In the last few weeks then, a number of new feature films have landed at Netflix - of which I review as below 'Twin Murders : The Silence of the White City' which went live on the streaming service on 6th March and which I saw from the comfort of my own home on Sunday 24th May.'Twin Murders : The Silence of the White City' is a Spanish psychological crime thriller film overdubbed into English that is Directed by Daniel Calparsoro and adapted from the first novel in the 'White City Trilogy' by Eva Garcia Saenz de Urturi. Originally released in late October last year, the film was subsequently picked up by Netflix and aired from early March this year and has garnered generally mixed or average Reviews.
The film opens up with a man in his 'lab' tending to a hive of bees that moments later he literally injects into the mouths of a bound man and woman and then seals their mouths shut with a tube containing two dozen or so bees made all the more frantic by the smell of petrol daubed on the victims throats. Needless to say the pair of victims have a slow and painful death and end up in a cathedral crypt laid out naked side by side embracing each other with a dried carlina flower arrangement covering each of their genitalia, with a third positioned between their heads.
We are here introduced to Detective Unai Lopez de Ayala (Javie Rey) who arrives on the scene in the ancient northern Spanish city of Vitoria-Gasteiz. It transpires that the victims are both twenty years of age and from fairly rich families, and these murders resemble exactly those committed over twenty years previously, for which the alleged murderer Tasio Ortiz de Zarate (Alex Brendemuhl) is serving a twenty year prison sentence and is about to be released in three weeks time or so.
Through flashbacks we learn that Ayala has returned to Vitoria following the death of his pregnant wife in a car accident that was not so accidental after all, and he still carries the demons from that incident that he was involved in as a passenger. After a meeting at the Police HQ in which he is introduced to his commanding officer Alba Diaz de Salvatierra (Belen Rueda), he begins his investigations with his assigned partner Estibaliz Ruiz de Gauna (Aura Garrido), by visiting Tasio in prison in an attempt to pick his brains about his former alleged victims and who might be carrying out these copycat killings. Later on we see Ayala jogging in the early morning before sunrise around the beautiful deserted streets and laneways of Vitoria in which he catches up unexpectedly with his boss out running the same circuit.
It's not long before another couple, this time aged 25 are found dead in the same embrace as before, only at a different location of either historical or religious significance. At about forty minutes into the film, the identity of our serial killer is revealed to be Mario Santos (Manolo Solo) who just happens to be a reporter known to Ayala, and, the husband of de Salvatierra, with whom Ayala later has an affair. And so it seems that Tasio is innocent after all, although in flashback we learn that he and his twin brother Ignacio are connected to the murderer, although they don't know it yet. Ignacio was also the Police Officer who arrested his twin back in the day and had him indicted on a number of murder charges on the strength of some circumspect yew tree evidence found in his home it seems.
In a flashback we see a young red-haired boy being beaten up in a cemetery by two young identical twins following the death of the pairs mother. Subsequently at Ayala fathers orchard in the country where he is living when not working in Vitoria, his father sees a photo pinned on his makeshift evidence wall of a woman who was the mother of the twins. Wealthy and a local socialite it appears she was once the talk of the town for being pregnant to another man. Later on in flashback again we see the same woman in hospital immediately following the birth of a child, but that red-haired child is promptly taken away by a nurse and replaced with twins. Now as a teenager we see that same red-haired boy being beaten by his father and chastised by his mother. Sick of the constant beatings, the boy poisons the family dinner with yew tree leaves killing his mother, father and younger brother and sister. He then burns the house down, and the corpses with it, with his brother and sister laid out on their bed in the familiar embrace. We know this because Ayala uncovers a photograph taken at the time by forensics of the two blackened and charred bodies.
Ayala digs a little deeper and discovers that the boys name was Nancho. Delving still deeper he reveals that Nancho died in a fire caused by a spark from an old lamp whilst at college as revealed by a housemaster working there at the time. It is also revealed that Nancho was really good friends with a Mario who in their final year even began to look very similar to each other. So Nancho was the child replaced in the hospital by the twins, and those same twins later on beat up Nancho at their mothers funeral after he tried to tell them that he was in fact the real child of their now deceased mother. So, to cut a long convoluted story short, Nancho literally took over Mario's life, by first killing him by setting him on fire with a spark from a lamp, and then assuming his identity (because they looked so similar). In the meantime, we see Mario in the bathroom dying his hair black where the red roots are beginning to show through.While all of this is going on, Mario has claimed his next victims - a pair of thirty year olds whom he has concealed in the usual manner under a cart being paraded through the streets at night as part of a huge religious festival in Vitoria. In trawling through old video tapes of Tasio's cable channel mystery TV programme Ayala then visits an old church, and meeting with a caretaker, he talks Ayala through the various sculptures and paintings adorning the walls. These all depict Adam and Eve shown to be embracing each other not in manner dissimilar to those murdered victims, of bees humming over their heads, and of the forbidden fruit from the apple tree which he believed was in fact a yew tree since its leaves are poison. All of these images and carvings have significance to the case now unfolding.
