Quem Tem Medo de Lobisomem?

This film is lightweight but entertaining. It is the kind of movie I'd usually get impatient with but the pacing kept me engaged - that, and the ever-amusing Stepan Nercessian (Neto). His sidekick, Lula, is played by Reginaldo Farias, who also wrote and directed "Quem tem medo." The film's title in English is "Who's afraid of the werewolf?" It opens with Lula and Neto consulting an ancient map to find Lula's family land,only to find a city instead of the expected valley. In town, they pick up Iracema, who, though stood up by her bridegroom, is eventually courted (if you can call it that)by three of the 4 main male characters, including the werewolf. The whole movie is dreamlike in its jump from reality to reality and one never knows what's really going on. To judge it severely, it is neither fish nor fowl - not funny enough throughout to be a comedy, nor sufficiently scary to work as a horror movie. Nor could we call it psychologically deep unless one wants to read into it references to the dictatorship: references that probably weren't there. Anyway, as a fan of Brazilian cinema I enjoyed seeing this. It was fun, moved right along, and had some nice interior sets and outside shots of the Brazilian countryside.

Comedy, horror and thriller merge in this amusing, funny and creepy movie, a quite nice suprise, very atmospheric, with delicious references to Brazilian folklore. While juvenile overacting contributes to a camp humor, it is interwined with sounds and edition that leads to the awkward spooky athmosphere, making the movie balance itself between the extremes in a light but also interesting innovative way. The truth about the weird family and the werewolf legend is hidden until the very end, with scenes that make spectator renew continuously her/his provisional understanding. It is not a perfect movie, not everything works, and there are too many unnecessary and not engaging scenes, but general outcome is refreshing.