User reviews

I recently discover thanks Netflix interesting Spanish movies like this and "Contratiempo". Very good thrillers with a lot of suspanse and plot twists. In particular, this movie keeps your eyes on the screen for every minute until the final epilogue. In addition, the actress that plays Amaia is very expressive and well immersed in the role. I also like the rainy atmosphere. I recommend it!

Closer to reality then a Sherlock Holmes on the one hand, but intriguing mystery blended in on the other. I do like the depth of the history/youth of the inspector, gives her more character and well acted emotions all the way. So this movie basically has several good points that could interest a broad audience. And it deserves it, good build up and pace, I'm sure many will enjoy this movie.

For anyone confused as to why there are so many plot lines left unfinished, they are addressed in the second movie. This trilogy is based on a book, adding mystical elements which may seem confusing at first. Would definitely recommend watching the rest before jumping to conclusions. Amazing cinematography, along with a good portrayal of Spain, showing us an urban legend while keeping it a great thriller !

This film is about a female investigator assigned to work a serial killer case involving the deaths of adolescent girls from her hometown. Her family owns and runs a bakery but she chose to go to the US to train with the FBI rather than work there. Within her family there are hard feelings about her career decision but she stays the course, working the case to the best of her ability. There's village folklore about a "basajaun" (a beast similar to our bigfoot) that comes into play and leads to the killer's title being "The Basajaun Killer." Can she overcome the issues that haunt her family life and herself doubt and bring a monster to justice?

I liked this. I thought it was filmed well with great settings and a dark atmosphere. I didn't have any complaints about the acting and felt that, for the most part, the actors did a great job bringing out each character's personality and perspective. I liked having a bit of mythology thrown into the mix to keep things interesting.

My only complaints would be that the pace seemed to drag at times and there were bits of the story that could've used a little more attention. I did enjoy it though and wouldn't mind suggesting it to a friend.

Movie starts, a teenager girl naked body is found beside a river . The police assumes,some kind of religious act, as the the body was throughly washed and a cookie is placed on the lower private part. As the time passes,there are more girls who are disappearing and the next day, they are found dead on the same forest. The female police who has a traumatic past, set out to find the cookie's ingredients and find the shop. Surprisingly,her sister has a cookie shop. She asked her for the list of shops and ingredients however,she provided her with wrong information. What's her motive?

The cops are searching and they found a hundred of bones in a cave, on the other hand, the chief has found out about the involvement of her family and pushed her out of the case. Will she able to find the motive behind all these murders?

I loved it from starting, it compelling. But, as the time passes, it felt so absurd. Ending could have been better but it was totally messed.

Any confusion, and unsolved ends, are due mostly to this movie being part of a trilogy. Two movies are available now, and I think the third is soon to be released. The concerns over the tarot cards, and the mother etc. are all made clear in the second movie. I almost feel as if this would've been better as an entire series because if you only watch this first movie you'll miss out on the WHY of it all. I like the way it all eventually falls Into place, but this isn't obvious unless you watch both movies.

The detective is personally very sympathetic. She, however, does not do much detecting. The Invisible Guardian is making a moral point rather than telling a mystery. The movie is slow and 25 minutes too long. The second half is better than the first half as the moral point comes to the fore in the second half. The title makes no sense. Perhaps something is lost in the translation.An acceptable movie during a stay at home order.

I needed a movie to brush up on my Spanish. I randomly chose this film knowing nothing and left confused thinking I forgot all my Spanish. Then I read the reviews and realized, nope, it's just a confusing film. I scoured the internet to find out if anyone knew why Amaia's mother despised her. I said to myself, I must've missed it...maybe, I need to watch it with English subtitles. Au contraire, the film didn't disclose that information. No worries, you find out in the second installation, "The Legacy of Bones". Thank you to reviewer what's his face for the tip. I won't tell you why she loathes her, so go watch the second one to find out.

The Invisible Guardian is part of a trilogy based on books written by Delores Redondo: The Invisible Guardian, The Legacy of the Bones, and Offering of the Storm. The Invisible Guardian is a mystery thriller about murders of young women. Amaia is the detective investigating the murders while confronting her past.

What is there to hate about this film? Well, first, does the place ever stop raining? It rained so much, it distracted me from the film. Then second, the mythological being. I'm all about folklore, fantasies, tales, etc. Unfortunately, they failed to integrate it well in this film. It seems disjointed and misplaced. Next, the father's decision to not turn his wife into the police baffled me. Just why?!!! The film is a little boring, the hatred toward Amaia is undeserved and implausible. And I CANNOT get over the sister eating the cookie that was sitting on a dead woman's pubis. My spirit cried when I saw this. I refuse to believe any detective would allow this. Plus, this detective is the most emotional one I've seen on TV. Between her tears and the rain, it's a miracle the townsmen didn't drown. Amaia is a weak, subservient character who should find a different line of work. How is she considered competent?! Oh, and there is a useless character in the film who gives Amaia advice (Insert face of disapproval).

