Horror Movie Review: It Happened at Nightmare Inn (1973)

Inspired by the Italian ‘giallo’ genre of thriller and horror films, It Happened at Nightmare Inn is an odd but entertaining experience from Spain. One that is better known as A Candle for the Devil, one that comes from director Eugenio Martin, and one that does a good job of telling a memorable and cohesive story. Just be warned that there are different cuts of this film, and the quality between them is notable.

Sisters Marta (Aurora Bautista) and Veronica (Esperanza Ray) run a small and cheap hotel villa in an even smaller Spanish town. It’s a beautiful place, so often has tourists stopping by, in particular, lone travellers. One such traveller is May (Loreta Tovar) who chooses to stay at the villa run by the sisters while she waits for her sister to join her.

Her sister is Laura (Judy Geeson) and she is surprised to arrive at the villa to find May gone. What’s even more surprising for Laura is that her sister left suddenly, didn’t leave a message or a forwarding address. Naturally, Laura is concerned, but the sisters are quick to make it all seem so ‘normal’. In particular, Marta, who seems to think May’s behaviour is reminiscent of the type of woman she is, a woman with loose morals.

Laura isn’t so easily distracted from her worries though, and decides to stay at the villa and do some digging around in the hope that she can find out where her sister went.

Her sister is dead, of course, murdered at the hands of the sisters, or more specifically, Marta. A woman with some deep seeded issues around sexuality and religious repression. The aspects of the story that make this film special and the aspects that Aurora Bautista portrays well here. She is the strongest actor in the film, and manages to portray a homely welcoming attitude that can switch to disgust and hatred in an instant.

The reveal of the sisters being killers (there is an additional subplot of Veronica being more of a passenger) comes early, and while that is disappointing, it allows the writing to focus on the why of it all through Laura’s investigation. Which is the most forgettable part of the film as it requires her to be a bit of an idiot and ignore the many red flags around both Marta and Veronica.

In fact, it takes a few more guests to be ‘offed’ before Laura starts to connect the dots. One which is the progressive Helen (Lone Fleming) who quickly draws the ire of Marta with her ‘wild’ antics in town and the other is a single mother. Laura has to be downright dim for a lot of this to work, which does a solid Judy Geeson performance a disservice.

The slow burn of the story does pay off in satisfying fashion but it’s not a film for everyone as even the biggest giallo fan will struggle to defend the lack of memorable horror elements here. It’s definitely more of a thriller than a horror.

That’s not a bad thing though as it certainly does thrill and many will be surprised to see such a solid giallo come out of Spain. The term ‘giallo’ will always be associated with Italian films (obviously) but perhaps they don’t completely own the market on good giallos.