Las Brujas De Zugarramurdi
★★★
Dir: Alex de la Iglesia
(2013)
Alex de la Iglesia's is well-known in Spain for his amped up grotesque story telling and he's on good form this time around with Witching and Bitching. A wild ride with nothing too original to say about what is left in its wake but it's simple attack is one of an unashamed crowd pleaser, quickly becoming one of the fastest grossing Spanish films ever. Basically, we're on the run with a group of criminals fleeing for the French border who arrive in a small Northern town and meet some odd locals; A 101 plot but one which de la Iglesia uses to mostly surprise instead of totally bore.
After a hilarious robbery in which our gang of thieves are dressed as some of the many street performers you will see on a daily basis in any Spanish city, we are in cruise control for a long portion of the film. To be honest, anything might seem a little slow after seeing Sponge Bob Square pants gunned down on the street after a heist but Hugo Silva and Mario Casas admirably stretch their comic legs as Tony and Jose; The brains and the brawn of the operation, along with Tony's 10-year-old kid, kidnap a cab driver and his car, getting only as far as Zugarramurdi and it's coven of gravity defying witches.
For all of the film's by-the-book scenario, and its American horror influence it's filled with interesting little crazed socio political touches; The audience were laughing even before the end of the wild credit sequence depicting Margaret Thatcher and Angela Merkel amongst other famous witches. With de la Iglesia favouring low tracking wide lenses reminiscent of an early Peter Jackson horror he gets the gore and the comedy mix just right with national treasure Carmen Maura and Carolina Bang taking on the witching duties with relish.
There's some good commentary on the battles of the sexes between the bullish Spanish man and the untamable Spanish mother with Iglesia giving most of the bitching duties to the femme weary men. It is sadly low on smarts in the end and it does lose itself in the final predictable 20 minutes before almost being saved by a CGI creation which will make your eyes water and finally drops the ball with a misfiring coda; But Witching and Bitching or Las Brujas De Zugarramurdi is likeable brash, loud and entertaining fun and there's nothing wrong with that.
