To Let


Title: To Let
Rating: 3.5/5
Genre: Horror
Starring: Macarena Gómez, Nuria González, Adrià Collado
Director: Jaume Balagueró
Language: Spanish

From the same man that would soon go on to deliver us [Rec] comes another horror made for TV on the small budget that it would allow, and released as a part of the same package that “The Baby Room” found itself in. After another disappointing release with 'Altered' I needed something to lift my spirits, and the Spanish have managed to do that once again. Showing his love of eerie dilapidated buildings early on, this is the sort of film I've been patiently waiting for the 'Saw' series to produce after the intelligent debut, only to have it fizzle out in a pretentious display of gore and never returning to what made the first so interesting.

It starts off rather unenthusiastically; a couple looking for a place to live who believe they've discovered the offer of a lifetime. And in a morbid sense you really could call it a lifetime for when they arrive at the rustic and neglected building on the fringes of the town they quickly become suspicious of the landlord showing them around. One of them spots their shoes already by the door, and a mysterious photograph of the two of them together sits atop the bedside table. With a shudder it all kicks off with rapid shift into overdrive; the realisation that the landlord has long since lost her sanity after having her building – her thirty year livelihood – condemned and has resolved to fill it with tenants once more, even if she has to chain them to the walls to keep them there.

In fact, this film gets under way so rapidly I was concerned that they wouldn't be able to maintain the momentum, but somehow they manage to steadily drop hints and clues as to where the story is heading without pausing to gasp for air; its only an hour long but they make better use of the time and keep things moving so quickly that there's more happening here than in many other contemporary horrors such that by comparison, they seem to dawdle about the subject matter. With much of the film following the power play between the 'cute-when-scared' Gomez and the psychotic landlord, both perform superbly as the cat and mouse tale ensues, frantically running about the maze and stumbling into clues and other characters, but it's certainly not without its flaws. Sadly, much of it can come across as more than a little predictable and so is mildly groan inducing when your correct prediction finally plays out precisely as you expected. Nonetheless the director has done wonders with his small budget and if not living up to the heights of some others in this collection, is still persuading evidence of the promise in Spanish horror.

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