Larraya may not have been Kubrick, but he understood something Kubrick didn’t: that the scariest thing about a haunted house is not the ghosts—it’s looking in the mirror and seeing a stranger’s face, laughing back at you, wearing your own smile.
The violence is similarly hybrid. When a model is killed, the blood is bright pink (cheap special effects), but the camera lingers on her torn bodice with the loving attention of a softcore film. The gore is laughable, but the eroticism is genuinely uncomfortable. Larraya seems to be mocking both the giallo films of Italy (which were popular in Spain) and the pornochanchada (Brazilian sex comedies) that played in late-night cinemas. The result is a tone that critics have called “sincerely insincere.” Upon release, "El extraño mundo de Jack Torrent" was savaged. Spanish critics called it “incoherent,” “badly acted,” and “a waste of celluloid.” It played only in grindhouse theaters and quickly vanished. For decades, it was considered lost—only a handful of 35mm prints survived. el extraño mundo de jack torrent
Cut to “present day” (1981). ( John G. Heller ), a handsome but vapid photographer, is on a fashion shoot in a remote, crumbling castle in the Catalan countryside. With him are three decadent models—Lina, Sonia, and Vera—and a cynical journalist. The castle’s owner, a mysterious countess, warns them of a curse. Soon, strange events occur: a suit of armor moves on its own, a portrait of Fuldar begins weeping blood, and the models begin to experience violent, erotic hallucinations. Larraya may not have been Kubrick, but he
However, beginning in the 2010s, the film was rediscovered by a new generation of cult-movie enthusiasts. Online forums (Reddit’s r/ObscureMedia, Letterboxd) began celebrating it as a “psychedelic masterpiece of bad taste.” In 2018, a restored version (from a Belgian TV print) was released on Blu-ray by the boutique label , with the tagline: “The strangest world you’ll never want to leave.” The gore is laughable, but the eroticism is
A 2-star movie. A 5-star experience. Essential viewing for anyone interested in the outer limits of European genre cinema.