‘Stories to not sleep’ is a remake in the strictest sense of the most important horror series ever shot in Spanish. Chicho Ibáñez Serrador’s work spared the almost theatrical format of television in a Spain in the midst of dictatorship to offer a vortex of creativity that worked both in adaptations of classics and in his original surrealist stories. A milestone that has had different stages and reviews over time.
On its first tour, from 1966 to 1968, it consisted of two seasons that were shot in the characteristic black and white that defines the gothic tone with which the series is remembered. In 1974 there was a special considered one of his best episodes, ‘The television’, and in 1982 a frustrated season that remained in 4 installments with chapters shot on video but no less important. Already in 2006 Chicho recovered the brand making a variation with other directors. The magnificent ‘Sleepless Movies’ that featured landmarks like ‘The Boy’s Room’.
Now the headline has returned as a tribute to a deceased Chicho, a compilation of four mythical episodes of ‘Stories to not sleep’ that are turned around and become different ways of seeing the fantasy genre today, perhaps choosing episodes more for diversity of approaches than content that lives up to its title, resulting in a decent set, somewhat uneven and evidence of a low-profile approach by Amazon, since it does not seem that the budgets have been consistent with the challenge of resuscitating the series in a competitive scenario. Let’s review each one.
The Double (2021)
Rodrigo Sorogoyen makes the version farthest from the original of this new package of episodes and offers a pure science fiction reading, where his particular style takes a valerian and tries to approach Denis Villeneuve from ‘Enemy’ with a dystopian variation that is too reminiscent , and worse, to the overrated ‘Black Mirror’. He has the usual control of the director’s visual space but is heavy and does not engage in his spinning game, characters that are not what they seem and surprise revelations that are often late. The worst thing is that it does not connect at all with the spirit of the original series.
The Joke (2021)
Rodrigo Cortés faces one of the more ‘Alfred Hitchcock’s time’ episodes of the original series and picks up the spirit of the suspense thrillers of the old anthologies, adapting it well to the most miserable national character. An excellent trio of actors composed of Eduard Fernández, Nathalie Poza and Raúl Arévalo He enters a three-way game of deception that cannot be blamed for his job, but his lack of originality makes him less frenetic than the others, although he is many steps above ‘El doble’.
Asphalt (2021)
The adaptation of Carlos Buiza’s story appears with a clever update of the social context of the classic episode without breaking any of its abstract power, in which the great direction of Paula Ortiz handles the feeling of estrangement supported by her ability to distort the space around, with those everyday posters mutating into something disturbing, of a Deliveroo delivery man swallowed by the ground. Despite whoever it may be, a great Dani Rovira holds the episode on his shoulders showing great success in the casting, since it is a perfect face to unite horror and tragedy with a sad and devastating aura.
Freddy (2021)
Paco Plaza continues to grow as the great name of contemporary Spanish horror cinema and while presenting his terrifying ‘La abuela’, he takes a turn in tone and is able to adapt to a much more festive tone without conditioning his maturity to an imposed solemnity. Thus, in this great reformulation of the original episode crosses’Shadow of the vampire‘with’ Muertos de laughter ‘in a funny neogiallo in the middle of the uncovering era that revives Chicho Ibáñez Serrador himself to execute the final goal of the series, giving true meaning to the idea of the reboot.
Lucio Fulci talks with Mariano Ozores and Dario Argento with José Luis Moreno and his little monch to unravel the eternal relationship between ventriloquist and the Charlie doll, which has something of ‘Magic’, but porcelain is also used to give it a flavor of the ‘Dark red‘and its variation of’ Silence from Evil ‘that is completed with some planned murders like one of those films of the era, also adorned with a beautiful surrealist use of colors while the protagonist’s psyche collapses at the blow of a knife and the funny outbursts of a doll that rivals Chucky in irreverence. Chicho would be proud.