25/06/2025 - Unease and suspense gradually seep into the body and soul of this series shot exuberantly by Pau Freixas, which, like the 1999 film of the same name, adapts Ramsey Campbell’s novel

This week, at the first edition of the Italian Global Series Festival (see the news), a Movistar Plus+ original is being presented, ahead of its release in Spain via the platform on Thursday 26 June. The Nameless was created by Pau Freixas and Pol Cortecans, directed by the former and written by the latter, based on the novel of the same name by Ramsey Campbell, which was previously brought to the big screen quite skilfully by Jaume Balagueró (credited here as one of the executive producers) in 1999, garnering impressive box-office results.

The plot introduces us to Claudia (played by Miren Ibarguren, in a register diametrically opposed to her usual comedic inflections, as here, her scant smiles are more lopsided and mistrustful), a woman who loses her daughter under mysterious circumstances and who, seven years later, just as she is beginning to get over that horrific trauma, gets a call during which she hears the words: "Mum, it’s me, Ángela. Please, come and find me!"

This will give the woman, who is now pregnant again, renewed hope that she might be able to find her little girl alive. And so, she will turn to Salazar (played by Argentinian actor Rodrigo de la Serna), the inspector originally in charge of the case, and Laura (Milena Smit), the young woman whose life Ángela (who had an extraordinary gift) saved in the aftermath of a road accident.

Discovering what’s lurking behind that disappearance, and following both the mother, who is taken for a madwoman, and the policeman with a traumatic past, as well as the resuscitated girl who is now a writer, are the hooks that keep the viewer’s eyes glued to the screen, as they strive to figure out what lies behind so many grisly occurrences.

Freixas manages to ramp up the suspense and the psychological horror of the affair with some ambitious directing that is simultaneously slick and convoluted, with a (very David Fincher-esque) high-budget and bluish-tinged mise-en-scène that adds a coldness to the awful tragedy that befell the main character when she lost her beloved offspring. While there is no lack of over-the-top moments, bordering on splatter-film territory, the series – which opens each episode with an event from the past, only to jump into the present-day timeline of the investigation, and which, as a fiction with a lengthy running time, falls into the trap of repetition to a certain extent – ends up being terribly addictive.

The show is also elevated by both Marc Blanes’ dramatic soundtrack and the Catalonian locations that emphasise the unwholesome and unhealthy atmosphere of the storyline, and the same can be said about the acting, with fantastic supporting thesps of the calibre of Susi Sánchez, Ana Torrent, Elvira Mínguez and Daniel Pérez Prada – not to mention a terrifying turn by José Manuel Poga.

The Nameless is a Movistar Plus+ original series consisting of six 50-minute episodes, produced in conjunction with Filmax. Its international sales are handled by Movistar Plus+ International.

(Translated from Spanish)