ruthless spoiler and I'm going to avoid. All I have to say concerning this film and generally speaking is that it gets rather tedious more than once, which is a real disappointment. I hardly lose my interest when I'm watching a horror movie and I tend to appreciate the good moments of silence and subtle psychological terror, but in this particular occasion, the lack of events ended up overwhelming me. In the end, I can't really say that it is a bad movie. As I stated previously, the last minutes somehow make up for the lack of tension and action throughout the first hour. My friendly advice to those who feel more than anything compelled to check out this film because Mrs. Valli, is to think twice before watching it. The character of Isabel in "Aquella casa en las afueras", has nothing to do with that evil, glamorous and powerful Miss Tanner that many of us remember from "Suspiria". Regardless of the fact that Mrs. Valli was indeed a remarkable actress, in this occasion, her character is plain for the most part and not nearly as darkly beautiful as she appears in "Suspiria". Some may think that my comparison is unfair, but we can't deny that Miss Tanner was one of her most memorable performances and it left many horror fans wanting a little bit more of that.
Concluding: "Aquella casa en las afueras" is not exactly a bad film. It is actually rather stylish and it has some really fine points to remark, like the opening sequence, in which we see the main character getting an abortion, for instance. The scenes with Alida Valli over the last scenes are quite good and atmospheric. Perhaps the main cause why the entire film from being labeled as "boring" in the end. My concept of the film is not bad, but I wouldn't bother re-watching it any time soon. At least not for now, unless I'm suffering from insomnia and I need some help falling asleep.
