Ease off the "report to moderator" e-mails fellas, this is not a spam posting; it's actually my little homage to an old "City of God" thread. Anyway, I'm a little excited and thought I'd share with you - my cyberspace brotherhood.

"Killing Words" (2003) aka "Palabras Encadenadas" is a terrific little 87-minute Spanish-language thriller that just hit R1 DVD a couple of weeks ago and seems to have flown well under the radar. Besides a handful of user comments on IMDb, on first glance there seems to be little out there on this film (nothing at rottentomatoes, no R1 DVD reviews, etc.).

Most recently I've been digging a little deeper into Spanish cinema and I (very luckily) stumbled upon this one and went for a blind-buy. I really don't want to say too much about the plot because you really should watch it cold (if you consider my advice don't even look to closely at the back of the DVD case - one of the images is from somewhat early in the film so it isn't really a big spoiler but don't look to closely anyway).

To try and tell you something about the film, I'd say that it's sort of a small-scale fusion of Hitchcock, "Silence of the Lambs", and the Korean film "OldBoy". The first comment at IMDb (which contains a mild early spoiler so you might not want to read it) also mentions this "Silence of the Lambs" & "OldBoy" influence so I wasn't the only one who picked up on the vibe (but I thought of it on my own - honestly). "Killing Words" delivers suspense mixed with a light sprinkle of black humor (to keep things from getting too grim and perhaps less entertaining). Another ingredient might be considered akin to the Jody Foster/Anthony Hopkins scenes from "Silence of the Lambs". Lastly, the "OldBoy" influence comes from among other things the visual presentation of a significant portion of the film (one of the main sets looked like it would fit right in a movie like "OldBoy" – very stylish with nice use of color). I want to say more but I'm really trying to be very, very broad in my comparisons so as not to spoil anything. In addition to the solid story, I thought the cast of the film turned in terrific performances.

The film isn't in that category of being particularly deep or profound or of the type that has a lasting resonance that lives you thinking about it time and again, but it is a crackling entertainer of a film that will be spinning often in my player for assorted guests (I'm really looking forward to showing it to others).

Maybe once I sleep on it, I'll be more reserved in my praise (I doubt it though) for this film but right now I'd say it definitely ranks as one of the better movies I've seen over the past couple of years (keep in mind, I've been lucky with my movie watching so the list would be pretty long but there certainly would be a spot in there somewhere for "Killing Words").

The DVD (again Spanish-language, English subtitles) is approx. $12 from DDD, DigitalEyes, etc. so it's priced well to make a blind-buy.

I'll check this out. I'm more inclined to spend my money on a new film than a double dip (which is all that comes out these days).

I was flipping through channels last night and got a bit excited when I saw a clip of this film being aired. It was an ad for the DVD, but then I realized it was airing only on one of the Spanish-language channels. I was hoping that this film would get some more love from the masses (among cinephiles) instead of being relegated only to Spanish-speaking audiences.

PopcornTreeCt, I hope you end up enjoying this (and I hope that at least a few others who clicked on this thread took a chance on a blind-buy). Let me know - anyone - what you think after checking it out. I've played it for one small group of people since starting this thread and they all enjoyed it.

I'm really, really tempted to link this thread to BrentLumkin's higher traffic "great unknown films" thread in the "Recommendations" forum but don't want to come across as even more of a shill for this than I already might appear. At a forum like this it is very, very, very, very rare that you come across a solid film that it seems no one else has seen but here we are - at least for the time being.

Or what?

I'll get my Dad to beat up your Dad .................and my Mom is prettier than your Mom.......

You'll be missing a good movie, imho....nothing more than that. Since you did click on the thread, any plans on checking it out? It would - at the least - be a good addition for those with larger DVD collections.

Perhaps I should have gone less "strong sell" on the thread title. Oh well.

I'll probably check it out as it does sound pretty good. I just couldn't miss posting that response! Thanks for the recommendation.

Thanks for the comments, flixtime! I had my eye on this film for a while, but wasn't sure about spending more for a non-R1. Hadn't realized it hit R1 now.