Staring at Strangers

Carpenter Damián (Paco León) runs away and hides in an armoire after his boss fired him. When the armoire arrives at its buyer's house, he decides to stay there, hiding in his new home living with an unknown family, formed by a middle-class marriage, Lucía (Leonor Watling) and Fede (Alex Brendemühl), and their daughter Maria (María Romanillos). And then mysterious events among the family members take place, all of them under the watchful eye of the strange visitor or participating in the same. There's something more... and it is looking at you!. Is the intruder indeed real, or is he a manifestation inside the obscure maze of Lucia's mind?

The film develops itself by means of various flashbacks in which our starring Paco León is interviewed by two presenters: Juan Diego Botto and real presenter Iñaki Gabilondo, while the underdog carpenter Damián explains his past hard experiences. It displays thriller, intrigue, Kafkaesque incidents, hard-edged drama, twisted plot, and surprising finale. ¨No Mires a los Ojos¨ is a motion picture that balances precariously over the dark comedy, ¨Psycho¨ Hitchockian intrigue, Michael Haneke's ¨Funny games¨ invasion genre and Michael Powell's ¨Peeping Tom¨ style. Despite its low budget the picture manages to be dramatic, intelligent , intriguing and thrilling at times. The good thing about this film is that the directors made it on a shoestring budget only having to do a few sets, yet the movie works on many levels but is constantly reconfigured. This is an interesting flick with an engaging script delving into the human psyche in such extreme situation. Is it possible to live in somebody's house hiding all the time and avoid that the inhabitants there detect your presence? Well, that's the question this original story deals with. "No mires a los ojos (2022)" keeps the audience on the alert, cause you don't really know what's going on. With a certain similar premise to much better ¨El Visitante incierto (2004)¨ or ¨The uncertain guest¨ by Guillen Morales, this ¨No mires a los ojos (2022)¨results to be a passable and acceptable film, but neither notable, nor extraordinary, but mildly decent. Paco León stars in this hypnotic and surreal drama giving a fine acting. Nominated for the Goya 2023 for best adapted screenplay, loosely based on the novel ¨Desde La Sombra¨ by Juan José Millas dealing with a man who observes and controls the life of an apparently perfect family from the false bottom of a closet, the protagonist of this peculiar story is Damián, a withdrawn man, lonely and without a family, who after spending 20 years working in the same company has just lost his job. Such is the desperation, that he ended up hiding in a closet of a moving truck that will be delivered to the house of Lucía and Fede, well played by Leonor Watling and Alex Brendemühl.

The picture was professionally directed by Félix Viscarret, though turns out to be a bit slow-moving and boring at times. This Spanish craftsman Viscarret has made a few nice films, such as: Bajo las estrellas (2007), Vientos de La Habana (2016), Saura(s) (2017), Una vida no tan simple (2023) and some episodes of TV series : Marco, Patria, Galgos. Rating: 6/10. The flick will appeal to Paco León fans.