Películas Para no Dormir: Regreso a Moira is set in Sapin & starts as businessman Tomas (Jordi Dauder) travels back to the small Spanish village where he grew up & which he hasn't been to in over forty years after receiving a tarot card in the post, only one person could have sent him the tarot card but she has been dead for forty four years. Tomas heads to the house which has so many bad memories for him, the house of a woman named Moira ( Natalia Millán) who he had a sexual relationship with when he was sixteen. Tomas remembers how the elders including his mum & dad (Victoria Mora & Walter Prieto) thought Moira was a witch & prostitute who both brought bad luck & shame on the village. Superstitions that would lead to tragedy & events that have haunted Tomas his whole life & events that might literally still haunt him as unexplained things begin to happen...
Known as Films to Keep You Awake: Spectre to English speaking audiences this made-for-Spanish telly ghost film was co-edited, co-written & directed by Mateo Gil & the thing that struck me the most while watching Películas Para no Dormir: Regreso a Moira is how much it reminded me of all those Japanese ghost films such as The Ring (1998) & Ju-On: The Grudge (2003) that are so popular at the moment, not the specific story in particular but how it feels, how it builds up, some of the spooky events that take place & it's twist ending which I thought was awful. It's ironic that it has the Films to Keep You Awake prefix since the script by Gil & Igor Lagarreta is actually very slow going for the majority of the very short seventy five minute running time & is far more likely to send you to sleep, in fact with such a short running time I was expecting this to crack along at a decent pace but you really do need a high tolerance level to sit through this. For a horror film there's barely any horror in it, for the vast majority of Películas Para no Dormir: Regreso a Moira it feels like a melodramatic love story with the young Tomas & the older Moira having a secret relationship that everyone else in the village would disapprove of. Also I am not convinced by the superstitious locals, I mean the scenes set in the past were during the 60's given the film's time-line & I find it hard to believe an entire village would think someone was a witch during that period. The character's are alright, the dialogue is sparse but alright & it eventually tells a story but overall it didn't do much for me & then there's that terrible twist ending which makes zero sense & isn't even much of a twist, also what did Tomas' dead wife Greta have to do with it if anything?.
Director Gil does alright here, the film looks nice enough & the Spanish countryside & quaint village makes for a decent setting. Disappointingly Películas Para no Dormir: Regreso a Moira is extremely light on scares & horror, basically there isn't any. Ghost sightings are few & far between but they really do look like they have come straight out of any number of Japanese ghost film's. There's no gore either although there are a couple of mild sex scenes. Shot in Spanish the film is subtitled, rather annoyingly the Spanish actors speak quite quickly & therefore some of the subtitles don't stay on screen for that long & also annoyingly the subtitles are white & since a lot of the film is set in the bright sunshine of the Spanish countryside they can sometimes become lost & impossible to read.
Filmed in Madrid in Spain the film has good production values & is competent if unspectacular. Overall Películas Para no Dormir: Regreso a Moira looks fine but is rather unremarkable. The acting seems fine but since I don't speak Spanish & the cast are it's hard to give a definite answer.
Películas Para no Dormir: Regreso a Moira is a substandard Spanish attempt at copying the recent popular Japanese ghost film's but doesn't really succeed, it's dull & lethargic with a really awful ending which isn't much of a twist at all.
Known as Films to Keep You Awake: Spectre to English speaking audiences this made-for-Spanish telly ghost film was co-edited, co-written & directed by Mateo Gil & the thing that struck me the most while watching Películas Para no Dormir: Regreso a Moira is how much it reminded me of all those Japanese ghost films such as The Ring (1998) & Ju-On: The Grudge (2003) that are so popular at the moment, not the specific story in particular but how it feels, how it builds up, some of the spooky events that take place & it's twist ending which I thought was awful. It's ironic that it has the Films to Keep You Awake prefix since the script by Gil & Igor Lagarreta is actually very slow going for the majority of the very short seventy five minute running time & is far more likely to send you to sleep, in fact with such a short running time I was expecting this to crack along at a decent pace but you really do need a high tolerance level to sit through this. For a horror film there's barely any horror in it, for the vast majority of Películas Para no Dormir: Regreso a Moira it feels like a melodramatic love story with the young Tomas & the older Moira having a secret relationship that everyone else in the village would disapprove of. Also I am not convinced by the superstitious locals, I mean the scenes set in the past were during the 60's given the film's time-line & I find it hard to believe an entire village would think someone was a witch during that period. The character's are alright, the dialogue is sparse but alright & it eventually tells a story but overall it didn't do much for me & then there's that terrible twist ending which makes zero sense & isn't even much of a twist, also what did Tomas' dead wife Greta have to do with it if anything?.
Director Gil does alright here, the film looks nice enough & the Spanish countryside & quaint village makes for a decent setting. Disappointingly Películas Para no Dormir: Regreso a Moira is extremely light on scares & horror, basically there isn't any. Ghost sightings are few & far between but they really do look like they have come straight out of any number of Japanese ghost film's. There's no gore either although there are a couple of mild sex scenes. Shot in Spanish the film is subtitled, rather annoyingly the Spanish actors speak quite quickly & therefore some of the subtitles don't stay on screen for that long & also annoyingly the subtitles are white & since a lot of the film is set in the bright sunshine of the Spanish countryside they can sometimes become lost & impossible to read.
Filmed in Madrid in Spain the film has good production values & is competent if unspectacular. Overall Películas Para no Dormir: Regreso a Moira looks fine but is rather unremarkable. The acting seems fine but since I don't speak Spanish & the cast are it's hard to give a definite answer.
Películas Para no Dormir: Regreso a Moira is a substandard Spanish attempt at copying the recent popular Japanese ghost film's but doesn't really succeed, it's dull & lethargic with a really awful ending which isn't much of a twist at all.