Manticore

Julián designs creatures for video games and leads a comfortable life in central Madrid, but he keeps to himself and is weighed down by a dark secret he does not share with anyone. When Diana enters his life, he begins to sense that happiness might be possible for him. A monster he creates, though only virtual, soon unsettles the reality around the two of them. The story concerns love and the monsters of modern life, the kind of monster that sits beside you on the metro or stands in the bakery queue.

Manticore is a Spanish drama and thriller written and directed by Carlos Vermut, released in December 2022 with a runtime of 116 minutes. It was produced by Roberto Butragueño, Amadeo Hernández Bueno and Pedro Hernández Santos for TVE, Movistar+, Crea SGR and Cinema 77 Films. Nacho Sánchez plays Julián and Zoe Stein plays Diana, with Catalina Sopelana, Javier Lago, Patrick Martino and Ángela Boix among a credited cast of 22.

The film holds a rating of 7.1 out of 10 on IMDb from around 2,300 votes, and 6.8 out of 10 on TMDB from a much smaller number of votes. A critics' rating of 9.8 out of 10 from eight reviews places it considerably higher than either audience score.