The film has redeeming qualities. The acting was great, the scenery matched the mood too well (dark and moody film), it's mysterious, pacing is on point some of the time, and despite me disliking the film, it's still watchable albeit in multiple stretches. Since I have watched the second movie, I recognize it would've been best as a series and not three separate film. Oh and the sex scenes should be removed. It's not needed in this film. I wanted to end on a positive note but failed, I apologize.

Very poor script, lot of unnecessary dialog and characters. Used a blue/gray lens filter to strengthen the grim, dark, cold, rainy winter feelings. A serial killer continued to do the serial killings when the police force concentrated and focused on the small town? The victims were disposed in remote, difficult to approach terrains? There was no way a single person could do the job of removal of dead bodies single-handedly, even in a city with paved streets, albeit transported the corpses into the wildness.

We continued to see and hear the high praises of this female detective by her superiors, yet what we saw here was a sentimentally wounded female, constantly flashed back when, where and how she grew up. A woman got an American artist boy friend. A woman difficult to get pregnant but longing for a child. There's nothing to show how great her detecting ability was. Choosing the wintry raining city and countryside scenes were only good for cinematographic purpose but not good and welcomed by these poor actors who usually soaked to their bones and so dangerously getting pneumonia.

This is a very pretentious and amateurish murder mystery film that would wasted your lifetime on earth minus 2 hours 8 minutes 50 seconds and would bore you to an earlier death.

I accidentally started with part 3. It turned out to be a trilogy of which this is part one. I also thought this was a Spanish movie, but the language sounded like some weird dialect I never heard before, after about 30 minutes it was revealed to be Basque (part of Spain) and that it apparently is a separate, somewhat similar language.

The movie is a classic detective: girls get murdered in a serial killer way, inspector Salazar is the lead agent in charge starts solving the crime clue by clue. The way it plays out was somewhat weird though. It is current time but they talk about a mythical creature (like Bigfoot). At first I thought it was meant to be funny but it was quite serious. Then there's a next clue that comes from reading tarot cards... Some things don't seem to have logic or just come out of the blue, or ominous music starts that warns the viewer something is about to happen but what happens has nothing to do with the story and is basically unneeded. I stopped rewinding after a few such instances and just went with it. The ending makes sense though, nothing mythical about it, just plain old detective work to find the twisted culprit.

You need to see the trilogy for everything to become clear. The ending of 'El guardian invisible' is the announcement of part two.

As this film opens the body of a girl is found by a river in a wooded area in the Spanish province of Navarre. Amaia Salazar, an inspector in the Policía Foral, the regional police force, is put in charge of the case. She has recently returned to the area with her American husband. The case is quickly linked to a very similar recent murder; Amaia fears there may be a serial killer operating in the area. While trying to solve the case she will also have to deal with family issues and confront events from her childhood.

This film gets off to a fine start; once the first body is found we are quickly introduced to protagonist Amaia and throughout the film learn more about her and her past. She is a solid protagonist; Marta Etura does a fine job in the role. As one would expect in a serial killer film the murders follow a distinct pattern and the bodies are posed in a way that means something to the killer... a little cliché perhaps but the genre demands that the police know they are looking for a serial killer soon after the story begins. The film has a great look with impressive wooded scenery and near constant rain creating a great atmosphere. There are some flaws of course; as we get towards the end things get rather melodramatic, some of the family drama could probably have been trimmed and I could have done without Amaia getting guidance from tarot cards! Overall though I enjoyed the film and will watch the next film in the trilogy; I'd recommend it to fans of the genre.

These comments are based on watching the film in Spanish with English subtitles.

Above average thriller with plenty of twists , turns and a suspenseful finale . Well-paced film with some really brilling scenes and disturbing images. It contains drama, tense events , shocks , and thrilling sequences especially in its final part . Policía Foral inspector Amaia Salazar (Marta Etura) , a former FBI agent, undertakes a race against time to find out a murderer while confronting the nightmares of her past . Amaia lives in Pamplona with her American husband, James, an artist. She returns to her hometown of Baztan, in Navarra and nearly Basque Country , to investigate the murder of a young teen, 13-year-old Ainhoa Elizasu , and on the body shows up a cake placed , it results to be the local txantxigorri cake . Ainhoa was found naked and posed in the woods with several mysterious on her corpse . Amaia links this with the death six weeks earlier of Carla Huarte, who was strangled with the same type of rope, and fears a serial killer may be at work . Both bodies were covered with hairs from multiple animals, an oddity as none of the bodies show marks from any animals . Shortly after , Amaia and James move in with her Aunt Engrasi (Itziar Aizpuru), who raised her for most of her life , and she believes mythological beings that were thought to build megaliths, as she insists that the Basajaún is real and a huge protector of the forest, and that one saved Engrasi's life when she was a girl by stopping her from falling into a cavern. She is greeted warmly by her sister Rosaura (Patricia López) , who is staying with Engrasi because of a fight with her husband, Freddy (Mikel Losada). Amaia's relationship is strained with her elder sister Flora (Elvira Minguez), who with Rosaura now runs the family business, a commercial bakery. Flora is divorced from her ex-husband, Victor, and is resentful of Amaia, who is trying to start a family. Flora accuses Amaia of abandoning their mentally ill mother , Rosario (Susi Sanchez) , even though she had a pathological hatred for Amaia. Amaia instructs police officer Jonan Etxaide (Nene) to look back 20 years for similar patterns and other events occurring in Baztan. He connects several murders she believes could have been committed by the same killer . She believes she is looking for an older male who was likely sexually repressed in his youth, and who would be familiar to the girls , making it likely they would go willingly with him. Later on , events are about to get even worst , including unintented and strongly horrible results.

