Grieta en la oscuridad
2013 · 20m · España
Directed by Xavi Rull
Genres: drama, mystery, thriller
Tones: contemplative, dark, tense
Young writer Carlos visits his mentor Ángel Millán to prove the controversial author is still the man he knew, and finds a sinister, strange figure living in his house.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A Spanish literary-gothic that could've been a boring pilgrimage film—except Rull keeps yanking the rug out, making you question whether this is mentorship horror or psychological trap or something weirder. It's got teeth precisely because it refuses the obvious reveal.
Rull situates this squarely in the tradition of Jamesian psychological suspense and the European literary thriller, executing with formal precision: the house becomes a character through spatial staging, and the slow erosion of Carlos's certainty mirrors the deliberate pacing of classic conte cruel. The 20 minutes feel studied, earned.
The film hinges entirely on Rull's decision to keep the camera intimate and still during key exchanges—no cutting away, no score swells—which transforms a simple mentor visit into something genuinely unsettling and lets the performance ambiguity do all the work.