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It was old, abandoned and, like many other creepy-looking mansions, seemed reluctant to reveal its secrets. Then the huge, wooden doors of Villa Parres (left) creaked opened with a blast of deathly cold and sent chills up this reporter's spine.
Sombre, forbidding portraits of past occupants lined the peeling walls of the three-storey house. In the upper floors with labyrinthine rooms were more eerie paintings. In the dining room, the dinner plates were arranged as if the owners had hastily left in the middle of a meal. And in the room next door, a skull was grinning from a table.
"We have to go now ..." hissed my guide Mario, looking tense. My eyes darted around and goosebumps lined my skin. Villa Parres is no run-of-the-mill creepy country mansion this was where the spookfest The Orphanage was shot.
"Is this place haunted?" I managed to squeak out, almost certain there were little dead kids playing hop-scotch around me. Oh, the horror. "Uh, no," said Mario. "But there's a TV crew outside and they want to interview you."
Oh, right. Now that's scary.
Mini-Hollywood
The Orphanage, directed by newbie Juan Antonio Bayona, was a huge hit in Spain and other Spanish-speaking countries last year no doubt due in part to the fact that it was produced by Guillermo del Toro, the Mexican director who helmed the 2006 Oscar-winning fantasy horror flick Pan's Labyrinth.
Those expecting a scare won't be disappointed. The Orphanage tells of a woman played by actress Belen Rueda who plans to turn an old house into an orphanage for disabled children. Things go haywire when her son begins to see imaginary friends (never a good thing in movies), including a small child wearing a genuinely creepy-looking sack mask.
As the TV crew wondered (on air) what someone from Singapore was doing scaring himself to death in an old mansion on the northern coast of Spain, I couldn't help but feel that someone was staring at me from afar …
I swung around, prepared to flee shrieking from that ghostly boy with the sack mask from the film. Oops, it was just a bunch of tourists milling outside taking pictures of the place which is now something of a tourist attraction.
Built in 1898, Villa Parres whose owner apparently died of mysterious circumstances a year after it was finished is located in Llanes, a port city in the northern Spanish province of Asturias. The hype surrounding the movie has been such that the city is prepping up a tour of sites where The Orphanage and other films have been shot.
With its majestic mountain ranges and coastal areas dotted with beaches and caves, the region is a favourite location site for Spanish directors.
Spain's first Oscar-winning movie in 1982, Jose Luis Garci's Volver a Empezar (Begin the Beguine), was shot entirely in Asturias.
In Llanes alone, 30 films and TV series have been filmed including Garci's El Abuelo (The Grandfather) and Gonzalo Suarez's Remando al Viento (Rowing with the Wind), one of Hugh Grant's first movies.
Suspicious that my Spanish hosts were fattening me up for the kill with wine, cider, cheese and ham, but too greedy to stop myself, this reporter was led around Spain's alternative mini-Hollywood for three days.
The Lord of the 'Ringu'
With rumours of del Toro helming the eagerly-anticipated film adaptation of JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit, the imposing Picos de Europa (picture), or European Peaks, could be an alternative to Peter Jackson's beloved New Zealand. It's a location straight out of The Lord of the Rings, where lakes high up the foggy mountains could easily be where wolves could pounce down upon Gandalf and his gang of dwarves.
I asked my guide if creepy little boys wearing sack masks have been known to frolic in the area. Ignoring my question which I took as a "yes" he pointed out that the protected national park is a region rich in folkore.
The culture of Northern Spain seems to have a lot in common with those in Scotland or Wales. People here drink cider and play bagpipes. Plus, they have a treasure trove of mythical creatures. You've got dwarves that like to steal things, a one-eyed man with a big stick who hunts kids for dinner, an old man who stuffs kids into his sack, and a beautiful woman who lures travellers into the forest with her song. The faun in Pan's Labyrinth set in Spain during the country's Civil War was inspired by the busgosu, a horned creature who lives in the forest.
This reporter did not meet any supernatural creatures trying to lure him into a dark forest nor any mask-wearing kid. Although, by the third day, there was a surreal encounter with someone named Woody.
Tutti Woody
Across a candy shop called Tutti Woody stands a statue of Woody Allen, one of the 105 sculptures that dot the Asturian capital of Oviedo. There's even one by Fernando Botero and another that looked suspiciously like someone's backside.
Why was there a statue of Mr Annie Hall in Spain? Allen had previously been a recipient of the Prince of Asturias Awards, an annual prize given to notable people in humanities and sciences. Other awardees include Bob Dylan, J K Rowling, Al Gore, Spanish director Pedro Almodovar and Oviedo's most popular son, F1 race king Fernando Alonso.
Last July, Allen spent four days in the city filming scenes for his upcoming movie Vicky Cristina Barcelona, which stars the astonishing one-two starlet punch of Spanish hottie Penelope Cruz and universal babe Scarlett Johansson, as well as No Country for Old Men's Javier Bardem, the first Spanish dude to win an Oscar (for best Supporting Actor).
After three whirlwind days through the region's scenic spots, it was easy to understand why Asturias is becoming such a popular place to make movies. And apparently, Asturians like to watch movies too. One port city, Gijon, has also been holding an international film festival since 1963. What was less easy to comprehend was why I had agreed to stay overnight in an old mansion-hotel that looked just like Villa Parres. Alone.
As night descended and shrouded everything in a deathly silence that made every creak echo loudly, this reporter recalled the owner casually mentioning that The Orphanage's Belen Rueda had stayed here for the night too.
Great look what happened to her in the movie.
I made a mental note that scaring yourself for three days about a kid wearing a sack mask isn't a good thing when you've had one glass of wine (and a couple of bottles of cider) too many.
And neither is going to the loo in the dead of night. - TODAY/ar
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