That House in the Outskirts

While I can't say that "Aquella casa en las afueras" is on the whole a monotonous movie, sadly, I have to admit that I had a really hard time focusing on it and it's a real shame because I had higher expectations. The story gives the impression of being one of these really absorbing psychological thrillers that nobody knows about, regardless of how magnificent they are. The fact that Alida Valli, who earned my respect in "Suspiria", is one of the main actresses in the film, also led me to believe that I was going to be enchanted by her acting alone. Now that I have finally seen this film, after looking for it exhaustively, I suppose it works as an evident proof of how bad it is to anticipate our judgement and a gentle reminder of not doing it ever again. By that, I don't mean that I didn't get any pleasure at all out of "Aquella casa en las afueras", but frankly, I expected more than a simple slow moving thriller with some decent moments of tension throughout the last minutes.

I usually write a short synopsis to the movies I review, but this time, I'm going to make an exception, since "Aquella casa en las afueras", unfolds the most revealing and worth mentioning parts at some point in the last minutes. Writing a summary in this case, would be some kind of ruthless spoiler and I'm going to avoid. All I have to say concerning this film and generally speaking is that it gets rather tedious more than once, which is a real disappointment. I hardly lose my interest when I'm watching a horror movie and I tend to appreciate the good moments of silence and subtle psychological terror, but in this particular occasion, the lack of events ended up overwhelming me. In the end, I can't really say that it is a bad movie. As I stated previously, the last minutes somehow make up for the lack of tension and action throughout the first hour. My friendly advice to those who feel more than anything compelled to check out this film because Mrs. Valli, is to think twice before watching...