With all the promising reviews warning about the morbidity & intense shock-value of this film, and especially with knowing what formed basic inspiration for the story , I can't help admitting I was a little disappointed after my viewing of "H6: Diary of a Serial Killer". Sure this Spanish effort is remotely gruesome and confronting, but not nearly as much as I expected (or hoped) and there are far more dull moments than shocking ones. As for the inspiration, the script (and even the main character Antonio Frau himself) often refers to Henri Landru. Landru was a French serial killer who murdered nearly a dozen of women during the years of World War one and carefully noted down his grim actions in a diary that eventually proved his guilt. Landru selected his victims randomly and killed without apparent motives, and maybe the character of Antonio Frau could have used a bit more sense of nihilism like that as well. His seemingly forced motives for killing young girls are (partly) what makes the film so implausible. Once freed from jail, where he did 15 years for murdering his girlfriend when he was a teenager, Antonio inherits an old and ramshackle motel in the middle of a prostitute-infested neighborhood. With his new wife working night shifts at the hospital, Antonio has plenty of free time to fulfill his new mission in life, namely the purification of sinners. He lures drug-addicted prostitutes to his motel and locks them up in room 6, where he rapes, humiliates and tortures them (talk about 'cleansing') before practicing his chainsaw dismembering skills on their scarcely dressed bodies. Antonio's modus operandi and motivations don't make the least bit of sense, but they do result in several nauseating and blood-soaked sequences. Totally gratuitous footage, of course, but suitably sadistic if you're interested in this type of cinema. But, like I mentioned before already, the film badly suffers from too many tedious moments as well. Antonio Frau really talks too much and insists on narrating all the things he writes down in his precious diary. Near the end of the movie and totally out of the blue, the script suddenly turns ambitious and actually attempts to make us believe the protagonist is a criminal mastermind, even more intelligent than the Jigsaw Killer or even Hannibal Lector. Yeah right. "H6: Diary of a Serial Killer" is nicely shot and benefices from macabre settings and a thoroughly grim ambiance. Fernando Acaso is fairly convincing as the twisted killer (at least during the first half of the film), Mariá José Bausá is bewitching as his voluptuous wife and Antonio Mayans (a Jess Franco regular!) makes a brief appearance as her lover. "H6" isn't nearly as sick and repulsive as some people claim, but nonetheless an interesting movie for Euro-horror fanatics to check out.

Sometimes we think, due to our limited circumstances, that as a species we have evolved to a level beyond the animal. That we are somehow more developed and more advanced. How much "evolutionary difference" is there between defecating in the fields and creating a special "place", with water, where one goes to defecate? Also think about how sometimes it is of a communal nature (sometimes even doing it side-by-side, separated just a couple of feet apart from each other by incomplete walls). The most prude of us, the English, even went as so far as to disguise it with language,as if perfuming the air. They called it a water closet. George Carlin would have something funny to say about that subject right about now. I'm definitely no George Carlin, but I can press play. If you are ready to deal with the baseness of the human species, then this movie might be right for you.The movie starts brutally in a darkened stairwell, where we witness a most violent break up. Antonio Frau, in the most extreme act of machismo, strangles his girl friend/ wife. This movie tries very hard to make you feel extremely uncomfortable with what is happening on the the screen. It would easily qualify as grind house, except that it is way too dark, stylized and imposes too much seriousness to be campy. It resembles more of a "From Hell" in the type of a demi-hero, demi-villainous character it employs. Antonio Frau (Fernando Acaso), after being released from prison years later, inherits an abandoned ex-whore house from his aunt. This becomes the scene of the fun house experience at Freddy Kruger's house. Fernando Acaso does an amazing job of creating a Jeffery Dahmer like demeanor. It is cold on the outside, yet charming somehow. Throughout, however, is this creepy feeling like you are being surgically sliced into bits (in his mind). The storyline follows a modern piece of historically inspired fiction. Historically speaking, Henri Landru was a French serial killer that preyed mostly on widows, during World War I in Paris (10/11 of his victims were women). Henri kept a detailed log of all the women and all of the aliases he used on each. At one point a relative of one of his victims shows up looking for them. This stirs up the police, which leads to Landru and his journal (which was used as evidence to convict him). Landru eventually is guillotined a few years later. Antonio Frau actual speaks about Landru in the movie. He is considered a flawed inspiration. Henri was in it for the money, however, Antonio has another agenda as well (a Saw-like agenda). There is such a duplicity to the character of Antonio Frau. Some of the really graphic scenes had very little actual gore, but actually maintained a somber and terrifying style which helped it from falling back into grind.The style is eerily single X snuff-like. There is some guilt in watching, yet it feeds the voyeuristic and bass tendencies in humankind to continue to not look away. It is hard to recommend this movie to anyone, considering the nature of the violence. This is why I gave it a 5/10. Depending on the type of person watching this movie, I can easily see it going either way. Much like someone once said of Kronos; You either find it interesting or strongly, wrenchingly dislike it. There is no love.

Visually speaking, this film is stunning. It has some delightful black comedic moments. But on the whole, the plot is very clichéd, as is its seeming message. If you're a fan of over-the-top violence in mainstream movies like hostel or saw, you'll love it. If you're looking for something at all high-brow, steer away. I saw it as part of the edinburgh film festival 06, and I only chose it because I was looking for something disturbing. Ultimately, it isn't disturbing. Just grinding and unpleasant to sit through. If you genuinely want to be challenged, go see something like The Lost. If you want to be grossed out, or tell your friends about a really messed up film, then this is for you.

This self proclaimed "very talented artist" have directed easily the worst Spanish film of the 21st century. Lack of emotion, coherence, rhythm, skills, humor... it repeats the same situation over and over again. It shows no character development. It does not even show any violent and/or sexual content, and it does not add anything new to the psycho-killer sub genre. So lame it should be shown at film schools as an example of "what not to do" in a first movie.BTW where the hell is the "talent"? there are scenes which have been shot almost identically; there are scenes which have two or more master shots and it is quite awful to see the action jumping from one master shot to another without a reason. The camera almost never moves, as if the "very talented artist" was afraid of showing his lack of visual skills. The actors playing the main roles act like amateurs, and the supporting cast is hardly believable. There are more holes than plot in the script (if ever there was one)...A really disheartening movie, and a whatsoever talented director.