Over the past years, San Sebastian Film Festival has been quietly expanding its sidebar sections to include made-for-television product, and not just high-profile series like Mouths of Sky and The Anatomy of a Moment, which appeared as complete series in the festival’s main Official Selection section. Hidden Murder (the Spanish title is Parecido a un asesinato) is a feature-length Hitchcockian thriller coproduced for television — but certainly with theatrical potential — by Spain’s Sunrise Pictures and Argentina’s Prisma. It is one of four made-for-TV movies chosen for the festival’s RTVE Galas sidebar.
Based on a novel by Juan Bolea, Hidden Murder is smoothly directed by Antonio Hernandez, a veteran known for Beyond Remembrance (Berlin Panorama 2002), The Borgias and Matar el tiempo. Here he puts together an attractive, professional cast, a wealth of eye-candy locations both urban and in the Pyrenees, and a plot with enough twists to puzzle most viewers until the final reveal.
At the center of the story is a newly formed family with some very dark secrets in their closet. Eva (Blanca Suarez, The Skin I Live In) has escaped from her violent ex José (Tamar Novas), a former cop, and she is beginning to relax in the fancy home she shares with successful writer Nazario (Eduardo Noriega, Red Queen) and his teenage daughter Ali (Claudia Mora). On their side, Nazario has lost his wife and Ali her mother under frightful circumstances which everyone avoids talking about, leaving the viewer guessing.
But now José is back and crazier than ever with jealousy. He accosts Eva at a wine store, causing her to drop a bottle of the expensive stuff, then turns up at Nazario’s birthday party for a quick spook. Eva is so rattled she decides to drive to the small village where she grew up, in the mountains, after dark, and with only the ambiguous, non-communicative Ali for company. Needless to say, bad things begin to happen, especially after someone sends José a message.
Handsomely lensed by Guillem Oliver and craftily edited by Antonio Frutos to save the last, most terrible surprises for the end, the film scores some chilling moments, using classic tropes, like POV shots that make us think someone is following Eva on her carefree walk up the mountain. The trick may be as old as cinema itself; the important thing is convincing the audience it wants to be frightened.
Noteworthy among the cast of pros, several of whom turn out to be playing very sick characters, is the disconcerting presence of newcomer Claudia Mora as the unpredictable daughter.
Director: Antonio Hernandez
Screenwriter: Rafael Calatayud Cano based on a novel by Juan Bolea
Producers: Ramiro Acero, Antonio Pita, Jorge Pérez Gaudio
Cast: Blanca Suárez, Eduardo Noriega, Tamar Novas, Claudia Mora, Marian Álvarez, Joaquin Climent
Cinematography: Guillem Oliver
Editing: Antonio Frutos
Music: Luis Ivars
Sound: Jose Manuel Sospedra, Juan Ferro
Production companies: Sunrise Pictures in association with Parecido a un asesinato la pelicula (Spain), Prisma (Argentina)
World sales: Film Factory Entertainment (Spain)
Venue: San Sebastian Film Festival (RTVE Screenings)
In Spanish
111 minutes
