I got so excited when I heard the premise to Juanra Fernandez’s Spanish horror film, Para Elisa. It had so many bonkers elements in it that just kept adding insanity peppers to the crazy brew, that it seemed like there was no way that this could be a disaster (just look at either of the film’s freaking posters!). To get straight to it, Ana (Ona Casamiquela), a recent grad student is looking for some easy cash and comes upon a nannying job that seems to be the easiest means to an end. Immediately Ana begins regretting her decision though as the gig seems to be coated in a few layers of crazy with a pretty unhealthy doll obsession tying the house together. Matters take an even larger turn for the worse when it turns out that the child that Ana is there to look after, Elisa (Ana Turpin) , isn’t a child at all but rather a fully-grown person with more than a few issues going on. Soon it becomes clear that Ana’s real purpose here is not as any sort of nanny, but rather to become the latest doll in Elisa’s collection, which has been rife with carnage and there seemingly always being a need for a new toy.

It’s a small-scale, simple sort of horror that actually reminded me of one of my all-time favorite Tales From the Crypt episodes, “The New Arrival.” Para Elisa wisely pays reference to a number of classics though, with it also feeling more than a little like House of the Devil and Misery, not to mention one of my recent favorite horror films, the underrated Livide by Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo. All of these perfectly synthesizing would be a little too good to be true, and while Para Elisa doesn’t take too much from these classics, it does end up feeling like the sum of its parts at times.

There’s a really amazing core to Para Elisa, but it kind of just sits in it. Even the posters and the promotional images of the broken Elisa are nearly just as effective as the film itself. Far too much time is spent bifurcating the narrative by showing Ana’s boyfriend, Alex (Jesús Caba), hunting for her (I mean, you could easily trim the several trips to the police station to a lean single appearance). It wrecks the suspense and tension that the film does an otherwise great job of establishing. Once Ana is trapped inside of the house there also needs to be more variety with what’s going on. The idea behind it all is so thoroughly twisted, but if it just plays out like a broken record then much of its impact is lost.

Interestingly enough, Para Elisa’s run time becomes one of the film’s most problematic issues. Clocking in at a mere 74 minutes, I was excited for an adrenaline shot of a movie that cuts to the point and holds you in terror’s icy grip for the bulk of the film. What ends up happening here is that the movie falls into an awkward place where it doesn’t feel too short, nor does it necessarily feel padded either, but the result still doesn’t exactly work for it. For example, it feels like with the content that’s presented here that Para Elisa would either work better as a short film (I’m actually surprised it’s not adapted from a shorter version of itself, to be honest), or a longer 90-minute movie with one more act added to it. Length isn’t the problem here, it’s the amount of material to cycle through.

There’s a lot of different angles that could have been expanded upon—watching Ana try to learn the Beethoven piece (with broken hands) in order to sate Elisa—would have been a great addition. It feels like the doll iconography could have been doubled down on a lot more. Even just starting out with Ana arriving at the home would have been an adequate start.

The performances here are really wonderful with the cast all doing exceptional jobs. Elisa and Diamantina (Luisa Gavasa) both feel genuinely messed up and are disturbing character studies. This is the sort of film that could completely fall apart if the performances didn’t work and here everyone rises to the challenge. If anything I wish we got to see a little more of Elisa’s mother, Diamantina, as well as getting more of a clear indication as to whether she was nuts and drove Elisa to this behavior, or if Elisa just was, with Diamantina quickly adapting and catering to her bizarre predilections. There’s an incredibly deep relationship there between the two of them where the surface is merely scratched. In a film that’s 74 minutes long, you inevitably keep thinking of 15 minutes scenes that could be added, and anything else with the mother and Elisa before Ana shows up would have done a lot with a little. Even just flashbacks to some of the other “doll” experiments, looking at how this has gone down in the past where each failed attempt has changed them some. At the same time, less is more as well, and knowing that there’s a horrifying, tragic backstory between the two of them can sometimes be enough.

As a first film though, Para Elisa is an absolute triumph and has me particularly curious about what Fernandez will do next. With a little more restraint and confidence as a filmmaker, his next effort will no doubt be even better. It feels like this all acted as a good training ground for him to break out of the house and try something a little bigger next time. With what he’s proven he’s capable of in Para Elisa, I have complete trust that he’s up to the task.

‘Para Elisa’ begins playing in select theaters and is available on VOD, September 1^th.