tonyp3101 Does anyone have any idea why this was rated nc-17? I saw nothing that would put it anywhere close to a "hard R", much less a more adult rating. Once again, the ratings board throws a curve to anyone interested in movies with more controversial/graphic/racy content, as this one shows none of that at all. Could it be that it was edited out after the nc-17 was awarded? If so, this makes no sense---why would you release the movie as an unrated edition and cleave out the content that made it an nc-17? A question better plied to the distributors, perhaps... Despite my questions, I really enjoyed the movie. Not a totally novel premise, but well produced and acted.Also--IMDb needs to fix their software, typing nc-17 in all caps is correct, not shouting!

kana_j Okay, in a world where it seems like no good American horror movies are being made (and special-effects-happy producers are grabbing like greedy children for the rights to remake and otherwise ruin perfectly sound old movies for lack of original ideas in new movies) I have begun to lose faith in the genre. Now don't get me wrong; I believe a truly fantastic horror flick is hard--nay, darn near impossible--to find, but I have rarely been disappointed when I look to the Europeans, for they seem to have a better hold on suspense and thrill than we do here in the States.I'll admit, I basically have a Blockbuster Rewards membership, and so anytime I check out a new release movie (such as The Wicker Man, in this case) I like to check out a companion non-new-release one, too (especially since it comes free). This month I chose this one...and I was certainly not disappointed.I didn't have high expectations for this, and I am still boggled by how the DVD cover translates "trece campanedas" into "13 curses" when it more accurately refers (in the film and in proper language) to "13 chimes," but everything else about the movie is quite good. I rarely enjoy these supernatural psychological thrillers, but I have to say that this one ranks up there with the better ones. The careful weaving in and out of our hero's mind very successfully blurs the line between fantasy and reality; yet miraculously, you're not left at the end of the movie still trying to piece everything together and discovering plot holes, and you don't have difficulty "keeping up" as the movie goes along, either. Yeah, the ending is pretty predictable (and feels a bit 'rushed' relative to the rest of the film), and the whole movie is fairly formulaic for the genre, but it is far better executed than many American attempts at the same. (Think "Hide and Seek" done with a more believable cast and much eerier consistency.) I really, really liked the characters. There is nothing that frustrates me more than a film in which you cannot latch onto any of the characters and just utterly don't care for any of them--especially when you're SUPPOSED to. That isn't a flaw of this movie, for sure, and the acting is quite fine--for the most part. I think the ghost-father is perhaps a little too over-the-top for me and might have been more believably if he were quietly manipulative of his son and wife rather than so overtly violent towards them. But that's not this filmmaker's choice, and I still think it works.The cinematography is quite refreshing and consistent, and the overall pacing of the movie feels only slightly on the slow side (89 minutes would have sufficed, instead of 108, to tell this story and do it justice), but you don't feel like the time is "wasted" really; there is relatively little uninteresting time on camera. I personally LOVED the scenes of the boy working on the sculpture; it was incredibly believable and provides some amazing insight into the labor and art of a sculptor.My overall feeling: It's not genius, but it is quite good and definitely far more worth renting than any new release American horror flick on the market right now.

benjaminredcloud I'm not the one to go and watch scary movies. I bought this title on the internet and the synopsis did not tell anything about the anguish that runs throughout the story. It only told about a young artist that goes back home to see his mother who is in a mental health hospital, and back there he has to tackle unresolved questions about his childhood. If I had read about what the unresolved questions were about, and how Jacobo tackled them I would have not bought this movie, and it would have been a pity.I liked this movie a lot. It was written so well you don't understand if Jacobo's father is really there hurting his son or not until the very end of the movie, you just see the escalating fear, anger and pain in Jacobo's face as in Marìa's eyes as a reflex. The physical violent scenes, which have to be present in thrillers, are not too many and are scattered throughout the movie to help in reaching the climax of the action and they are not too scary. It's the mental status of the two main characters that frightens the viewer. The cathedral's setting adds to it and, also, the weather which is mainly dark and raining as to stress on the fact that Jacobo as big black clouds filling his mind. I think that this movie, which is not related so much to Spain as a cultural region, might be of interest to a wide audience.The setting might have been any cathedral in the western world, and the story theme is universal: how and if an abused child can grow up and move past a devastating mental illness. And, it's a great movie about friendship and love, as well. Marìa risks a lot to help Jacopo. She quits an affair with a well known and stable psychiatrist and she goes against her mom's advice not to get involved because those who have been hurt often hurt others as hurt is the only thing they know . Both Marta Etura and Juan Diego Botto were great, but Luis Tosar was astonishing. He could look tender and caring and a few moments after he was looking so frightening and mean.

niz This tale of a young sculptor haunted by the malicious ghost of his dead father takes its time to get going, but once it does it becomes an interesting, watchable tale with a nice satisfying conclusion. It cleverly keeps the audience guessing about whether the ghost is real or the result of schizophrenia, and has some great looking locations. Its all a little low-key but is definitely worth a look.