Over the next couple of days as the festival continues in the streets, attention has turned to Eneko Ruiz de Gauna (Ruben Orchandiano) the herbalist brother of Ayala's partner, because he has a distinctive tattoo on the back of his neck, and because he gave chase when initially confronted for questioning and has so far successfully evaded Police.
As the day time revellers crowd the streets Alaya, Estibaliz and de Salvatierra are out on the streets maintaining a watchful eye on the proceedings and keeping a look out for Eneko. Estibaliz is alerted to a parked Police van in a side street, and upon opening the doors reveals two more naked bodies laid out in now all too familiar fashion - the male of which is Eneko. The female victim is the girlfriend - Martina (Allende Blanco) of Alaya's younger brother German Lopez de Ayala (Sergio Dorado).
In the final analysis Ayala pieces this puzzle together and deduces that Mario is the killer. He calls de Salvatierre who is at home having dinner with her husband, telling her not to panic but to get out of the house quickly as Mario is their killer. She is initially disbelieving of this notion, but when she returns to the dining table there is no sign of Mario. She picks up a kitchen knife with which to defend herself when Mario appears from behind and injects a knock out drug straight into her neck. As she gradually goes under, she is able to implant the knife deep into Mario's leg. Ayala and Estibaliz arrive at the house to find no sign of Mario or de Salvatierre. They deduce that Mario would have taken her back to where it all began. Arriving at the burnt out house, they traipse through the surrounding countryside and come across a large ramshackle and seemingly abandoned farmhouse, save for a collection of very active bee hives out the front. They manage to secure their way inside.
Separated, Estibaliz falls through a hole in the floorboards and lands roughly in a cellar room directly adjacent to where Mario has de Salvatierre bound and gagged. She can see him through a window in a tightly sealed door, but is unable to gain access. Turning on her flashlight she sees a bound and gagged Tasio and Ignacio on the ground with a similarly bound and gagged female propped up against the other wall - all victims in waiting!
Meanwhile Ayala has found entry to the room where Mario is located with the bound and gagged de Salvatierre looking on. Mario sneaks up behind Ayala and injects him straight into his neck knocking him out. Later Ayala and de Salvatierre come around each writhing on the benches to which they are restrained with leather straps, and face masks with access holes at the mouthpiece on to which will screw a tube containing two dozen or so bees. Mario takes time in explaining his rationale to his wife before screwing one such tube to her face mask and opening the vent so that the bees can all fly into her mouth. In the meantime Ayala has broken free from his bindings, and whilst still partially drugged collapses off the table and is able to scramble for his gun. This gives de Salvatierre the chance to frantically free herself and remove the tube from her face mask so that the bees can escape from her mouth. Mario and Ayala fight for control of the gun with Mario gaining the upper hand and pulling the trigger shooting Ayala in the head sending him collapsing in a pool of blood, seemingly dead. At this point Estibaliz has emerged from the adjacent room by climbing back up through the whole she fell through and shoots Mario cleanly through the head killing him with a single shot. Mario lands next to Ayala and de Salvatierre is free and safe. In the closing scene Ayala's father is seen to be burying a branch of an apple tree with two apples, just as Ayala, connected up to all manner of life support devices, opens his eyes in intensive care.
'Twin Murders : The Silence of the White City' has already been likened to 'Silence of the Lambs' and 'The Da Vinci Code' in some publications, but for me it doesn't reach the tension nor the cunning of Hannibal Lecter in the former, or the historical intelligence of Robert Langdon in the latter. Instead what we have here is a mash up of many motivated, calculating and ruthless serial killer movies that have been around ever since serial killers became a thing. There are plenty of holes in the plot, subplots that are left hanging, questions that go unanswered, character development is somewhat undercooked, the performances of the principle cast is nothing to write home about except perhaps for Javie Rey as Ayala - the troubled cop carrying around the weight of his grief for his wife and unborn child, and the ending when it comes is fairly predictable albeit well executed. The camera work is deftly handled with sweeping views of Spanish scenery and a foot chase sequence across the rooftop and down narrow stone staircases of a twelfth century cathedral are particular standouts. All that said, this film is not that bad, but its not great either. Even if the big reveal does come less than half way in and it melds into foreseeable territory, it's enough to keep you entertained for 110 minutes . . . just about!'Twin Murders : The Silence of the White City' warrants two claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.
-Steve, at Odeon Online-
