Director: Juanra Fernández
MPAA Rating: NR
Run Time: 75 Minutes
The setup for Juanra Fernández’s feature debut, Para Elisa, is interesting enough – a college student needs some extra money for a trip, so she decides to take a babysitting job at a creepy house, only to find it’s much more than she bargained for. Unfortunately, where the film begins with slight intrigue, it slowly derails until its bitter non-ending occurs, leaving most viewers questioning if the DVD they’re watching is somehow unfinished.
Ona Casamiquela stars as Ana, the aforementioned college girl who sees a flyer on campus offering a babysitting job nearby. Ana is introduced to Elisa, who happens to be a fully grown adult with the mind of a child. After getting freaked out by this revelation, Ana attempts to leave the house but passes out after ingesting tea, poisoned by Elisa’s mother, Diamantina (Luisa Gavasa). After Ana wakes up, the audience is shown what’s really happening here – that Ana has become the next doll in Elisa’s collection.
There’s a distinct Misery vibe in Para Elisa, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, that is, if the film actually went anywhere with its plot. As Ana struggles to escape this crazy woman and her equally crazy daughter, the perspective periodically shifts to Ana’s asshole of a boyfriend, Alex (Jesús Caba), who – for some inexplicable reason – becomes a hero, doing everything he can to find her. This shift in his personality feels unearned, considering we’re meant to hate him from the get go. He’s an abusive, cheating drug dealer, and all of the sudden he turns over a new leaf and begins a relentless quest to find his missing girlfriend? It doesn’t add up.
Maybe I wouldn’t have as much of a problem with this aspect of the story, had his efforts proved fruitful, but by the end I was left wondering why even include any of that at all if this is how things end up? It all felt like unnecessary padding.
For horror fans, there are a few things Para Elisa does right. The atmosphere is adequately creepy and the level of unsettling violence does ramp up, but the credits begin to roll before there is any resolution to a film that didn’t have much to say to begin with.
I’m all for abrupt endings, but they need to feel earned and this one doesn’t. There’s just not enough here to warrant a recommend. But if the plot intrigues you, I would suggest you check out Ti West’s House of the Devil, which has a similar premise but is executed much better and has a more satisfying payoff.
