Shrew's Nest

Plot is centered about agoraphobia of the main character. She cant get out of house, but beware she wont let you leave the house too.

Some fine acting and tight script never let u off the hook. Go for it.

It really is amazing that producer Alex de Iglesia has gotten so far without being a world celebrity film maker. This one is a quickie directed by a couple of his colleagues with unfamiliar players (Mrs. de Iglesea, the striking Carolina Bang, has a quite small part) and while it has a personality of it's own we can still see the macabre, master-crafted Iglesea style in it.

We get one of his closed environments like the apartment block in LA COMUNIDAD or Resines' space ship in ACCION MUTANTE, here a flat in a fifties Spanish apartment block, which the camera never leaves. Shut in seamstress Gómez (who proves to have a scream queen background that includes a Stuart Gordon Lovecraft adaptation) terrorizes her younger sister, former child actress Nadia de Santiago, now at the age where getting out of the house to work has made her take an interest in boys. Then neighbor Silva falls down the stairs - and proves to have a secret of his own. Throw in religious fanaticism and morphine addiction.

Gripping, perverse, bloody but not without rounded characters in the confusion. The great Luis Tosar is particularly imposing in his small footage.

Giving us some idea of the shortness of the film critic memory a few writers have cited MISERY but no one seems to notice that it's retreading WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE.

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!

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.

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