Double Feature: The Baby's Room & To Let

Two Foreign Films from Spain:

The Baby's Room - Spanish Title: La habitacion del nino

To Let - Spanish Title: Para entrar a vivar

Language - Spanish

Subtitles are in English

Genre - Horror/Thriller (Foreign)

Year Released - Both in 2006

Running Time - The Baby's Room - 77 minutes / To Let - 68 minutes

The Baby's Room

Directed by Alex de la Iglesia

Written by Alex de la Iglesia & Jorge Guerricaechevarria

Cast Includes Javier Gutierrez & Leonor Watling

To Let

Directed by Jaume Balaguero (who also directed [REC] - which I am dying to see! - it is currently "Saved" in my Netflix Queue with an 'unknown release date')

Written by Jaume Balaguero (who also wrote Quarantine - the American Re-make of [REC] which comes out in October - it looks Great! I am keeping my fingers crossed!)

Alberto Marini also co-wrote (he also wrote The Abandoned - one of the "8 Films to Die for" - which I have not yet seen)

Cast includes Macarena Gomez, Nuria Gonzalez, and Adria Collado

Rating: (for both films) 5 Skulls!

Films to Keep You Awake (?)

Plot Summary: (for both films)

From the 6 Films to Keep You Awake anthology comes this terrifying double feature of Spanish horror movies.

In the unnerving The Baby's Room, a new father repeatedly sees, via a video baby monitor, a shadowy man hovering over his newborn infant.

In To Let, a couple looking to rent an apartment discovers that they can check in, but they can never leave.

Review: (for both films)

First, I just have to say that these films really do "Keep You Awake" :-) I woke up this morning, shortly after 3:00am and I could not go back to sleep (which is very rare for me) So, after tossing and turning for 20 minutes or so, I decided to go out to the living room and watch The Baby's Room - I had no intention of watching both films, however The Baby's Room was so good that I had to watch To Let immediately after, in hopes that it would be as good, and it was!!

After doing a little research, I discovered that this "anthology" of films was actually made for Spanish Television - much like our own Masters of Horror (on Showtime) Needless to say that I will be checking out the other 4 films in the series!

The Baby's Room

The Baby's Room grabs you from the opening sequence and doesn't let up! This one tells the story of a young couple with a young son (slightly older than a newborn) who move into an old Spanish Mansion. They are given a set of second-hand baby monitors (the walkie-talkie looking kind) During the first night, they hear the baby laughing and it sounds as if someone is talking to the baby, from in the baby's room! When the father goes into the baby's room to check, there is no one else in the room. The parents, a little weirded out, decide to buy a new baby monitor - one that includes video. Being dark, the baby camera utilizes night vision/infrared technology, so all you see is the silhouette of the baby, with iridescent/glowing eyes - pretty freaky! The next evening, when the father wakes up in the middle of the night, he glances at the baby monitor and sees a second set of iridescent/glowing eyes. . . Again, upon rushing into the baby's bedroom, there is no one else there. The father begins to grow increasingly paranoid, until you begin to wonder if he is delusional or not. This is a rapid-fire pace of a film, which at only 77 minutes, scarcely gives you time to breathe! This film is for all of you psychological horror fans out there - minimal blood in this one, it is all in the story!

To Let

To Let, on the other hand, sheds quite a lot of blood! This one tells the story of of another young couple who are looking for an apartment to rent. Driving to yet another apartment to look at, it begins pouring rain. They eventually begin to leave the outskirts of town and start traveling through a very bad looking neighborhood (things are rundown, in shambles, there are actually cars that have been stripped, on the sides of the road - I personally would have turned right around!) Eventually they come upon an apartment building, in the middle of nowhere, all by itself (that looks in such bad shape, that you would think it was abandoned) Yet, they go in anyway! Inside the apartment, the woman finds a photograph of her and her boyfriend, and he finds a pair of old shoes of his that he threw away, a week ago. . . something is definitely not right! I do not want to say any more, so as not to give anything else away. I will tell you this though - Nuria Gonzalez plays an outstanding psychopath!

Both of these films have my highest recommendation - Definitely check these two films out, and stay tuned for reviews on the other four [only if they are "blog-worthy" of course, which I have a feeling that they will be!] :-)

I was unable to find a trailer for The Baby's Room, and the trailer that I found for To Let showed way to much! (which I hate) So, you will have to Trust Me on these!

Jason