It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

In the Spanish countryside, sisters Marta and Veronica run a small hotel. They also murder any guest who doesn't live up to their strict, fundamentalist moral code. Because God. Didn't he also say something about not killing? Well, whatever.The film is available in different versions, running between 67 and 120 minutes. I have the 67-minute version, and boy does it feel cut! Scenes just stop, characters react to nothing, there's no blood and gore to speak of…. And what's left is rather dull and not at all original: the murdered guests end up on the hotel's menu, their remains are stashed in wine vats in the cellar, and one of the obnoxiously religious sisters is sexually involved with the hotel's handsome young caretaker. Certain characters' motives and actions are never explained either, though that may be due to the chainsaw- like editing job.Though marketed as a horror film, it's neither scary nor suspenseful. There's nothing to keep us guessing, as we know from the start exactly who is killing those young women. The acting is passable but, as often happens with these low-budget productions, the dubbing stinks.Unlike the most watchable Eurotrash, this film is nowhere near sleazy or exploitative enough to hold a viewer's interest. I'm glad I only subjected myself to 67 minutes of it.

Made in 1973 this was an apocryphal tale about package holidays. Two Spanish sisters' run a guest house or 'pension' and take in paying guests. However, they have been brought up as proper God fearing Catholics and have a moral code that the elder sister decides will be up held at all odds.Despite the locals enjoying the colour that scantily clad holidaymakers, with loose morals, bring to the town – the sisters see it as disgraceful. So when a girl goes 'missing' her sister starts to think there is more going on behind closed doors than the vigorous application of 'after sun' if you follow.Now this shows its age and modern horror fans may find this bordering on pantomime as opposed to being in the slightest bit horrified. The acting is in parts good and in parts a bit 'oh dear'. It has also been dubbed so there are sound depth issues and lip synch etc. It is restored but still in narrow aspect. The lighting and atmosphere are both to be commended though. It has a certain charm but do not expect to be blown away – hence my rating.

Stern and uptight Marta (the excellent Aurora Baustista) and her mousy sister Veronica (the equally fine Esperanza Roy) are a couple of devoutly religious spinsters who run a small inn that caters to young female tourists. However, the sisters have a nasty habit of brutally murdering any fetching lasses that they deem to be immoral. Complications ensue when the sweet Laura Barkley (a winningly sunny and personable portrayal by the pretty Judy Geeson) shows up looking for her missing sibling. Director Eugenio Martin, who also co-wrote the compact script with Antonio Fos, relates the absorbing story at a steady pace, makes good use of the remote rural setting, and effectively creates and maintains a seething atmosphere of twisted morality and deep-seated repression. The solid acting from the capable cast rates as another definite asset: Geeson makes for an appealing damsel in distress, Baustista and Roy excel in their roles, Lone Fleming is a sexy treat as cheerful nymphet Helen Miller, and Blanca Estrada makes a favorable impression as perky young mother Norma. The startling bits of grisly violence pack a pretty mean wallop, plus there are a few neat gruesome touches such as eyeballs discovered in a bowl of soup and a severed head floating in a vat of wine. Antonio Perez Olea's funky score hits the get-down groovy spot. A worthwhile fright flick.

With Spain beginning to enjoy the benefits of modern tourism for the first time, some areas still find it hard to deal with the liberalism and sexual freedom of those who travel there. Among such people are Marta (Aurora Bautista) and Veronica (Esperanza Roy), two rather unattractive spinster sisters who run a guest-house in a conservative and religious town in the Ronda valley. Marta's guest-house earns her a very steady income, her restaurant has never been so busy, but she would trade it all for quieter times, if the clientèle were of like mind to her. One day while preparing a meal, Veronica and Marta hear a commotion outside, they rush upstairs to find a gang of excited local youths taunting one of their female guests who is sunbathing topless on the roof, this is the final straw for an irate Marta, she physically pushes the girl towards the door, unfortunately the girl falls down the stairs, her head crashes through a stained glass window and her throat is slit by a large shard of glass, Veronica wants to call the police, but Marta studies the shard intently, it is that of a religious sword. Marta takes this as a sign from God, that she has done right in her quest for a greater morality in society, so her death goes unreported.Within minutes of the girls death, another girl comes calling at the guest-house, she introduces herself as Laura Barkley (Judy Geeson), the sister of the girl who now lies in a bloody mess upstairs, both sisters tell Laura that her sister left earlier that morning without giving a forwarding address. Laura finds this odd as she was meant to meet her sister there, she decides to wait around. As the days go by, Laura notices other strange goings on at the guest-house, she decides to investigate further the disappearance of her sister, as it would seem her disappearance is not the only one. Both puritan sisters hide a darker side, Veronica is scared of Marta, but it doesn't stop her from stealing some of the takings for her secret amour, she sneaks off most days to enjoy her lustful afternoons with him. Marta, who had been ditched by her husband to be on her wedding day, from which she has never quite recovered, is also shown to have secret lustful thoughts, a trait she despises in her guests, the murder of the girl seems to have triggered greater more evil thoughts in her head, but will she act on them?Eugenio Martin's film captures rather well the troublesome transition of a society from a puritanical one with no money to an affluent one which has thoughts of compromising its own morals and standards to attain previously only dreamed of financial rewards. Geeson (Fear in the Night)who has claims to being the star is rather underused, mainly as she's off somewhere looking for her sister, but its Roy(Return of the Blind Dead) and Bautista who take the acting plaudits, both give solid performances, Roy convinces as the the sister with a heart, whose heart isn't really in the killings, Bautista is both sinister and rather scary as the overly fanatical elder sister. but its all rather ironic that at first they are both rather unattractive on the eye, seeming older than their years, but as both give in to their carnal and murderous urges they become more attractive and younger on the outside, but colder, more evil on the inside. The rest of the cast are on the whole rather forgettable, Martin's direction is OK, not up to the standards of his Horror Express,but here he builds up a nice atmosphere, with dead bloody carcasses of animals littering the kitchen, a furnace where evidence is routinely burned and a wine cellar where more gruesome things happen adding to the overall affect. the killings though are slow and the gruesomeness is more implied than seen, but thats the way i like these films so its not really a negative for me. The killings could of course have been stopped if someone had just called in the police, but hey we wouldn't have a film then, so i'll forgive this oversight. The ending is rather odd as villagers who have acted on a piece of cannibalistic evidence, lead the police in slow motion to the hostelry, just in time to save our heroine...well maybe? So if you like low budget Spanish horror from this era, this is certainly for you.