Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Legacy of the Bones’ on Netflix, a Spanish Supernatural Serial Killer Thriller That Moves Muy Rapidamente

Spanish thriller The Legacy of the Bones (or Legado en los huesos), the second film in the Baztan Trilogy, arrives on Netflix not long after the Covid-19 pandemic delayed the theatrical release of the third. The final movie, based on author Dolores Redondo’s popular crime novels, is TBA; the first, 2017’s The Invisible Guardian is on Netflix now if you feel the need to get caught up with detective Amaia Salazar, who investigates a dark ‘n’ morbid serial killer case in Spain’s Basque Country — a case with ties to her own twisted and tortured family history. Will her involvement get deeper and more personal, or will someone finally stand up and point out the glaringly obvious potential conflict of interest here?

THE LEGACY OF THE BONES: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: When we left Amaia in Invisible Guardian, she had just caught a psycho killer, had a disturbing run-in with her institutionalized mother Rosario (Miren Gaztanaga) and found out she and artist hubby James (Benn Northover) are going to be be parents. Legacy opens with a creepy ancient scene involving witches and stuff, and it might make sense later, but maybe it sort of doesn’t? Anyway, present day: Amaia is Very Pregnant, in court for a sentencing of a creep she busted, but he apparently kills himself in the toilet stall and she goes into labor and has a baby boy and four months later on her first day back after maternity leave she jumps on a case where a church was vandalized but it wasn’t just any vandalization because there was an arm from a baby’s skeleton left on the altar. This is like the first 10 minutes of the movie and several dozen things have happened and there will be more and more and some more to come and you may need an oxygen tank.

It continues. The baby-bones thing ties to witchcraft in Basque Country so just like she does in the first movie, Amaia and James move in with her beloved Aunt Engrasi (Itziar Aizpuru), who helps babysit while James preps for an exhibition and Amaia is off in the woods unflinchingly examining an exhumed corpse while all the male investigators around her plug their noses and try not to puke. She’s tough as hell and good at what she does, so good, she’s always in the right place at the right time when amazing coincidences occur. Talk about having great intuition for a case that once again directly involves her cuckoo-bananas mom!

So Amaia and her cop-partner Jonan (Nene) chase a series of clues hither and yon and back hither and farther yon: A maniac in prison who commits suicide like the first guy did. The word TARTALO, which turns up in crime scenes, referencing a human-eating cyclops from mythology. Her grandmother’s old house, given to her and James by Auntie Engrasi, and where a grumpy gardener tends the grounds. Auntie’s troubling tarot-card readings. A stranger visiting Rosario in the mental hospital. A priest, Sarasola (Imanol Arias), at the desecrated church who’s also a psychologist who’s overseeing Rosario because the plot needs him to be. A cave that was once full of baby bones. A local inspector who allows her unlimited resources possibly because he clearly has the hots for her. Some creepy childhood flashbacks. There are more Things That Happen, but they should remain unrevealed here, especially that big mack of a whopper of a plot twist that inspires Amaia to paw through cobwebbed crypts and pry open coffins and conduct internet searches and order people around and all that, with increasing intensity and personal interest, gasp, gasp, pant.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: A know-it-all protagonist fastwalking through an endless string of clues, as well as someone uttering the words “Opus Dei” once, betrays a clear Da Vinci Code influence — if it was mixed with a ’90s serial killer movie with a dash if Hereditary.

Performance Worth Watching: Gotta admire Gastanaza for holding a poker face through all of this.

Memorable Dialogue: “I’m sorry, but you not having the balls to issue a warrant won’t stop me from doing my job” is the type of thing that Amaia says all the time lest this movie let off the gas for even one second.

Sex and Skin: The only scene featuring no consequential plot points is the one where Amaia and James indulge in a little nookie.

Our Take: I haven’t read the book, but it must be a real pageturner, because this movie is a breathless chattering of plot points fired at us; it’s as if a Kalashnikov wrote a screenplay. It’s a no-pulp-OJ plot, with any potential color or irrelevant detail leached from every scene so the movie rockets forward with no loss of momentum, all the better to keep us from pausing to reflect on our bemused realization that we’re in the middle of a comically convoluted Escher labyrinth of a story. It moves forward, forward forward, no time for subtext, no time for red herrings, no time for a smelt basket, no time even to hit the Long John Silver’s drive-thru. You can’t say it’s boring.

But you can say it’s ludicrous unto hysteria unto unintentional comedy. Director Fernando Gonzalez Molina executes The Legacy of the Bones admirably, with a good eye for set design and consistent pacing and tone, almost distracting us from the undeniable fact that the movie is an expertly assembled collection of overwrought genre cliches. Should we be laughing at a movie that’s essentially about dead babies? If it’s even remotely plausible, probably not. If it ends with a delirious frenzy of biblical flooding and satanic sacrifice, then hell yes.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The Legacy of the Bones is so grim it’s silly. But it’s also highly watchable escapist entertainment.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Stream The Legacy of the Bones on Netflix