Aspects of the subject matter and the atmosphere recalled to mind the work of John Connolly with his Charlie Parker novels and also the Belgian film, The Treatment (based on Mo Hayder’s novel). While I was slightly disappointed with the final film, overall, I was really impressed with this trilogy. Most of the violence happens off screen, which is understandable, considering the victims and subject matter, but what little does happen is well done indeed. He allows each story to take its time to be told, creates an ominous atmosphere throughout as the darkness of the stories comes out. The music by Fernando Velazquez (who also worked on Del Toro’s Crimson Peak) for the three films is very good indeed, adding to the atmosphere of the trilogy, enhanced by Flavio Martinez Labiano’s (The Invisible Guardian) and Xavi Gimenez’s (The Legacy Of The Bones & Offering To The Storm) cinematography.Īs director of the trilogy, Fernando Gonzalez Molina, directs confidently. They don’t put a foot wrong, aided by Luiso Berjedo’s scripts. The trilogy needed a strong lead and she is more than capable of carrying the series.Įlvira Minguez as her sister, Nene (or Carlos Libardo ‘Nene’) plays her partner, Itziar Aizpuru as her Aunt and Benn Northover as her husband lead an impressive supporting cast. Marta Etura plays Amaia very well indeed, both as a good investigator, but also when dealing with family and her husband. This final part does resolve the trilogy well for the most part, but a plot development here, which I think you can see coming from the previous film actually, does, I feel, weaken the main character a bit and also makes parts of the ending a bit predictable. The investigations into the deaths of children and babies, takes the story closer to horror territory as more of the Baztan regions secrets are revealed, with again Amaia’s family heavily involved too. The conclusion of the story, Offering To The Storm, has the task of wrapping the story up, while also, being the darkest one yet. Once more, the atmosphere and details add to the story, which leads to a final act that forces Amaia into a confrontation with the horrors of the area and her past once more. Amaia herself is affected, not only by the reveals into her own past, but also that she herself has only just returned to duty after giving birth. Because the filmmakers were intending on making a trilogy of films, they did leave some plot strands unresolved at the end of the first story (again, I presume this comes from the novels), which take the story into darker places as Amaia’s discovers more of her families secrets while investigating a case involving murders, suicides and also the seeming death of young girls or babies. It’s richness that is taken further with the follow-up, The Legacy Of The Bones. In some ways, it’s this use of the area along with the history of witchcraft, that gives the story rich layers, as does the well written supporting characters, from Amaia’s Aunt, to her sisters, to her team, the supporting characters and also in her relationship with her husband, James, too. It’s a dark twisting thriller, that blends a murder along with the idea of local legends in the area very well indeed, leading to a gripping final act. Amaia’s past, the cruelty she suffered at the hands of her mother still haunt her, which comes back into her mind as she has to return to the town where she grew up to investigate the murder. However, what elevates this story from others, is the depth Berjedo layers into the story, something I presume is taken from the original novels (which I haven’t read). Unless it does something interesting or clever with the plot, I have been known to lose interest very quickly. As I’ve said before, films revolving around serial killers and female victims, is a story I am fed up with. When the body of a young girl is found by a river, Inspector Amaia Salazar links it to a previous case and it’s an investigation that will have her revisit her own past… The three films were directed by Fernando Gonzalez Molina. All three films in the series, The Invisible Guardian, The Legacy Of The Bones and Offering To The Storm were written for the screen by Luiso Berdejo, perhaps best known to horror fans as the co-writer of, still the scariest found footage film I’ve ever seen and also the third in the series, Genesis which I like a lot. The overreaching story is that of Inspector Amaia Salazar, investigating a serial killer, murdering girls, that then takes some disturbing developments, some of which tie into her own past. They are currently available to watch on Netflix. German film producer Peter Nadermann, who also produced Stieg Larrson’s Millenium trilogy for the cinema, picked up the rights to film Redondo’s novels. The Baztan Trilogy is a series of books by Spanish writer, Dolores Redondo.
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