The Nameless (1999)

Credits / Details

58%
Overall Rating

Ranked #5,015
...out of 20,698 movies

Genres: Detective Film Horror Psychological Thriller Supernatural Horror Thriller

The mutilated body of a six year old girl is found in a water hole. The girl is identified as the missing daughter of Claudia. However, only two pieces of evidence could be used to identify her; a bracelet with her name on it near the crime scene, and the fact that her right leg was three centimeters longer than her left. All other methods of identification were removed from her body. Five years later Claudia, now addicted to tranquilizers, receives a phone call from someone claiming to be her daughter, asking for her mother to come find her before 'they' kill her. Other mysterious clues show up, further indicating that Claudia's daughter is indeed still alive, and very much in danger. Claudia, a run-down ex-cop, and a parapsychology reporter put together the clues to discover Angela's whereabouts. --IMDb

Review by Chad
Added: April 29, 2005

As the movie opens, we find out that the remains of a young girl have been found in a vat of acid located in what appears to be a sewer. One of the cops (I missed his name) sent to investigate the scene is also working on another case, a case which involves a missing young girl named Angela. After the scene is cleaned up, the coroner begins an autopsy on the remains of the body. The body has been severely mutilated, with all identifying marks either burnt or removed; her teeth have been knocked out, her fingers cut up, and her whole body is severely burnt from being submerged in a vat of acid. However, another cop by the name of Bruno (Karra Elejalde) remembers that the young girl who went missing had one leg that was two inches shorter than the other... the coroner investigates, and indeed, this corpse also has one leg that is shorter than the other. Bruno calls the parents of the missing girl, Claudia (Emma Vilarasau) and Marc (Brendan Price), to come and identify the body as their daughter.

We then fast-forward to five years later. The ordeal with their daughters death was too painful for this young couple, and they have since split up. Claudia works at some type of photography / magazine place (it's never explained, nor is it important) with ex-boyfriend Toni (Pep Tosar), while Marc has moved to London and lost contact with Claudia. With the anniversary of her daughters death approaching, Claudia naturally becomes emotional and stressed out at work... so, one of her co-workers suggest that she take some time off to pull herself together, and Claudia follows her advice. Claudia goes home and watches some old home movies of the happier times, when her and Angela had not a care in the world and were spending quality time together at the beach. A very emotional moment plays out, when the phone rings. Claudia answers the phone, and on the other end is a young girl who claims to be Angela. She explains that she is being held captive and needs help, and when Claudia says that this is impossible due to her daughter being dead, the voice on the other end tells her that that's what they want her to believe. Click goes the phone. With the help of now-ex cop Bruno, Claudia must piece together the clues and solve the mystery... is this really her daughter, and if so, where is she and who's responsible?

This movie is basically split into three acts. The above storyline has a bit more added onto it that I didn't spoil, and that half hour or so makes up the first act of the film. The second act takes up the majority of the remaining run-time, and deals with Claudia and Bruno investigating cult activity and the high-powered cult members who could potentially be responsible for her daughter's kidnapping and / or death. Finally, the results of the second act lead to the finale of the film, which is the third act. Act one is excellent, and sets us up for one hell of a movie. The whole theme of sadness and loss is played out excellently, leaving the audience truly feeling for Claudia and the pain of having lost her child at such a young age. Then, she receives that fateful phone call, and the movie really takes a turn towards the bizarre as Claudia investigates the origins of the caller. After this, act two starts and things begin to fall apart. For nearly forty-five minutes, Claudia and Bruno investigate the cult activities, and the things they find out could very well be summed up as such: "Everyone involved is evil. They do bad stuff. They're nasty people. Don't mess with them." Sure, it's a little more detailed than that, but not by much... what runs for approximately forty-five minutes here could easily have been summed up in one or two ten minute scenes. All of the momentum that the movie had going for it in act one is lost here, as the movie grinds to a halt while the characters rehash the same things over and over in as many different words as they can come up with. Act three brings everything together and ends the movie with a bang (literally), but by then, the damage to my overall rating has been done. Had director Jaume Balagueró chosen to considerably shorten this second act and alleviate the huge amount of resulting boredom, this movie would have ranked far higher with yours truly. It's a great storyline setup with a great ending, but the meat of the movie just kills the overall experience.

There's some great visuals in this film, with a lot of work having been put into the effects... though again, most of the better parts are seen in the beginning of the film. However, I found it pretty sad that the director chose to use a couple of cheap images to shock the audience, with less-than-lackluster results. For example, in one scene we see a closeup of a pierced labia. After the initial shock of "they showed a closeup of a vagina!" passes, one is left wondering "...now, what was the point of that?" The answer is, well, there was no point. It served no purpose, had no place in the storyline, it didn't involve any of the characters from the film (living or deceased)... it was simply there for a cheap reaction, and could have easily been removed. There's a few other examples of this, with most being integral to the storyline; so, for fear of spoiling the film for those still interested, I'll leave it at that. The last thing that I do plan to gripe about is the cult leader. Now, as we learn (over and over) throughout the second act, this cult is based on evil. The members are evil, they do evil stuff, they're worse than the Nazi's, Hitler took advice from them, and so on (and no, I'm not making this up). One would think, then, that the cult leader would be one sick fuck of a man. That is not the case, as he comes off as a crazy old grandfather much in the vein of Grandpa Simpson... off his rocker, sure, but completely harmless. This obviously wasn't the effect that the director went for (I'm assuming), but the actor who played him really should have been passed over for someone who could play the part in just a wee bit more convincing fashion.

What we have here is a film with a solid premise, a great opener, and an excellent ending. It's just too bad that the meat of the movie couldn't live up to those standards, and as a result, this one winds up falling flat. Possibly worth a rental, but don't go out of your way to track this one down. 6/10.

Recommended Movies