A solid Spanish pulp thriller in which a doctor who takes a job in a remote village finds himself involved in ... The Most Dangerous Straw Dogs.

It does the business, even though the midsection is a tad too slackly paced and it falls back on trite situations a few times too often – overall, it's a largely successful attempt to put a new spin on old tropes.

Good flick. Definitely worth watching if you dig this kind of thing.…

BRUNO: "This song really drives me crazy. It seems so simple, but it's got everything – loneliness, inability to communicate, and that stuff that's all the rage now – alienation, like in Antonioni's films. Did you see L'eclisse?"
ROBERTO: "Yes."
BRUNO: "I fell asleep. Had a nice nap. Great director, Antonioni."

This might be the Platonic ideal of a road movie.

The performances are superb. Vittorio Gassman plays an ultra-extroverted charmer – who, pushing forty, remains an overgrown boy, narcissistic and…

Shoddily made Eurotrash gothic of (minor) interest only to those of us who dig this kind of stuff (guilty!).

It features a cast with highly unusual faces and a groovy castle. Even the worst of these Eurogothics get a production value boost from being shot on location at some medieval pile. As for those faces, this boasts a double dose of Eurocreeps – Howard Vernon and Michel Lemoine – and the strikingly angular features of Janine Reynaud.

The story (by Jess…