The Baby's Room (4 Stars)

It's taken me a long time to get my hands on this film. It's the only film made by Alex de la Iglesia that's never been released with English subtitles. I was finally able to find a downloadable version on the web site DVD Lady. Unfortunately, the subtitles are poor quality with countless spelling mistakes, but at least they're understandable. For instance, the word forget is always spelt with two t's, i.e. "forgett". Apostrophes are either omitted or inserted in the wrong place, i.e. "I dont wan't to go home".

The film stands apart from all of De La Iglesia's other films. It's lacking his typical comedic elements. The reason is that he was commissioned to make a film for a horror anthology series; six films were made by six different directors. He was constrained in the content he could create, and he was even more constrained in his budget. He was only given one million Euros to make the film, which limited him in his use of locations. And yet I was surprised to read glowing reviews of "The Baby's Room". It's considered the best of the six films in the anthology, which hardly surprises me, but many critics also call it a masterpiece of supernatural horror. 

The film is about Juan and Sonia, a couple with a seven-year-old son who buy a large run-down building. The problems begin when they install a baby phone. They hear a man's voice in their baby's room, but when they rush into the room the baby is alone in his bed. So they buy a baby monitor with a camera. Juan wakes up and sees someone sitting next to his son. He rushes into the room and finds nobody. Is it possible that there are ghosts who're only visible on electronic devices, not to the human eye? That's the mystery.

Do I like it or not? Initially I was disappointed because it was so un-Iglesia-ish. As the film progressed and the secrets were slowly unveiled I became increasingly enthralled. I'm sure to watch the film again later this year. Wait for my next review.