My best friend and I chose this movie to accompany our popcorn and wine for Girls Night! We turned down the lights, poured ourselves a glass and got underneath our blankets for what was sure to be a fright fest!Okay so the first hour or so went by slowly. Scratch that it went by REALLY freaking slowly.All of a sudden there is movement beneath the blankets....a tentative head emerges. " Umm do you think something is going to happen soon?" She asks me."Sure" I said. "It didn't do too badly on IMDb right?! What was it? 6/10? Something has got to happen soon. Just watch it".I'm not going to lie...there were points in the remaining hour of the movie where I seriously considered walking over to the corner of my kitchen and banging my head silently against the cold brick wall. Just for some kind of mental stimulation. Alas, we perservered and reached a point where there is a reveal of sorts between two characters. Lyndsey and I sat bolt upright and she reached over...clutching my hand.She looked at me. Eyes shining brightly with hope and anticipation. "This is it, she breathed...something is finally happening...."We turn back to the TV , clutching each other, barely daring to breath. Surely these last 2 hours of slow, monotonous, Nameless nonsense will be worth it....Surely the respected, intelligent members of IMDb wouldn't give an average but respectable score of 6 to a Spanish piece of diaper rash?The credits roll and we sit back. Looking blankly at each other through the sudden stillness. What a pile of garbage that was!4/10

Good and unsettling Catalan terror/thriller by expert filmmaker Jaume Balaguero and based on the British novel "The Nameless" by Ramsey Campbell . More spine-tingling from the director of ¨Darkness¨ , a convincing sense of impeding dread and essential to any effective Horror-Thriller . Some years after a little girl was killed when her mummy named Claudia (Emma Villarasau) , addicted to tranquilizers , seemed to have started to recover , but a phone call once again shatters her existence : "Mummy, it's me... come and get me". Helped by an ex-cop named Massera(Karra Elejalde) and a parapsychology journalist named Quiroga (Tristan Ulloa) who is expert in the supernatural, she sets out on a desperate search for encounter her daughter . Other mysterious clues appear , indicating that the daughter is indeed still alive , and very much in risk . Later on , they discover incredible deeds : a sect of the occult with conceal things and dark secrets which rejects its own name , called ¨Nameless¨ and wishes the essence of pure evil. The official English title is The Nameless -but the correct translation is "Los Sin Nombre", which to me is far more creepy- lives up to Jaume Balaguero's reputation . This suspenseful and frightening movie was produced by the successful Catalan producers Julio and Carlos Fernandez from Fantastic factory ; it displays relentless horror , thrills , intrigue , shocks , hard-edged drama , plot twists , creepy images and some gore when crime takes place . Director Jaume Balagueró (Rec, Rec 2, Fragiles , Darkness and the recent "while you sleep" or Mientras Duermes) uses that uneasy non-knowledge for both horror and occultism , introducing brief psychological observations . Interesting writing credits by the same director/writer Balaguero based on a story by Ramsey Campbell . ¨Nameless¨ is a motion picture that balances precariously over the terror and occultism . The overall result is chilling proof that Balagueró can take a little budget while delivering a completely different scare . Extraordinary performance by Emma Villarasau , she plays a real tour-de-force in one of his best acting of his career as a solitary and unhappy mother , unsettling for past records and disturbing future . Furthermore , excellent Karra Elejalde as a run-down ex-'policeman . The picture packs a thrilling and intriguing musical score by Carles Cases . Furthermore , a cold and appropriate cinematography by Xavi Gimenez , Balaguero's usual .'The Nameless' demonstrates director Balagueró's versatility , resulting to be a sublime thriller that every genre buff should be excited for . Rating : Good , better than average . The movie will appeal to thriller and terror fans . Worthwhile watching .

