The Legacy of the Bones (original title Legado en los huesos) is a Spanish Thriller from 2019, directed by Fernando González Molina and the second of the Baztán Trilogy. Amaia has to investigate an even more bizarre sequence of crimes than in the previous film.
Nine months pregnant, Inspector Amaia Salazar (played by Marta Etura) is waiting for the trial of a murderer she caught. However, he manages to commit suicide, leaving her a note with the word “Tartalo”.
After giving birth to a baby boy called Ibai, Amaia has to get to work right away, because more people are showing up dead (including murders and suicides) with notes containing the word “Tartalo”.
One of the cases is of Amaia’s crazy mother, Rosario (played by Susi Sánchez). She was in a mental institution, but still got ahold of a scalpel to attack a nurse and write “Tartalo” with his blood.
After this incident, Rosario is transferred to another institution, belonging to the Church and administered by Father Sarasola (played by Imanol Arias). He tells Amaia about the history of witchcraft in the region and how it might be connected to these crimes.
I’ll be referencing the previous review in this one constantly, so I recommend that you watch the video of The Invisible Guardian before continuing with this one.
The Legacy of the Bones has more elements than The Invisible Guardian. The serial killer aspect gives place to this cultist one, making it more involving and, in my perspective, more plausible.
I know some people probably feel a serial killer is more plausible than a pagan cult practicing sacrifices. But as I said in The Invisible Guardian review, I didn’t buy into the serial killer’s M.O.
This narrative is more over the top in the sense that more things are going on, but I liked it. There are too many mediocre serial killers in movies, series, and books already, usually, not very realistic ones. We don’t need another one here.
The Legacy of the Bones has a darker nature as well. With the witchcraft, it’s also added the sacrifice of babies. Also, some surprising revelations shed light on obscure events of the first movie.
Amaia is much better as a character in this film. She displays a lot more emotion and personality, making a more complete and consistent character. Of course, this completeness is only achieved after merging the Amaia from both films, but still, I liked her more in The Legacy of the Bones.
Jonan (played by Carlos Librado best know as Nene) is as good as before, even though his role is not a large one, he really delivers when he’s on the screen. In the previous video, I pronounced the character name wrong, the correct pronunciation is Jonan, not Ronan.
Aunt Engrasi (played by Itziar Aizpuru) is still likable, and now her role has even more importance in the events of the film. And Fermín Montes (played by Francesc Orella), who was already present in the first movie, is now a needed and excellent comic relief.
I was too harsh with James (played by Benn Northover) in the previous video. He’s worse in this second film, but he’s not so awful in general. Sometimes he’s annoying, but he’s a good husband and father.
Aloisius Dupree (played by Colin McFarlane) is useless once again. I want to read the books to see if in them he has some utility, the minor it might be, to justify his presence in the films.
Two new fundamental characters are introduced in this movie. Father Sarasola and Judge Markina (played by Leonardo Sbaraglia). I liked the ambiguity of Father Sarasola, the type of guy you never know if it’s good or bad.
Markina is just some horny Judge. Since he first appears, you can see how much he desires Amaia, going against any kind of professional behavior. I’m not saying I dislike the role, I’m characterizing it. And by the way, Leonardo Sbaraglia portrays it very well.
The acting is really excellent. This time, since the actors had to portray a more varying range of emotions, their performance stood out, especially Marta Etura, as the star of the bunch.
The atmosphere is on point once again. This time there are some moments with more warmth in contrast with the recurrent blueness of The Invisible Guardian, but nothing overdone like Soderbergh’s Traffic.
Another one of the aspects that remain at a very high level is the cinematography. But this time, there was more darkness, and it caused more disorientation, especially in the last act, when things go wild.
There’s nothing I particularly loved about the score this time. In general, it’s still very satisfactory, but there weren’t eerie songs to take it to a new level as in The Invisible Guardian.
I liked this movie a lot. I even thought about watching the third one immediately after, but I decided to hold my anticipation to let this one sink in better, and I think it was the correct way to proceed.
The Legacy of the Bones is slightly better than its predecessor and made me really excited about the third installment of it. I’ll also give The Legacy of the Bones A.K.A. Legado en los huesos, 8 Moons.
Crítica dos Ratos 