User Reviews

Suspenseful film that will have you on the edge of your seat until an amazing finale , including engrossing drama , puzzled intrigue and fantastic happenings . Ricardo (José Luis López Vazquez who gives a splendid performing as an art restoring) and Eva (ex-Miss Italy Lucia Bosé who married bullfighter Luis Miguel Dominguin and mother of Miguel Bosé) are a higher class , wealthy marriage who have a long but cold relationship . Ricardo is an art restorer and has a lover (recently deceased May Heatherly) who works for him . While , his spouse starts a particular lesbian relationship with Patricia (Yelena Samarina) . In their wedding anniversary Eva gives him a luxurious gift : a big Swedish car , a Volvo . Ricardo sets off for his work when he comes across a smoking , overturned car with a person and his child trapped inside but , afraid he'd get bloodstains in his new Volvo , he ignores their cries for help and drives away just before the wreck blows up . Soon after , Ricardo begins having illusions , blood begins pooling in his backseat and he suffers an overwhelming as well as upsetting feeling , and Ricardo , then , can't get the damned spots out no matter how many times he cleans the auto . The nightmare and terror begins and it goes on...

Intriguing film is packed with thrills , suspense , plot twists , and results to be quite entertaining . Stirring as well as exciting yarn displays intense drama , emotion , suspense , puzzled events , twists and turns . This is a suspenseful flick that really thrills . The moving atmosphere and strange intrigue enhance as well as the protagonist suffers the rare events . From start to finish the intrigue and thrilling scenes are continuous till a striking ending . Here filmmaker portraits a selfish society , including fantastic elements and abundant metaphors . There are undercover critiques to influence of religion on family , marriage and social relations by that time . The picture develops a desolate atmosphere and a colorful but threatening ambient in the background , including a surrealist party representing a motley social group . "Blood Stains in a New Car" takes parts here and there from ¨Muerte De Un Ciclista¨(1955) or ¨Death of a cyclist¨ by Juan Antonio Bardem as well as the Italian Giallo and the Spanish Fantastic/Horror or ¨Fantaterror , including their usual zooms . The screenplay is plenty of enjoyable incidentals and interesting events one time the initial accident takes place . Screenplay does something strange by the weird end : it actually removes the stakes of everything that came before with its surprising revelation that had been built up by that point about the strange blood stains . The film benefits itself from a very good secondary cast , such as : May Heatherly , Yelena Samarina , Ricardo Tundidor and Maria Garralón as maid and who subsequently starred the successful series ¨Verano Azul¨.

Dated , inappropriate and imbalanced musical score by Teddy Bautista . Evocative and appropriate cinematography by Manuel Berenguer , being utterly shot in Madrid . This "Blood Stains in a New Car" was well written and directed by Antonio Mercero and resulted to be a flop at Spanish Box office . Mercero is a author of great hits TV series and several award-winning films . In 1970 he started working for TV as he filmed several documentaries and some chapters for the series "Crónicas Un Pueblo" or ¨Chronicles of a village¨(1971) , a big hit in Spain despite its deep ideological content , risky for the period it was made in ; and specially successful were his works in the fantastic genre as ¨The phone booth¨ (1970) (TV) , a TV cult movie , which won 10 national and international awards , including the Emmy Award in 1973 , and ¨Gioconda is sad¨ (1975) . Then he realized ¨Los Pajaritos¨ (1973) , the series "Ese Señor De Negro" or ¨That man in black¨ (1975), ¨La Noche del Licenciado¨ (1978), and his three biggest hit smashes : ¨Turno Oficio¨ TV (86,87) series about advocates in law , "Blue summer¨ or ¨Verano Azul" (1978) which became a sociological phenomenon and "Farmacia De Guardia" (1990) about Apotheke workers . Other important film directed by Mercero was ¨Don Juan Querido Fantasma¨ , an amusing comedy well performed by Juan Luis Galiardo . And , of course , the good natured comedy with brief touches of drama titled ¨Esperame En El Cielo¨ . Others works have been ¨Guerra De Papa¨(77) and ¨Tobi¨ , both of them realized in similar style . Nowdays , he still works for TV as ¨Manolito Gafotas¨ series and some of his latest work in cinema have been ¨The treasure¨ and ¨Hora De Los Valiantes¨ (85) about the Spanish Civil War . His last film was ¨? Y Tu Quién Eres?¨ about Alzheimer illness and starred by Manuel Alexandre . Rating : "Blood Stains in a New Car" , better than average , 6.5/10 . Well worth seeing .

Blood Stains in a New Car offers up a variation on Lady Macbeth's bloody hands. A rich loser gets an expensive car from his wife as an anniversary present. On his way home from work, he sees a car turned over at the side of the road, but not wanting to get blood on his new car, he drives off. A man and his son are burnt to death when the wrecked car catches fire. Soon afterward, the rich guy starts seeing blood appearing from out of nowhere all over the upholstery of his new car.

Some have perceived an allegorical aspect to the film. Perhaps so, but as drama, Blood Stains in a New Car is completely pedestrian (pun intended). The first problem is that the viewer has a hard time caring about the rich loser. He made most of his money by marrying a rich, but cold, wife (Lucia Bose). His art restoration business is just a way of selling fakes to rich, ignorant art collectors overseas. He is boastful, arrogant, and quite frankly gets what he deserves. Another problem is that the film tries way too hard to deliver an ironic ending. When said denouncement arrives, it feels heavily forced.

On the plus side, the film is short and professionally made. Too bad it's just not very interesting. Luis Bunuel might have made something worthwhile out of this plot (he would have injected some needed dark humor into the tragedy), but director Antonio Mercero is not up to the task.

Although Blood Stains in a New Car shares a few of the themes of David Cronenberg's Crash, one should not expect that level of intensity or graphicness. This is strictly a PG-13 ride.

Driving home in the brand new Volvo his wealthy wife (former Miss Italy Lucia Bosé) gave him for his birthday, Ricardo comes upon a smoking, overturned auto with a man and boy trapped inside but, afraid he'd get bloodstains in his new car, he ignores their cries for help and drives away just before the wreck explodes. Soon after, blood begins pooling in his backseat and Ricardo comes to know how Lady Macbeth felt when he can't get the damned spots out no matter how many times he cleans the car...

All the horror is psychological in this Franco-era Spanish film that once again lambastes the self-centered, materialistic, unfeeling, and sexually decadent rich. Ricardo's the most "normal" (he's only an art forger with a young mistress) but in their self-absorbed world, having feelings of any kind means something must be wrong with you and there's a high price to pay for that. Favorite scene: When Ricardo, scared to death, goes to trade his new car in for another one, the rest of the Volvo's on the lot get together for some Busby Berkeley choreography before coming to a halt and sliding back their sun-roofs simultaneously to reveal they all have bloody backseats. Also, many priceless objets d'art from the 8th, 12th, and 16th centuries were on display and discussed in loving detail which, of course, points out the obvious: these people cared more about their possessions than they did about other people. Seen in context, it's a very thought-provoking film.