Una vela para el diablo (1973)

User Rating:

4.5/10   

Director:

Eugenio Martín

Writers:

Antonio Fos (writer)
Eugenio Martín (writer)

Release Date:

1973 (Spain)

Genre:

Horror

Plot:

Two old maid sisters are running a little family hotel in Spain. They are very religious and the moral...

Plot Keywords:

Hotel | Spain | Wine | Murder | Gagged And Bound

Cast

Judy Geeson	...	Laura Barkley
Aurora Bautista	...	Marta
Esperanza Roy	...	Veronica
Víctor Alcázar		(as Vic Winner)
Lone Fleming	...	Helen Miller
Blanca Estrada	...	Norma
Loreta Tovar	...	Laura's sister - First victim (as Loretta Tovar)
Montserrat Julió	...	Beatriz (as Julia Montserrat)
Fernando Villena
Fernando Hilbeck
Charley Pineiro	...	Luis

Also Known As:

It Happened at Nightmare Inn (USA)
A Candle for the Devil
Nightmare Hotel
Nightmare Inn (USA)

Runtime:

90 min | Finland:83 min

Country:

Spain

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Germany:BPjM Restricted

Filming Locations:

El Paular, Madrid, Spain

Company:

Mercofilms

An Unappreciated Gem?

Two Spanish sisters run a hostel which they use to knock off the promiscuous (and, interestingly enough, mostly English)female tourists that come to stay there. The older sister is a truly deranged religious fanatic while the younger is simply very weak-willed (and, unbeknownst to her sister is herself carrying on with a man in town). The "star", English actress Judy Geeson is the one who finally solves the mystery of the missing boarders (although it should have been pretty obvious to anybody), but she is, curiously enough, relegated to the status of pretty minor character.

This is perhaps a very clever movie about the reactionary and conservative nature of rural Spain at the time, fed by Catholic idolatry and rural small-mindedness. Juxtaposing these two Spanish sisters against all these promiscuous English tourists might also be some kind of comment on hedonistic Swinging London (although most people today don't associate the English with loose behavior and free-wheeling sexual attitudes). I didn't know quite what to make of the ending though which is either intentionally very ambiguous (possibly suggesting the whole town is in on what the sisters are doing) or is merely incompetent. Given the impressive track effort of director Eugenio Martin ("La Ultima Senora Anderson", "Horror Express")I suspect the former, but this is a kind of cheap effort and perhaps not up to the standards of the director's other films.

Apparently, there are also some heavily edited versions floating around. The one I saw had A LOT of nudity and violence, including the disturbing murder of the mother of a young baby (who the sisters mistakenly believe was born out of wedlock). I would find this longer version (about 95 minutes)if you want to see this, but I would also be interested in just seeing this again in a better-looking DVD version. It may be an unappreciated gem in the Euro-horror genre, but it's kind of hard to tell.