MALASAÑA 32 (2020)

 

(a.k.a. 32 MALASANA STREET; director: Albert Pintó. Screenwriters: Ramón Campos, Gema R. Neira, David Orea and Salvador S. Molina.)

Storyline

A family, used to country living, moves into a big-city haunted house.

Review

Set in 1976, MALASAÑA starts off as a promising, drenched-in-dark-filtered-spookiness flick. Its building, exterior and interior, is baroque with long shadows and corners where one  expects creepy fingers to wrap around them. The acting is all-around good─their sense of desperate poverty and alienation with their surroundings is palpable.

Unfortunately, it’s only a few minutes before MALASAÑA meanders into annoying flash-cut-image moments, ineffective scenes that only pad out the film’s running time, and a few jump-cuts too many. When it becomes an EXORCIST-lite possession flick, it’s a by-the-numbers work. (I initially liked the twist involving Clara’s identity, but the film’s meandering script watered down her character, making her another bland ingredient in its soupy mess.)

MALASAÑA, a deeply flawed work, has talented people involved in it. It would have been better with a tighter script that was less choppy and capitalized on its Clara-related uniqueness (and given her character more depth and humanity). As it is, the hour-and-forty-four-minute flick feels like an empty exercise in sometimes-creepy style.