Director: José Ramón Larraz
Year: 1974
Country: United Kingdom/Belgium/Spain
Alternate Titles: The Blood Virgin
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Plot:
Called out to an ancestral house, a troubled woman is invited by her friend to spend time together and strengthen their relationship, but the more they spend together, the more the house has an effect on her psyche and mental sanity, bringing a deadly resolution for all around her.
Review:
Overall, this was a decent enough, if somewhat troubled, psychological genre effort. One of the better features here is the main descent into psychological instability that becomes the focal point of the film. Since the signs of her unhinged state are given to us from the very beginning through the journal writing and just reserved remarks that present themselves whenever she's on-screen, the seeds are sewn so that the unnerving nature of the house, as well as the surrounding woods on its grounds, offer the kind of appropriate setup for where this one goes. As the reserved and blank expressions, cryptic sayings about nothing in particular, or just plain odd behavior finally come to a head, the atmosphere built up here features quite the fun turn of events at play here which makes for a fun enough time.
However, there are some big issues with this one. The main drawback on display here is that for all the good this does in establishing the psychological breakdown of its main character and what's going on with her, nothing else really happens here. This one becomes incredibly repetitive in the use of a formulaic storyline involving her snapping at something her friend does, blaming it on her psychosis but doing nothing to help remedy the situation, and then trying to rebuild their friendship until the next incident. This produces a dull and generally dreary pacing which is hardly all that memorable or exciting in the slightest, and without explaining anything until a brief conversation at the end to reveal what the twist actually means, this one is based solely on the atmosphere generated.
Overview: **.5/5
Focusing far more on the psychological aspects than overt genre thrills, the viewers’ mileage on this one will depend greatly on their reaction and appreciation for the positives built up versus the negatives. Those who favor the atmospheric touches and the slow-burn nature of the storyline in place of action or shocks will like this one the most, while viewers who are in the latter camp should heed caution with this one.
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