Ramsey Campbell is one of the most acclaimed British horror writers, author of over 30 novels and hundreds of short stories. Heavily influenced by H. P. Lovecraft, his novel The Nameless was already adapted for the big screen by another Spanish filmmaker, Jaume Balagueró, who debuted as director of a feature film with The Nameless (1999). Now it’s time for another Spanish adaptation of a Campbell book, it’s the turn for The Influence (2019)
In The Influence, originally published in 1988, Queenie is the aging matriarch of the Faraday family, and even death can’t break her hold over her eleven-year-old granddaughter Rowan. She’s buried with a locket that contains a lock of Rowan’s hair, and soon afterward Rowan is befriended by a mysterious uncannily intelligent girl of her own age. Only her aunt Hermione suspects how sinister this is, but will retrieving the locket save her niece? By the time anyone sees what effect the ghostly influence on Rowan is having, it may be too late for her. if the child who takes her place in the family isn’t Rowan, Rowan may be somewhere else not quite like our world.
Denis Rovira van Boekholt, whose horror and fantasy short film Lazarus Taxon (2008) achieved a bunch of awards, debuts in charge of a feature film with The Influence (2019). He has also participated in the writing of the screenplay based in the original novel, together with Michel Gaztambide and Daniel Rissech. Emma Suárez, Maggie Civantos, Manuela Vellés, Alain Hernández and Claudia Placer form the main cast.
The Influence (2019) is scheduled to open in cinemas in Spain the next 21st of June. Then it is to expect to have a release in the rest of the territories. You can watch the creepy official trailer (in Spanish language) here:
