The Nameless (film)
| The Nameless | |
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Original Spanish poster
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| Directed by | Jaume Balagueró |
| Produced by | Julio Fernández |
| Written by | Jaume Balagueró |
| Starring |
Emma Vilarasau Karra Elejalde Tristan Ulloa |
| Distributed by |
Miramax Films (US) Filmax (Spain) |
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Release date
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Running time
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102 minutes |
| Country | Spain |
| Language | Spanish |
The Nameless (Spanish: Los Sin Nombre; Catalan: Els sense nom) is a 1999 independent Spanish horror film directed by Jaume Balagueró. It is based on the 1981 horror novel by English writer Ramsey Campbell which mingled psychological suspense with supernatural horror.
In Spain, the vanished six-year-old daughter of the editor Claudia (Emma Vilarasau) and her husband Marc is found completely mutilated in a well by the police, being recognized by her husband only due to a bracelet and leg defect (one legbone is shorter than the other). The body contains marks of many needle insertions and burns from sulfuric acid, which appear to have been inflicted while the child was still alive.
Five years later, Claudia is still unable to get over the death of her child and she is addicted to tranquiliizers. Inexplicably, the presumed dead daughter Angela calls her mother, saying that she is still alive and needs her help. After visiting a now-deserted clinic where she used to take her daughter (she has footage of it on a home video of herself and Angela), and finding strange pictures of angels there, Claudia calls a recently retired cop, Massera (Karra Elejalde), to investigate the matter. She also gives him a boot she found on the site, believing it to have been left for her to find.
Massera's research appears to corroborate the hypothesis that Angela is alive, revealing that a girl with similar characteristics disappeared around the same time and could have been used to fake Angela's death. He teams up with tabloid journalist Quiroga (Tristan Ulloa), a reporter for a magazine of parapsychology, after Quiroga receives in the mail a disturbing videotape which has Claudia's phone number written on the label. The tape shows what appears to be the murder or torture of a naked woman, and also footage of Claudia when she visited the derelict clinic.
Visiting a theological expert at the university, the two begin to uncover a bizarre cult called The Nameless that is said to sacrifice children. The cult was led by a now-imprisoned man called Santini who believed in absolute evil, and created his cult which also links to Germany's Thule Society. A doctor who helped him was also arrested but was released for lack of evidence. To make matters worse, Claudia finds herself stalked by psychotic ex-boyfriend Toni. Toni meets a strange man with a scarred eye in a bar (the man has previously encountered Claudia on a train); they decide to go see Claudia, and are followed by mysterious figures as they leave.
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