Las Brujas de Zugarramurdi (2013)

Las Brujas de Zugarramurdi (2013)

Director: Alex de la Iglesia

Cast: Hugo Silva, Mario Casas, Carolina Bang, Macarena Gomez, Javier Botet, Enrique Villen, Santiago Segura, Terele Pavez, Gabriel Angel Delgado, Pepon Nieto

Las Brujas de Zugarramurdi is a film made by Spanish director Alex de la Iglesia, a director well known in his country for making crazy, kinetic, politically incorrect comedies that feel like a nonstop rollercoaster ride of madness, but in the best way. If you haven’t had the pleasure of seeing an Alex de la Iglesia film, I recommend checking out The Day of the Beast (1995), Perdita Durango (1997) or The Last Circus (2010). As a film connoisseur, I regularly enjoy films from all over the world and comedies from Spain always have a special kind of ‘je ne sais quoi’ about them, they always make me crack up. I think it’s the way they use the Spanish language, the curse words sound funnier somehow, stronger. That’s one thing about Alex de la Iglesia movies; they are the furthest thing from politically correct. Nothing is sacred in them and profanity is used amply; which is kind of refreshing and one of the reasons it shocks me all the more. American films concern themselves with being so politically correct all the time that films with intensity filled dialogue like Las Brujas de Zugarramurdi can feel like a bucket of ice thrown down your spine, like the first time you saw a Tarantino film and went “goddamn!” Some jokes will undoubtedly lose their spice in the translation, so be aware that if you know Spanish, you will enjoy this film that much more. But for those of you who don’t know Spanish, and are still adventurous enough to look outside of American cinema, well, you’ll find that Las Brujas de Zugarramurdi is a real treat for both horror and comedy fans.

Only in an Alex de la Iglesia movie will Jesus Christ pull off a heist! 

The premise is a simple one, four thieves have just robbed a pawn shop and stolen all their gold jewelry.  While on the run from the law, they make a pit stop at the titular town of Zugarramurdi, somewhere in northern Spain. The town is sleepy, eerie and mist filled, like something straight out of an H.P. Lovecraft story or a Hammer film. Some of the thieves in the gang are afraid of the town because of its reputation. It is said that this is one of the birthplaces of witchcraft, and the thieves are all spooked about having to stay at a hotel in this spooky old town. One thing leads to another and soon they discover that leaving the town of Zugarramurdi isn’t as easy as they thought! All the women in the town are witches and tonight, unbeknownst to them is a special night for the coven!

I went into this film expecting an okay film that would make me laugh, but I left the theater all pumped and happy that I dragged my ass out to see it, it totally blew me away with how funny, entertaining and fun it was. Las Brujas de Zugarramurdi is a treat for horror fans because it’s a mash up of some of the best horror films ever made. It’s like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) because the witch’s that run the local hotel are part of a crazy ass family, complete with weird looking handicapped family members that will freak you the hell out, all of which show up at this memorable insanity infused dinner  scene. It’s also like Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead (1981), paying its respects to said film by way of a couple of visual homage’s to it, if you’re a horror buff, you’ll know the scenes I’m talking about when you see them. And speaking of visual homages, de la Iglesia does one shot for shot homage to The Goonies (1985), any true film connoisseur's should recognize it. Finally, it’s like The Wicker Man (1973) because it’s all about a town who is in on the whole joke. They know someone is going to get sacrificed, they know what’s really going down while the protagonists of the film are completely unaware of what is in store for them. It’s also about a crazy religious cult, and has to do with everything you’d expect from a film about witches: human sacrifices, a burning hatred for men, rituals and prophecies.

In terms of themes, the film is all about men vs. women and about how much marriage sucks! In fact, the whole movie revolves around the importance of the negative energies held within a bunch of gold wedding rings that these four guys stole! So behind all the craziness and the heists and the curse words, what we have is a movie that criticizes the institution of marriage. It’s also about men complaining about women and about women who despise men for all the oppression they’ve gotten throughout the ages. The witches are all extreme feminists! They are all about how God is a woman, and about how women want to take revenge upon men, basically intense hatred for anything with a penis. In contrast to all that, one of the witches falls for one of the guys, which hints at a love conquers all sort of message squeezed in there, unfortunately, said love comes from Eva, a witch who is a recollection of that psycho girlfriend all guys have had at some point in their lives. The kind that says things like “you prefer to go out with your friends than to be with me?!” Eva is the psycho girlfriend from hell! Not only is  she a complete psycho; she’s also a witch with magical seductive powers and she smoking hot as hell! Actress Carolina Bang, I salute you! You get an award for being one of the hottest actresses to grace the silver screen this year! And there, I’ve said my sexist comment of the day, which somehow seems inappropriate in a review about a mostly feminist film. But then again, the feminists are the villains of the film, so maybe the film is depicting extreme feminists as being evil? I’ll leave the interpretations up to you my dear readers; point is, this is one of those movies were both sexes are always bitching and moaning about each other when in the end, they both need and want each other; at least from a sexual perspective.