I think what makes THE NAMELESS so terrifying is the fact that it's grounded in realism..the idea that a flock, perverted by the deranged fundamental ideas of a very sick man, are arranging this diabolical plan to achieve an imagined profound state(..synthesis)through the absolute act of evil, in turn, causing an innocent to suffer even more. The group is called the Nameless, those who choose not to have a human title(..it, in essence, removes them from purity and humanity, free to commit atrocities, not bound by laws or morality) completely embracing immorality and evil, following the pathological ideals of Santini(Carlos Lasarte). Claudia(Emma Vilarasau)is the tormented victim of the film, her young daughter kidnapped, reporting to the morgue to determine if the devastated corpse of a female child is her own. A bracelet of her daughter, Angela, was found by the corpse, and Claudia accepts the loss as best as she can, but five years later, still in deep mourning, her phone rings with a voice claiming to be her child, begging for help. Claudia, finding a beach house, from the directed voice across the phone, discovers a boot and various photos all over the place. Confused and distraught, Claudia confides in recently resigned detective, Bruno Massera(Karra Elejalde), the one who worked on her daughter's case, for help. Another unexpected ally emerges, Quiroga(Tristán Ulloa), a tabloid journalist/photographer, whose establishment was sent a tape with Claudia's phone number on it. Soon Bruno hits the pavement, Claudia often in tow, trying to uncover the whereabouts and background on the Nameless.An aspect that really makes Jaume Balagueró's THE NAMELESS such an intense experience is the fact that this cult could be everywhere, lurking in the shadows, close nearby, because the people involved look like normal, regular folks you pass on the streets, in bars, and elsewhere. There are examples of these cults throughout history, willing to kill themselves or others at the command of a charismatic leader who spellbinds them. The film is an investigative thriller following three lead characters in pursuit of a dangerous group who may be leading them into a trap. Convenient clues throughout the film, left for the characters to discover, perhaps motivate Claudia and Bruno into a spider's web, heading for a confrontation with the epitome of menace. What's really scary is how willing this group is at killing. The opening of the film displays the depths of their malice, as we see a coroner and Bruno around the destroyed body of a girl who was tortured while still alive, practically unrecognizable the corpse is so pulverized. The fate of Claudia's obsessive ex-boyfriend, Toni(Pep Tosar), a grisly site left for her and Bruno to discover. The fate of another who discovers their lair and is systematically slaughtered by the group using box cutters. Despite the cult's activities, the ultimately unsettling moment(..along with Claudia's discovery of Angela, no longer the loving, sweet little girl she once knew and her actions as the screen fades to black)is when Claudia meets Santini..in an asylum after being sentenced for the rape and anal violence of two boys. His chilling ramblings about learning from those in concentration camps(..a symbolic link between the Nameless and Nazis)while feeding Claudia riddles awaken us to the fact that those under him were manipulated and mentally captured by a raving, but intelligent madman. The scene is haunting because of Lasarte's performance of Santini..you loathe this roach, but can not take your eyes off of him, a completely unpredictable monster with a way of commanding an audience. Jaume Balagueró's film is incredibly depressing, and bleak as can be, but fascinating and unnerving..like Claudia and Bruno, we are led down a really dark path into an abyss of insanity and see how something innocent can be polluted by the depraved ideologies of a twisted belief system. Extremely well acted(..you truly feel for Claudia and Bruno, both victims of loss) and the direction is solid thanks in part to Jaume Balagueró's control of the viewer(..or, me, at least; I found it quite gripping)following the sequence of events which will change Claudia's life forever.

I had heard nothing but good things about Jaume Balaguero's The Nameless. Unfortunately I had watched The Darkness, Balaguero's second feature, prior to The Nameless so I just couldn't get excited about watching it. I had the disc sitting on my table for about two weeks before finally breaking down and watching it. It is leaps and bounds ahead of The Darkness (which I'm now sure Dimension messed up). The Nameless is based upon Ramsey Campbell's novel and, to my knowledge, is Campbell's first work to be filmed. It's about a cult called The Nameless who thinks they can achieve a level of purity by torturing the innocent. I don't want to give anything else away because the journey of the movie is very important and leads to one of the best and most fitting endings any movie ever had. If you saw The Darkness and weren't impressed, give Balaguero a second chance and see his superior thriller.