Para Elisa

Synopsis

College student Ana (Ona Casamiquela) needs money for a post-graduation class trip. She answers a help-wanted ad for a nanny and goes to have tea with Diamantina, an elderly concert pianist with a mentally challenged and reclusive daughter named Elisa. Diamantina needs someone to occupy her daughter while she herself works on a concert piece for an upcoming tour, and she insists that Ana set her own working hours around her school schedule so that she will not miss any classes.

At first Ana agrees eagerly, seeing the opportunity as the perfect job, but when Diamantina finally allows Ana to meet Elisa, she is shocked to learn that the presumed "little girl" is a full-grown woman dressed in children's clothing who lives in a bedroom full of toys and dolls. Ana begins to back out of the job, but suddenly collapses. Diamantina reveals that the tea was drugged.

Ana wakes up dressed as a doll and tied to a chair in Elisa's room. Elisa tries to feed her and play with her as if she is a doll, only to become angry and abusive when Ana, still groggy and disoriented from the drugged tea, refuses to cooperate. However, Ana regains consciousness enough to begin struggling from her bonds whenever Elisa leaves the room. At the end of the day, Diamantina returns to give Elisa her "medicine"--in reality a powerful sedative meant to knock Elisa out and keep her from her more violent rages. While this is happening, Ana hears struggles and muffled screams from another part of the flat. Diamantina goes to take care of the problem, and Ana overhears remarks that hint that not only is there another living "doll" in the flat, but that Diamantina has sewn its mouth shut to keep it silent. Diamantina forces Ana to take a dose of the medicine.

Suspicious when Ana does not return from her appointment, her boyfriend Alex goes to the police, telling them that he believes Ana is in danger. Due to Alex's past reputation as a drug dealer, they refuse to believe him, stating that he must wait forty-eight hours to make a missing-person report.

In the middle of the night, Elisa wakes in a terrible rage, calling for her mother. Diamantina takes Elisa into the music room to play piano in order to calm her, but Elisa murders her mother with a cleaver. Ana seizes the opportunity to untie her bonds and try to escape the flat. While hiding from Elisa, Ana finds her stolen cell phone and calls Alex, but is unable to tell him anything before Elisa discovers her and drags her back to the bedroom. To prevent Ana from escaping again, Elisa ties her to the bed, gives her another dose of medicine, and breaks her ankles with a hammer.

Alex goes back to the police to tell them about the disturbing phone call, but they again dismiss him, believing he has made up the call in order to be taken seriously. Alex remembers the flyer for Ana's earlier job appointment and calls the flat directly, only to have Elisa answer and tell him that she is Ana's mother and that Ana is "being punished" before hanging up. Using the phone number, he is able to find the building where Ana is being kept, but without the apartment number, he must go from flat to flat, waking all the tenants in hopes of finding the correct one.

When Ana wakes to Elisa sleeping in the bed beside her, she pulls a large crucifix from the wall above the bed and uses it to bludgeon Elisa before crawling back to the phone, where she called Alex again. Alex rushes toward the right building, but as Ana lies waiting for him, Elisa recovers consciousness and strikes Ana with the cleaver, presumably killing her.

Cast

Reception

Critical reception for Para Elisa has been mixed to positive, with most critics commenting that while the film has its flaws it was overall a good film. Fearnet echoed these sentiments, saying that "Not many of the components offered here are all that unique or remarkable on their own ... but it's the combination of story points, suspense moments, and slightly familiar themes that make For Elise such a strangely amusing horror import." La Vanguardia gave the film three out of five stars.