Finally, I didn’t expect the film to be so epic. The final sequence seems to come straight out of your worst cult religion nightmare! Take Silent Hill (2006), The Wickerman (1973), Children of the Corn (1984) and especially Dagon (2001), mash ‘em up and you’ll get an idea of what to expect, only funny! This movie also brought to mind Dario Argento’s Suspiria (1977) because of the whole witch coven thing, so as you can see, this film is a real love letter to horror cinema. The Weinsteins are distributing this one in America under the god awful title Witching and Bitching (2013). Okay, I know the word ‘Zugarramurdi’ isn’t exactly well known, but come on, Witching and Bitching? What’s wrong with calling it The Witches of Zugarramurdi? Witching and Bitching is the worst sounding English title you could have chosen! It makes the film sound like a low budget, straight to video piece of shit, when in fact it’s a very well made horror/comedy. Final word on ‘Las Brujas the Zugarramurdi’ is that it’s an entertaining as hell horror film from Alex de la Iglesia. Now I’m a fan of de la Iglesias films (The Day of the Beast is still my favorite) but this one ranks somewhere amongst his best. It’s not a horror spoof because it doesn’t make fun of the horror genre, actually it reveres it and has fun with it without forgetting that it’s a horror film. Thankfully, ‘Las Brujas de Zugarramurdi’ isn’t afraid to sink its metal fangs on your skin to remind you it isn’t some shitty ass PG-13 ‘horror’ movie! Man, what a relief!

Rating: 5 out of 5   

The Last Circus (2010)

Title: Balada Triste de Trompeta (The Last Circus) (2010)

Director: Alex de la Iglesia

Cast: Carlos Areces, Antonio de la Torre, Carolina Bang

Review:

I always look forward to an Alex de la Iglesia film because they always have this kind of acid-like comedy to them. Ever seen Perdita Durango (1997)? It’s an insane drug infused trip, reminiscent of Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers (1994). I think this type of black comedy, where characters are ultra hateful and everything that can go wrong does go wrong; where things go as bat shit insane as they can possibly go is a signature of Alex de la Iglesia as a director. It could also have something to do with films being a more liberal form of expression in European countries (read: they don’t have a ratings system!)  as opposed to American films which can sometimes come off as muted or sensored in some ways. Films from Spain, Mexico, France all have a whole other level of crudeness that is absent from American cinema. Which is exactly the reason why an Alex de la Iglesia film will feel like pouring a bucket of ice cold water down your spine; these films are uncensored, unfiltered raw emotions. Whatever it is, it’s what I love about Alex de la Iglesia films. Characters use a lot of foul language, they hate, they love and the kill all with mind numbing intensity. Essentially, characters in an Alex de la Iglesia movie always have a heightened sense of emotions!

The Last Circus tells the story of a boy named Javier whose father is a clown. Their job is to entertain the masses as the war rages on outside the circus walls. But when his father is taken prisoner by a war hungry politician, he asks Javier to avenge his death, to become a sad clown for the sad times they are living in. Javier takes his advice, and so we fast forward in time many years later and meet Javier, now a full grown adult, looking for a job in a circus. The owner of the circus asks him “why do you want to become a clown? No one becomes a clown just for the hell of it”. The owner of the circus explains to him that if he hadn’t become a clown, he’d be a serial killer, and Javier says “me too”. That’s the kind of dry humor I’m talking about! So anyhows, Javier gets his job as a clown and everything is going fine and dandy until he falls in love with Natalia, a gorgeous bombshell of a trapeze artist, who also happens to be the circus owner’s girlfriend! Can Javier take the pressures of being in a love triangle?

‘Frenetic’ is the right kind of word to describe an Alex de la Iglesia film; his films never stop running from one crazy situation to the next.  In The Last Circus we meet a love crazy clown who will do anything to defend Natalia from her abusive boyfriend, a violent, sadistic, vicious circus owner who ironically enough plays the ‘Silly Clown’ in the circus. The love triangle leads to bloody violence, revenge and tragedy. It reminded me in more ways then one of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s SantaSangre (1989), a film which Alex de la Iglesia is obviously paying homage to. We have the same type of dynamic about a man falling in love with a circus performer who is already romantically involved with the owner of the circus, we have a scene in which all the characters from the circus walk around town sad and depressed because one of them is badly hurt, same as the funeral procession for the dead elephant in Santa Sangre; and same as in Santa Sangre, things get bloody as hell. It could be argued that there is a bit of Fellini in this movie, but I don’t want to be one of those reviewers that says that every film with a circus in it is ‘Felliniesque’.

