ESTIGMA (1980)
aka Stigma
Article 2794 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-31-2008
Posting Date: 4-7-2009
Directed by Jose Ramon Larraz
Featuring Christian Borromeo, Alexandra Bastedo, Emilio Gutierrez Caba
Country: Spain / Italy

An adolescent boy has the power to kill with his mind. He also bleeds from his lip on occasion.

This is the third movie I’ve seen of Jose Ramon Larraz’s, and, other than a couple of nice touches in SYMPTOMS, I’ve just not been very impressed. Still, it is a bit dodgy trying to review a movie that you’ve only seen in a language you can’t understand (with no subtitles to help), but, given his track record so far and with what I’ve been able to get visually from this one, I suspect that I wouldn’t care for it even if I could follow it. Oh, it’s pretty strange in its way, what with the dream sequences and the fact that it all seems to be tied to an experience he had in a previous life, but there was no event in this movie that really jumped out and grabbed my attention or nibbled at my curiosity. The dream sequences look like typical horror movie dream sequences, and all the usual Eurohorror trappings (nudity, a hint of lesbianism, incest, and sexual perversions) are trotted out mechanically. Unless there’s something fascinating going on in the dialogue, I don’t anticipate gaining much from seeing it subtitled.