BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

SparkMore n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

montferrato It is a decent movie, based on a still popular and true story, very well known in northern Spain nowadays. Manuel Blanco Romasanta actually existed. Romasanta was a short man, somehow effeminate, able to get on well with women due to his harmless appearance. He was not a Casanova, but the guy that women would go with to a dark place without suspicion because he looked not dangerous. He had a feline cunning, and was able to deceive many women into travel with him. His method was always the same: Romasanta always approached widows, abandoned wives and young girls looking for a change and betterment in life. He offered women from the most depressed mountain villages of Galicia a better life in the big cities of the north, where they could find better jobs and good suitors for marriage. Then, while traveling with him in the mountains, he assaulted and murdered the women with a surprisingly strong frenzy and brutality. He also skinned the women and took their fat in order to make soap that he sold in some villages of the Spanish/Portuguese border, and made an assorted collection of jewels, rings, pendants, etc, stolen from their victims. He was convicted by 15-17 murders, but the final death toll could have been higher, as he roamed free for years killing at will and with impunity. When he was caught by the police, he told the judges and court that he was the victim of a curse, and that he couldn't help transform himself into a wolf and kill. Nobody believed him and he was sentenced to death. However, a certain French "Professor" called Monsieur Philipps(nowadays would be considered a total quack and nut-job) sent a letter to the Queen of Spain explaining that Lycanthropy was a mind disease, and the Queen commuted Romasanta's death sentence for a life sentence without possibility of parole. Galicia is a small region of northern Spain, located in the northwest, and bordering with Portugal in the South. It is a very interesting area, the "Spanish Transylvania" if you want. There is a very rich folklore, and Lycanthropy has been diagnosed to several people in the area by doctors, as some people believe they are wolves or behave in a canine or lupine way. The movie is OK, but missed a lot of potential. If this story were filmed with a big budget, better screenplay and were given a different approach, we could be talking now of a masterpiece, as all the ingredients are there: only true story of lycanthropy recorded in an European legal system, mysterious land with dark forests and primitive medieval cities, etc. It all has a taste of authenticity. All in all, pretty decent movie, but not a masterpiece. Pity, because it could have been. Lots of missed potential in this movie.

ma-cortes 1851 Galicia , an uproar is caused when some mutilated cadavers are discovered. Wolves plague the forests. People are disappearing. The mutilated cadavers present precise surgical cuts along with savage gashes ,giving way to the legend of the "Werewolf of Allariz". A traveling vendor (Julian Sands) along with his wife (Maru Valdivieso) and daughter rolls through the forest in his old wagon. A woman from every village on his route faithfully awaits him. He's attractive, intelligent, charming.... But he's also the monster feared by all. His most recent prey, Barbara (Elsa Pataky) will soon become the one who hunts him down .This exciting terror picture displays drama , action, suspense, with mysterious touches and is quite entertaining . The frightening story begins well and grows more and more until a downbeat finale. It's some different containing Galicia legends and actual events but with clear reference to previous werewolves films . Good performances from Julian Sands as traveling seller who hides a terrible secret and Elsa Pataky as unfortunate victim who seeks vengeance . The transformation of man into werewolf is complex and is made by expert make-up artist with no computer generator FX .The writers provide a well-knit plot with mystery and horror, giving full rein to Paco Plaza natural talent for the terror genre . Colorful cinematography by Javier Salmones and atmospheric musical score by Mikel Salas fitted perfectly to suspense action .The flick is finely produced by the chairman of Filmax and Castelao Productions , Julio Fernandez who along with his brother Carlos Fernandez are two successful producers and experts on Horror genre , producers of hits as ¨The machinist¨ ,¨ Fragiles¨, ¨Darkness¨, and many others. The picture is professionally directed by Paco Plaza (Second name, OT) who along with by Jaume Balaguero are the main Spanish filmmakers expert on terror cinema , both of whom have realized the box-office big successes as ¨Rec 1¨ and ¨Rec 2¨ , among others . It's a standard terror and sometimes graphically gory and turns out to be an acceptable attempt to cash in the werewolf sub-genre. Rating : 6,5 Good .The film is based on the true-life story of Manuel Blanco Romasanta, the traveling vendor, who confessed to the murders of thirteen people, using their body fat to make soap. Romasanta was tried in Allaríz in 1852 and avoided capital punishment by proclaiming he was a werewolf. Barbara was the lone survivor of four sisters . He obtained pardon to death penalty by queen Isabel II but was condemned life penalty . He died in prison .

