This is a remarkable short film. One of my many takes on this film is that the suited man in the telephone box represents how one may be trapped by social trappings. He looks a man of some social standing. I note that the child, his son, escapes the trap, maybe representing the idea that children still retain freedom of thought. We note that he passes a dead child (death of freedom). Also he passes the clown and dwarf and circus folk. They to me represented those on the outside of society that retain their freedom. They look at him from behind a wall with a distant quizzical look. The great machine of society robs man of volition.

Firstly, I want to say this movie is amazing. In the beginning it is kind of a black comedy, in the end everybody can feel the anxiety and the fear. We can watch this movie in two ways. First, as an absurd horror movie about a man who got stuck in a telephone box. If we watch this film this way, probably we all will love it. Because the director is so successful at telling stories in cinematic way. Second, as a surreal film which has some thoughts and some allegory about politics. Locally some thoughts about Franco regime, generally some thoughts about totalitarian ideologies. Cencorship, politic slaughters, unconcern of society etc. Think about it. Could we hear our main character's voice when he got stuck in the telephone box. A main character who has not any right to talk. What a despotic film! What a censorship! We all can see the unconcern of society during the movie, except the circus guys and the dwarf. They were exiled from the society. They were funny, they were freak, they were miserable. But while the society were laughing to our character, the "freaks" were not laughing. Actually they felt sorry for him. Because they were unwelcome people for their society and their despotic regime. They were the rebels against the despotism who had no power to fight. This movie is a masterpiece in two ways as stated above. But do not watch it like a horror movie. It would be insulting this masterpiece.

I watched it in the early 80s as a kid in England and still remember the shock of seeing the skeletons in all the other phone boxes and realising the poor bloke was doomed.What's more scary is that like Deferenz I am a fellow casualty from watching Salem's Lot as a kid (in West Sussex too. So similar was his post to my experiences that I had to do a double check that his post wasn't one I'd written at some point in the past). Even as a 38 ish year old I still can't have the curtains open in the bedroom at night. As a kid I could scare myself sh!#less just by leaving the curtains open and waiting for a pasty faced mate with suspiciously pointy teeth to float up to my window and start scratching on it and saying "Hey Justin, open the window, let me in"

La Cabina is a mostly unknown little gem of a horror flick that came out of Spain in 1972. La Cabina came to my attention after a few people talked very highly of it on IMDb's Horror Board. After enjoying a couple other shorts that were recommended by the board (The Ten Steps, Gorgonas and Taken) I decided to give this baby a shot as well. And tell ya what, those people on the Horror Board seems to know their stuff....well the regulars do anyways.La Cabina is the simple story of a man who becomes trapped in a telephone booth. You wouldn't think that such a simple premise would be such an entertaining movie, but you'd be wrong. Through very nice directing and acting by the man inside the booth, you grow to know the man in a small yet personal way. You realize he's a father early on, and immediately once he begins to panic and once things seem to start going wrong, you start feeling for him. Through shots of him looking onto the crowd that has amassed around his lil prison to a shot of him staring out at a bunch of Circus Freaks. This immediately brought the question, maybe the question that pops in everyone's mind when seeing this scene, "Who's the Circus Freak now?" The movie seemed to start off as a comedy of sorts, with people laughing and failing humorously while attempting to rid this man of his telephone booth nightmare. Things end up becoming weirder as the movie goes on and I'll just leave it at that.La Cabina is a nice little horror flick that you can find at the moment on Youtube. I'm not holding any promises that it's still there if you read this, but I'd definitely try searching for it if you can. Reminded me of in a small way of DUEL with a single man dealing with a bizarre and possibly dangerous problem. If you enjoy horror movies or are just a fan of cinema, this is something you should check out. The version I saw was without subtitles, but honestly, I didn't miss them at all, his expressions and the people's actions were words enough.