Tales to Keep You Awake - To Let review

The second installment in the Spanish horror mini-series, TALES TO KEEP YOU AWAKE, tells the story of a young expectant couple, Clara and Mario, who like many dwellers of large urban centres, are looking for a great deal on an apartment. When Mario gets a flyer in the mail advertising a large place for cheap on the outskirts of town, he convinces Clara to visit. The couple is greeted by a friendly, if overly eager and rather insistent landlady, who takes them on a tour of the decrepit building. She seems oblivious not only to the condition of the place, but also to the scores of mannequins littered throughout the hallways, the cries of a child that echo through the walls, and to the reaction of her potential tenants – who are anything but thrilled at the prospect of taking up residence there. Things take a turn for the worse when Mario notices a pair of his running shoes in the bedroom. There’s also a framed photo of the couple on the bedside table. They try to make their excuses and go, but the landlady has other ideas.

Directed and co-written by Jaume Balagueró (THE NAMELESS, [REC]), To Let was made for television, and the simple story – people trying to escape from an apartment building and the madmen inside – works well for the medium. With a running time of just over an hour, there’s no room for anything that doesn’t drive the plot forward and consequently, every scene is action-packed and fraught with tension. TO LET is pretty terrifying at parts, but never takes itself too seriously, and there’s quite a bit more blood than one would expect to find on a television show. One scene involving a hand and a garburator is equal parts gross, frightening, and kind of funny. The building itself is really creepy without being poorly lit, and the acting is convincing enough by all the players that while watching the seemingly genuinely terrified couple attempt their escape, it’s difficult to choose between rooting for them and for the villains trying to keep them inside.

When done well, a great short story can be more satisfying than a whole novel. Similarly, TO LET stands in sharp contrast to many feature films – even those with good plotlines, acting and effects – that seem to lose steam in the last 25 minutes or throw in some implausible twist just for a cheap shocker ending. Balagueró understands that good, scary storytelling doesn’t have to be complicated. It just has to get to you.

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