Las brujas de Zugarramurdi

This is not Spanish director Alex De La Iglesia's best effort (my personal favorite is Ferpect Crime), but is entertaining and watchable, if you like his brand of anarchic, corrosive, politically incorrect and pitch black humor. Here three misogynistic thieves on the run, trying to flee to France after a botched burglary in Madrid, end up in a little Basque village called Zugarramurdi (a place in which there was a real witch trial in the 17th century) where they are captured by a coven of feminist witches (the leader of which is Almodovar regular Carmen Maura) who subject them to a number of torments. Many more outrageous things happen, but they are not for me to reveal. A couple of very beautiful actresses (Carolina Bang and Macarena Gomez) help the film.

A Spanish horror-comedy in which a group of bank-robbers stumble into a witch coven. Hijinks ensue, comedy is had. The theme of this one is about how the robbers (all men) have woman issues and have all but renounced their kind as villainous, deceptive and bitchy (*cough* witchy--get it?) The witch coven has done the same thing (there are no warlocks; though one witch has a son she keeps locked up in an underground vault).

Some lessons are not really learned, and there's a hulking monster witch with enormous boobs at the end the men have to contend with (one woman takes their side, alas). There's definitely some fun to be had here but it's fleeting and I'm not sure it's anywhere near as progressive as it thinks it is (if it does, I don't know).

It starts as a crime/comedy, but soon it turns into a horror-comedy. Villains in this movie are witches, so the director decided to start with opening credits made of pictures of famous "witches", putting together notorious killers and evil women from modern politics. Very brave and politically incorrect, he bought me already. The movie is fast, the story is original, humor is indeed funny, the effects are good, very much fun until the end. The big ending is a bit of failure, but the movie is overall good enough not to be spoiled by it.

8/10

While I did like Angelina Jolie in Maleficent, there is a witch right here, that I'd die for. All puns and jokes aside though: This is a comedy and it does start with a Bang (not Carolina, a literally one) and does not stop from there. It works because it is funny, but in an adult kind of way. No joke or poking fun is too low to go there (and while I'm not a fan of "toilet humor", there is one here, that I think is really good and nicely shot).

It is predictable obviously, but the actors make the whole thing work and you will have "sacrifices" that have to be made (no pun intended), for the inevitable outcome. The effects are really good and while you might argue about characters and their moods, this all get "explained" ... at least in a fashion, that is sufficient enough for a comedy

I thought this movie was great. It starts off very normal with a quite funny movie and slightly zany humour. This then slowly builds into an over the top, hilariously funny romp which also manages to bury a few home truths in amongst the jokes and craziness.

Very surreal its technically a horror movie but more realistically I would say it was comedy with a few horror elements.

I honestly hope more people see this, I think its a shame its not better known and currently not as highly rated as I at least believe it should be. At the very least I think its worth a look if you are intrigued.