When Alex de la Iglesia set out to make The Last Circus, he says that what he wanted to do was a movie with a clown turned psycho killer. He mentions that the image that brought this film to life was that of a gun totting clown, going around town shooting his machine guns, this of course ended up being the most iconic image from the film. Javier going around town guns a blazin’ reminded me of the character called ‘D-Fence’ (played by Michael Douglas) in Joel Schumacher’s Falling Down (1993), a character that is also used to criticize society and it’s evils. Clowns are already kind of scary; but just imagine one whose face is horribly scarred and imagine said clown walking around shooting machine guns! What makes things even more interesting in this film is that we have two clowns fighting against each other. On the one hand we have Sergio, the owner of the circus who is the ‘Silly Clown’ always doing his best to make kids laugh, while on the other we get Javier who is the tragic ‘Sad Clown’, the butt of the jokes; who will Natalia choose of the two?

Many comment on this films political themes, and it’s true, they are there. But in all honesty, to me the politics served as a backdrop to what is really a tragic love story about two men in love with the same woman. It explores the animosity that this kind of situation can bring up between two men. When a woman has to choose between two men, will she choose the macho type? Or will she choose the quintessential nice and sensitive type? Will she choose the buff looking dude, or the fat guy? Will she care about superficiality, or will she love the man she chooses for who he is? In The Last Circus Sergio represents the macho type. He talks loud, enjoys intimidating people and loves to hit Natalia, who apparently has grown to accept Sergio’s violent ways. When Natalia meets Javier, she is suddenly confronted with a man who treats her kindly and isn’t afraid to stand up to Sergio and his intimidating ways. She of course finds this tenderness attractive. So Natalia, confused doesn’t know which guy she wants to choose. In the end, will anybody be happy?

The films title ‘Balada Triste de Trompeta’ comes from a song of the same name; its literal translation is ‘Sad Trumpet Ballad’. The song is performed by a famous Spanish singer called ‘Raphael’, and I should know, my mom is a huge fan of this legendary Spanish singer, quite possibly his biggest fan ever? ‘Balada Triste de Trompeta’ is one of his most popular songs and it’s about someone sadly remembering a lost love, with his heart broken into pieces by the rupture. He is so sad that he sees himself as a sad clown, crying as he sings. In the song, his cries are mixed with the sad sound of a trumpet, this is a hauntingly sad song and one that matches perfectly with the main character in The Last Circus, a love sick man, driven mad by his impossible love. Raphael was not only a singer, but also an actor. He was so popular during his peak in the 60’s and 70’s that he starred in a couple of movies centered around him, a la Elvis Presley and his movies. In one of these films Rapahel actually dresses up as a clown and sings ‘Balada Triste de Trompeta’ and Alex de la Iglesia effectively uses these scenes in the film in one pivotal scene. I mention this because I’m sure this will be lost amongst most American viewers who probably wont have any idea of who Raphael is.

There is a lack of sympathetic characters on this film; damn near everyone is kind of despicable. The protagonist, Javier isn’t likable at all; he is a murderer, driven mad by love. Sergio is a clown that can make kids laugh one second and blow somebody’s brains out the next, no problem. Natalia is the girl who can’t apparently stand up for herself and in her confusion makes two men go at each others throats for her. But I am of the opinion that every single movie does not have to be about shinny happy people. There’s space for dark, black humor as the one depicted in The Last Circus. This is an angry film, with lot of ugliness to it. Characters are angry at the world and the way their lives have turned out.  But like some of the best directors, The Last Circus finds beauty in ugliness, art in pain…and speaking of beauty, Carolina Bang is such gorgeous beauty! To close up this review I’ll say that The Last Circus even has some gothic elements to it. The film ends with a fight on top of a giant cross, reminiscent of those old Frankenstein movies that end on a giant windmill; two monsters fighting for the love of their beauty. Actually this is a film that has more than a little bit of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in it, after all this is a film about two misunderstood monster who are simply looking for love; in all the wrong ways. The Last Circus is violent, gory, and even poetic at times; a stylish piece of Spanish cinema not to be missed by lovers of style and black humor.

Rating: 4 ½ out of 5