This is a top-notch thriller in which step by step mystery starts to be unfold ; dealing with a young Police Inspector faces off a serial killer while dealing with the ghosts of her infancy . It packs twisted mysteries , emotion , thrills , action and suspense . This is a highly mysterious and cerebral thriller , filled with plot twists , including an unexpected denouement in its ending part . From start to finish the complicated intrigue , fast-paced , thrills , and suspense result to be continuous . Hitchcock-style psychological thriller , being surprisingly good and compellingly shot . Adding ancient traditions on a dark as well as rainy land plenty of supertitions and witchery .The original as well entertaining premise is overspread across the movie adding some brief conventional pitfalls . Including mythological and fantastic elements , as the serial killer is dubbed El Basajaún ("Lord of the Woods") by the media after a Basque , Navarra mythological creature protecting flocks of livestock , an enormous , hairy hominid dwelling in the woods and even appearing the murdered corpses with faces scrubbed clean of makeup and hairs neatly arranged, and a cake placed on her shaved pubis . The picture is very well , though sometimes confusing as well as overlong and it has a lot of turns . However , being very entertaining for its successive suspense . The main cast is frankly good , as Marta Etura who plays perfectly the stubborn Inspector Amaia Salazar . Support cast is pretty good with important secondaries such as such as Elvira Mínguez as Flora Salazar , Amaia's sister , Francesc Orella as Fermín Montés , Itziar Aizpuru as Tía Engrasi , Susi Sanchez as abusive mother who is in a nursing home, Nene as Jonan Etxaide , Miquel Fernández as Padre de Amaia ,Pedro Casablanc as Comisario General , Colin McFarlane as Aloisius Dupree , Benn Northover as James , Paco Tous as Forensic San Martín , Manolo Solo as Doctor Basterra , Ramón Barea as Alfonso Álvarez de Toledo and Francesc Orella .

This mystery murder was stunningly produced by various prestigious producers : Sofía Fábregas , Mercedes Gamero , Adrián Guerra , Núria Valls , Thomas Distch , all of them have financed a great number of successes in the recent Spanish cinema . This over-the-top thriller displays a colorful and luxurious cinematography full of lights and shades by Flavio Martínez Labiano . Being shot on location in Valley of Baztan , Navarra . And stirring and emotive score , plenty of emotion and intriguing sounds by Fernando Velázquez . Interesting and thrilling screenplay by Luiso Berdejo based on the the first eponymous novel written by Dolores Redondo , "El guardián invisible". This recent film by Spanish writer/director Fernando González Molina was well and professionally directed .This Spanish filmmaker Fernando González Molina has made various box-office films , being his first big hit : ¨Tres metros sobre el cielo¨ (2010). And he also made the sequel : ¨Tengo Ganas De Ti¨ (2012) , in which ¨H¨ Mario Casas falls for a gorgeous dancer called Gin , Clara Lago , but he discovers again his first great love : Maria Valverde . He went on directing successes as the $13.5 million period drama "Palm Trees in the Snow" also with Mario Casas and a thriller , this ¨El Guardian Invisible¨ and the recently premeired , the sequel ¨Legado en los huesos¨ (2019) with Marta Etura again . And made several TV series as ¨Luna , Misterio De Calenda¨ , ¨Bienvenidos Al Lolita¨ and ¨Los Hombres De Paco¨ . Rating : 7/10 . Well worth seeing . Better than average .

I gotta say i enjoyed this movie from Spain.Never be put off by a review!Good atmosphere creation ...with the rainy weather?Characters are plausible,basic yet realistic psychology.interesting session of card reading!Made me want to visit a certain area of Spain too!Give it a try!

A great first movie in the Amaia Salazar trilogy. The storyline is well developed, the characters have depth and are well acted, and the cinematography is awesome. The dark vibes this movie gives off are intense. Amaias back story is interweaved into the story quite well, giving just enough info to keep you interested. Well done.

Day one . .girl discovered and quickly linked to another murdered girl in another area because of a piece of rope. That was about the only investigation that took place.

Our lead advises the funeral of teh murdered girl should be filmed. Funeral. No filming.

Next rubbish was her sister ate the cake/biscuit to discover it's taste and texty etc. It had sat out in the rain all night in a murdered girls pubis yet the sister says it was perfectly made.

Film is nonsense.

I started watching this movie with less expectation but it turned out to be one of the best serial killer movie I have seen. The atmosphere along with acting of all were top notch. The way several mysteries were dealt which were all connected were built was simply superb.. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie.. Highly recommended for all who loves crime thrillers..

Not the greatest movie but very watchable with a good cast and a decent script.