ninjas-r-cool Supernatural tales that are "based on a true story" tend to bother me. Basically because "based on a true story" actually means it's based on a screenwriter's idea that's based on Chinese whispers that are based on speculative initial reports that are based on superstition. Someone's house creaks and a century later I'm watching balls like An American Haunting. But I was keen to see Romasanta anyway for 2 big reasons. One: It's based on a true story of a werewolf that killed 13 people and we all know that, unlike ghosts, werewolves are real. Two: It's directed by Paco Plaza and I just love movies made by Mexican shopping centres.To be honest, this one didn't really hold my attention at all so I'll be brief. It's very nicely shot with some lush scenery and a good sense of time and place. There's not a whole lot of blood which is surprising considering it's a period piece **badum-tish**, but there are some good gruesome aftermath shots of corpses shown in various states of post-slaughter rest. One of these moments even shows some dead 15 year old boobs, so any depraved perverts reading should check it out for that part alone. Also includes a few bits of violence toward children and animals which is always welcome on my TV.Now to the things I didn't like. I don't generally mind when actors play the role of a character not of their own country. I like Sean Connery in The Untouchables, even though he sounds less Irish than I do. But British actors playing Spaniards? Julian Sands is a decent actor, but you know what he isn't? He isn't Senor Manuel Blanco Romasanta and he never will be. Hearing someone who's as quintessentially English as the Queen (the parts of her that aren't French or German anyway) repeatedly referred to as "Senor" is just silly.Also, I was kind of in the mood for werewolves and the werewolf parts are brief. Really it's just the story of some douchebag murderer. So I suppose the film's title is accurate, as long as the subscript 'The Werewolf Hunt' was intended as Cockney rhyming slang...

Chris Heath The creature is not a large one. At first glance, it doesn't even seem to be anything more than an ordinary dog.But then you look closer. The wolf's mouth is larger than that of an ordinary dog, the teeth packed more densely together within. The wolf's eyes gleam a sickly yellow colour, and a vicious snarl augments the drool flowing from its mouth.The creature leaps at you with supernatural speed and strength. Its front paws knock you flat on your back, and you feel the freezing earth soaking through your shirt, the full moon gleaming down like a cruel eye, watching you.The wolf doesn't bother with a killing wound; it just begins to tear chunks of flesh from your stomach, ignoring your agonized screams. It will be a long, long time before your body loses all feeling, and everything goes dark.Manuel Romasanta was a traveling merchant and salesman in the mid eighteen hundreds, who, at some point, went completely and utterly insane. He believed himself to be a werewolf, a man who would assume the form of an unnaturally large and brutal wolf whenever the moon was full. Manifesting from this belief was the need to kill, and so kill he did, some sixteen or more people, chosen completely at random, no discrimination. He would slaughter them, devour them and then leave the bodies for others to find.There have been so many movies made that have been based on the lives of serial killers- Jack the Ripper, Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, etc. It seemed a mere matter of time until they dredged up this psychopath from the history books and immortalized him through film. But, of course, being set in the time that it is, and under the circumstances through which the events surrounding the case unfolded, they couldn't have been content merely to make a slasher/thriller sort of thing documenting the life of a serial killer. No, they had to turn it into a werewolf movie.And what a fantastic werewolf movie it turned out to be. I was expecting the sorts of cheesy werewolf effects that we saw in such movies as "Dog Soldiers" and "Underworld" (although to tell you the truth, I enjoyed both of those movies, solely for the action content in them). But groundless were all my fears, for as the movie progresses it becomes increasingly clear that this is not your usual, run-of-the-mill type of werewolf crap, with Romasanta assuming the form of a proper wolf when he transforms. Rather than "Dog Soldiers", it portrays itself more as being along the lines of "Ginger Snaps", with much the same sort of tragic tale at the heart of it.As with seemingly all new-age horror movies, even those done in an older sort of style (such as this one), there is a love story at the heart of the movie. However, true to the bizarre nature of this movie, it is not a happy tale of love that unfolds, rather a twisted tragedy in which neither side comes off any better than the other. For those of you who possess something like a twisted romanticism, I tell you now not to miss this one, you'll regret it if you do.I've already told you basically all you need to know about the story of this movie, and I'm not going to ruin all the twists and turns of the movie so as to spoil your viewing enjoyment. Just be sure not to miss this one, especially if you liked "Ginger Snaps".