Musarañas

I was just looking for a moderate movie when I picked this up. This is a very disturbing story about misery and love. It is a nice movie overall but what a fantastic performance by Macarena Gómez, such performance would have easily landed her an Oscar if this was a Hollywood movie

It has an inventive plot that keeps you on your toes, sharing some beats with Misery, but never feeling derivative. It's slow build brings depth to the character's before erupting into disturbing violence. Most remarkable though is the clever way that the character of Montse becomes both the protagonist and antagonist as the film flops between humanizing and demonizing her. Macarena Gómez masterfully embodies this dichotomy, playing on the edge of sympathetic and loathsome. The disturbing twists continue up till the very end making for a very compelling ride.

And agoraphobia is the least of them.

This movie is worth watching just for Macarena Gómez's performance alone. Such an actress! Others in the cast pulled their weight as well. Some critics are dissing Hugo Silva, but an actor can only do so much when his or her onscreen time mostly involves just lying prone in a bed. Silva did fine in scenes when his character was more or less mobile.

Clearly this is a horror movie, but it has a low key comedic element as well. Only someone with Gomez's talent, and that of the director who turned her loose, could get away with the 'shenanigans' she portrayed (as Montse) and not have the audience simply shrug off the show as a silly slasher flick.

For those interested in making a low budget indie movie themselves someday, note how practically all the scenes took place in one apartment. Far less expense dealing with lighting, weather, set up time, transportation, etc. Lots of movies use one or two indoor sets for the same reason, but they rarely even approach the same energy level as Musarañas, aka Shrew's Nest.

Shrew's Nest (Musarañas) is an acceptable film that exploits one woman's social insanity after being condemned to an apartment prison by her own fears . Spain , 1950s ; Montse's agoraphobia keeps her locked in a sinister apartment in Madrid and her only link to reality is her youngest sister . It deals about the tense relationship between Montse (Macarena Gómez) and her much younger sister (Nadia de Santiago), who has just turned 18 . Montse has become a stern maternal figure ; she's a fragile creature who can only exercise her authority by dispensing corporal punishment to the younger woman as she sees fit . But one day, a reckless young neighbor , Carlos (Hugo Silva) , falls down the stairwell and drags himself to their door . As Monse can't step one foot out of their apartment before collapsing in a fit of anxiety and stress . But someone has entered the shrew's nest and perhaps he'll never abandon .

The picture is full of suspense , mystery , screechy bursts of violence and lots of blood and gore . Shrew's Nest (Musarañas) marvelously exploits one woman's social craziness after being locked to a flat by her own fears . The picture is a peculiar crossover of ¨Misery¨ , ¨What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?¨ and ¨Copycat¨. As this terror as well as claustrophobic flick shown to the audience gets more and more exciting . It's a slow-burn mystery that explodes like a fireworks finale once the side effects of agoraphobia transform in a wild fit of genre psychosis . This slick horror feast is a triumph of style over movie logic . It's packed with overwhelming as well as upsetting images , excessive violence and grotesque killings . The main starring suffers Agoraphobia , it mays sound silly to most, but for its victims, passing through a domicile's entryway is like a portal directly into hell, bringing on panic attacks, insurmountable fear and irrational dread – a fantastic wrench thrown into any horror film's story . Here is treated some disturbing issues such as craziness , astonishing nightmares , incest ; including eerie images and grisly killings . Good acting by Macarena Gomez , she's a fragile woman who can only exercise her authority by dispensing corporal punishment to her innocent sister well played by Nadia De Santiago . And enjoyable performance by Luis Tosar, giving an awesome acting as incestuous father . Furthermore , brief intervention by Carolina Bang , Alex De La Iglesia's wife who usually appears in his films as main star or secondary role .

Thrilling and frightening musical score by Joan Valent . Colorful and evocative cinematography by Angel Amoros . The motion picture was presented at the International Film Festival 2015 in Panama , getting a great success ; being well produced but in low-budget by Alex De La Iglesia , a great expert on terror genre as proved in ¨El Dia De La Bestia¨ , ¨La Comunidad¨ , ¨Witching and bitching¨ and ¨La Habitacion Del Niño¨ , among others . And professionally directed in 22 days by Juanfer Andrés and Esteban Roel that unleash a torrent of pent-up emotions in the form of a bloody suspense thriller . It had Goya Awards 2015 , as Won Goya : Best Make-Up and Hairstyles , Nominated Goya : Best Lead Actress , Macarena Gómez and Best New Directors ; Cinema Writers Circle Awards, in which Won CEC Award , Best New Director and Won Turia Award : Best Actress Macarena Gómez .

Although this is a bit of a copy of the Stephen King book and movie Misery it does it in spades and illustrates the quality of horror / thriller / drama that Spain has always produced and still continues to while Hollywood just bashes out the same old regurgitated plots and remakes and the UK cannot make anything worthwhile anymore either.

The main thing that puts this head and shoulders above other films is the utterly magnificent acting from Macarena Gomez not to mention all of the cast who are superb. Then we stir in the excellent makeup effects, camerawork and direction and you have simply everything coming together to make a worthwhile nights watch which is a rare thing these days!

Whilst it may not be that original in story it is a refreshing and utterly horrifying true horror movie - Instead of feeling revulsion you actually feel sorry for the Shrew herself and the dreadful life she has had - The director has excelled in evoking emotion from the audience and if a film can do this then its a good one in my view.

I give this one a full 7.5 hatchets!