Sound of Horror

Here was a rarity twice over — not merely a Spanish monster movie but, in deference to a conspicuously threadbare budget, a Spanish invisible monster movie. It’s the standard Americanised siege situation, very vaguely recalling The Thing from Another World as a group of boorish treasure-seekers disturb an age-old amorphous entity in a Greek cave. Manuel Berenguer’s classy monochrome photography, some surprisingly grisly clawings inflicted on the expedition members, another early role for Soledad Miranda, and a first ever appearance from the Polish actress Ingrid Pitt — none of these things quite compensates for the turgid pace and the swelling tide of verbal diarrhoea in the dialogue.

Little actually happens in this low-budget exercise in tedium. Plenty of slow poking about in the cave eats up some running time; while [Ingrid] Pitt dances the twist at one point, followed by female lead Soledad Miranda’s slooow Greek-style dance interpretation, in order to pad the picture further. … The picture tries for that trapped/besieged feel, but only manages to produce hokum, clichés and ultimately ennui, as the underdeveloped characters mope about and experience “revelations” about their wasted lives and time misspent.