NO-DO
MOVIE REVIEW

		Review by E.C. McMullen Jr.
NO-DO aka The Beckoning aka The Haunting - 2009 USA Release: Sep. 1, 2009 Eqlipse Producciones Cinematográficas S.L., Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO), Instituto de la Cinematografía y de las Artes Audiovisuales (ICAA), Radio Televisión Española (RTVE) Rated: USA: N/A

I've waited over 10 years to tell you about this powerful haunted tale.

This Spanish language movie begins with old movie newsreels. The newsreels are called NO-DO, an onscreen acronym for Noticiarios y Documentales (News and Documentaries), a propaganda education tool from Spanish dictator, Francisco Franco's 38 year reign of terror.

In essence, the newsreels act as exposition. We are being told the history leading up to this story by the narrator of the newsreels. However, because this movie is exactly about the self-appointed monarchist rule and his control of the state run media, the long exposition, which will appear frequently throughout the movie, is bearable. In fact, it becomes a necessary part of the Horror story that Writer, Producer, and Director Elio Quiroga is telling.

The newsreels reach a point where they go from black and white to color, yet this color film looks grainy, cheap, and old enough to "jump in the film gate" as if from bad splices.

It's during this time we find out that something horrible happened in a secluded Catholic school and there was only one survivor.

That woman is Blanca (María Alfonsa Rosso: VOLVER, LA SOMBRA PROHIBIDA) and she was taken to a Catholic run hospital where she remained in a coma for 50 years.

The movie begins with her awakening.

6 weeks after regaining consciousness, Blanca has almost fully restored muscle control. She can stand upright, walk, and has full bladder and bowel function: all things that atrophy to long term coma patients.

This is good for the Catholic church, as Blanca is their only patient. They've wanted to close the hospital for years.

Father Miguel (Héctor Colomé: LOBO, FLORES NEGRAS, LUNA CALIENTE), the only person still alive that was ever part of Blanca's life, comes to speak to her. Does she have a place to live?

Yes. She wants to go home, back to the old Catholic school.

The school is undergoing work to transform it into a house. For a mansion-sized house, practically a palace as the real estate agent says, it's quite cheap due to its distance from town and the work still being done.

The attic and the basement remain off limits to residents until the work is finished in a few weeks.

Except the real estate agent doesn't say this to Blanca, but to the married couple who are moving in, Pedro (Francisco Boira: MORIRÁS EN CHAFARINAS) and Francesca (Ana Torrent: VACAS, TESIS).

Pedro works somewhere doing something, it isn't clear, and Francesca works in a hospital. Francesca is going through postpartum depression, is in therapy and is on leave because she blesses the babies born dead and gives them names, instead of just disposing of them in the incinerator per hospital policy.

Francesca: "I'm not hurting anyone."
Therapist: "You're hurting yourself."

Due to her PPD and because they lost their first child ten years ago, Francesca dotes on her new baby, Paqui, to the point of distraction from her husband and daughter Rosa (Miriam Cepa). Rosa takes her Mother's depression all in stride, which seems to have a calming effect on Francesca. If only Rosa wasn't having the same nightmare in their new home, night after night.

Francesca: "Nobody has the same dream every night."

Except Francesca is hearing loud, ugly noises at night. Noises that only she and, maybe the baby, can hear.

Pedro does his best to help but in fact, Francesca's PPD is just a new wrinkle on Francesca's decaying behavior over the past ten years.

Then Blanca, spouting her disjointed doom and gloom comes to live in the house... somewhere.

Pedro and Francesca don't want her there, but she knows the massive place better than they do and seems to effortlessly spirit herself away in its labyrinth.

And?

There's a dread building creep factor in NO-DO that begins with those damn opening newsreels. I admit I know a bit about the Franco era of Spain, because I've known more than a few people whose families came to the U.S. to escape the thug. His era still leaves an open wound across Spain and they'll be making movies about that period long after I've left this world.

So that likely influences how I feel about NO-DO.

Yet giving credit where its due, Director Elio Quiroga is a documentary filmmaker and NO-DO is one of his rare forays into fiction. As such he brings a believable real-life ethos to his framing every shot, while Cinematographer Juan Carlos Gómez, worked the light and shadows to full emotional effect.

300 distinct cgi effects also exist throughout the movie, mostly blink and you'll miss them, but overall they create a subtle yet disturbing atmosphere throughout the slow burn. Such as when our protagonists walk through a room and Elio superimposes the earlier black and white NO-DO newreels of the same room from 50 years earlier, where an atrocity took place. I found the juxtaposition of past inhuman horrors and calm present unnerving. Elio also made full use (70 minutes of music!) of composer Alfons Conde's score.

Now then, why did I wait so long to tell you of NO-DO?

Good luck finding it under its original name. Like many independent foreign films, NO-DO got short shrift from its U.S. distributors who re-cut and retitled it with names like THE BECKONING, and (tedious extremis) THE HAUNTING. Even Fangoria took a misbegotten potshot at it.

As of this 2020 writing, NO-DO is currently available on Amazon Prime in its original form.

I first saw NO-DO in a dark screening room at the 2009 Shriekfest in Los Angeles. That pin drop quiet ending had everyone glued to the screen, and then the horror began.

If you're into provocative Supernatural tales, you might love NO-DO.

Four Shriek Girls.

This review copyright 2008 E.C.McMullen Jr.

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