Las Brujas de Zugarramurdi, Álex de la Iglesia, 2013
The story follows a group of thieves who rob a gold buyers shop in Puerta del Sol, Madrid and then flee to the boarder of Spain-France. There they are captured by a group of Basque witches who want to use the main character's son for a ritual, believing him to be the chosen one. The thieves spend the rest of the film attempting to escape.
While there isn't much cultural significance in the film, the location of Zugarramurdi is an important one. It a region on the Spanish and French border notable for the accusations of witchcraft during The Inquisition in 1610 and the death of thirty-nine women. Despite the wackiness of the film, the director did a good job invoking the dark horror tones and ambience. The music was dark and looming and could have been the soundtrack to a much more serious film. The effects of the film were a bit overdramatic to me, but they worked in the context of the world being built. I was not a huge fan of the lighting, but the dark grayish and brown tones reminded me of other cult horror flicks. The story was lackluster and although the acting was good the characters didn't really delve deep or go anywhere.
I should have guessed from the trailer that this movie wasn't going to be my cup of tea, but from the abundance of well known actors I really wanted to like it. From the start the story had good potential with fun witty dialogue and a great heist scene; however, once the supernatural portion began it fell apart for me. Everything feels over the top and unfortunately that type of comedy doesn't work for me, so I found myself rolling my eyes and sometimes uncomfortable by the jokes, or just plain annoyed when some of them ran on for far too long. One of the most notifiable issues of the film, even if you enjoyed the humor and horror up to this point, is the overall run time. When I watch a comedy I like it to be short and to the point, but many scenes and bits dragged and could have been cut about a half hour short not to mention an underwhelming and ridiculous conclusion. Overall, if you can enjoy the often tasteless humor and mature themes then this film might be an enjoyable watch for fans of comedy-horror.
The story follows a group of thieves who rob a gold buyers shop in Puerta del Sol, Madrid and then flee to the boarder of Spain-France. There they are captured by a group of Basque witches who want to use the main character's son for a ritual, believing him to be the chosen one. The thieves spend the rest of the film attempting to escape.
While there isn't much cultural significance in the film, the location of Zugarramurdi is an important one. It a region on the Spanish and French border notable for the accusations of witchcraft during The Inquisition in 1610 and the death of thirty-nine women. Despite the wackiness of the film, the director did a good job invoking the dark horror tones and ambience. The music was dark and looming and could have been the soundtrack to a much more serious film. The effects of the film were a bit overdramatic to me, but they worked in the context of the world being built. I was not a huge fan of the lighting, but the dark grayish and brown tones reminded me of other cult horror flicks. The story was lackluster and although the acting was good the characters didn't really delve deep or go anywhere.
I should have guessed from the trailer that this movie wasn't going to be my cup of tea, but from the abundance of well known actors I really wanted to like it. From the start the story had good potential with fun witty dialogue and a great heist scene; however, once the supernatural portion began it fell apart for me. Everything feels over the top and unfortunately that type of comedy doesn't work for me, so I found myself rolling my eyes and sometimes uncomfortable by the jokes, or just plain annoyed when some of them ran on for far too long. One of the most notifiable issues of the film, even if you enjoyed the humor and horror up to this point, is the overall run time. When I watch a comedy I like it to be short and to the point, but many scenes and bits dragged and could have been cut about a half hour short not to mention an underwhelming and ridiculous conclusion. Overall, if you can enjoy the often tasteless humor and mature themes then this film might be an enjoyable watch for fans of comedy-horror.