La herencia Valdemar II: La sombra prohibida [The Valdemar Legacy II: The Forbidden Shadow] [2011]

What a disappointing (but not surprising) load of crap.
From this film (and it's first part) I was expecting a fun, action packed ride filled with some eye-rolling chuckles or something dark and occulty with some disturbing imagery or bloody scenes. I got neither.
Instead it's a watered down snoozefest that's in an insult to the Lovecraft lore of Cthulhu.
The characters are bland as a bucket of dead fish, the photography looks like it was filmed for afternoon television and the story is a disjointed predictable mess that reeks of a highschool student's first try at creative writing.
Avoid this one like the plague.

1 star out of 5

La Herencia Valdemar [The Valdemar Legacy][2010]

Loosely inspired by the world of H.P. Lovecraft, La Herencia Valdemar (part 1 of a 2 part film) had potential to be another great horror film from Spain.
It begins by following one story, when suddenly 35 minutes into the film it comes to an abrupt end only to begin following another story taking place in the 19th century. While I don't really have a problem with stories jumping back and forth through time, here it comes off as sloppy and could have been handled much more carefully and less offensive to the flow of the narrative.
While the costumes, sets, performances are top-notch, the photography, direction and storytelling is limp and uneven and that really hurts the film. The original score by Arnau Bataller is the highlight of the film and one of the best of 2010.
I'll watch the 2nd half of the film to see if things get better or just a continuity of the mess started in this film.

2 Lizzie Bordens? WTF out of 5