SHREW'S NEST (Musarañas, 2014)

OPENING FILM

Spain. Direction: Esteban Roel, Juanfer Andrés. Production: Álex de la Iglesia, Carolina Bang, Kiko Martínez / Pokeepsie Films, Nadie Es Perfecto Entertainment. Screenplay: Juanfer Andrés, Sofía Cuenca. Photography: Ángel Martínez Amorós. Music: Joan Valent. Edition: Juanfer Andrés. Cast: Macarena Gómez, Nadia de Santiago, Luis Tosar, Hugo Silva, Gracia Olayo, Lucía de la Fuente. Running time: 90 min

LANGUAGE: Spanish

Exaggerated. They say it’s exaggerated. Recent arrivals to the horror world. Baby faces ignorant of the Grand Guignol, who don’t realise that it’s here (and in Shakespeare and in Giant mythology or Goya) where we find the true roots of gore. They don’t know titles like Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964) or What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). And they’re capable of taking Argento’s or Fulci’s name in vain. Exaggerated... Of course: blood, needles, human heads on the clothes valet, morphine, the father’s ghost sitting in the kitchen, the teenage sister, the neighbour with a broken leg in the spinster seamstress’s bed. Exaggerated... Of course. Horrendous, dark and obscurantist. An oppressive atmosphere smacking of mothballs, the Franco regime, war, vengeful Christs, repressed desires... And Macarena going mental all over the shop.