I had such high hopes for Attack of the Werewolves (2011), the new Spanish monster horror which has been impressing audiences and critics alike since its initial release earlier this year. Unfortunately as most of director Juan Martínez Moreno's hairy tale, starring Gorka Otxoa, Carlos Areces, Luis Zahera and Secun de la Rosa takes place in the dark, it's extremely hard to tell what is going on for most of the time and whether, as a result, it's any good.Legend has it that in 1910 in a remote Spanish village, the evil Marchioness of Marino, captured a travelling gypsy and managed to get herself pregnant by him. In revenge the gypsies wife cursed the Marchioness's resulting offspring, transforming him into a werewolf and placing the village under a reign of terror from the beast. The only way to free the village and the Marchioness's son from the curse is for one of her descendants to be sacrificed to the werewolf on the one hundredth anniversary of the original atrocity.
The present day and Tomás Mariño (Otxoa) a semi-successful writer has returned to his home town, where he has been invited by the local people to receive an award - or at least so they have led him to believe. Unfortunately for Tomás the villagers have something darker in mind, if only they can get him to play along with their plan.
As I said I was really looking forward to this offbeat black comedy which, if I'm honest, is reasonably well executed, up to a point. The wolves when they eventually appear (you begin to wonder when you will actually see any, as it's almost a third of the way into the film before they actually put in an appearance) are effectively pulled off, albeit in a 1980's American Werewolf in London way. A sharp vein of black humour runs through the proceedings as a whole, with one scene involving the amputation and cooking of certain human appendages in order to placate a suspected werewolf being particularly effective. The relationship between Tomás and his hapless friends and relations who find themselves joining forces in a fight for their lives, also helps to add an extra dimension which leaves the viewer actually interested in what happens to the characters, which makes for a refreshing change.
Another aspect in the film's favour are the settings. Filmed in Galicia, Spain, the sun-bleached streets of the village and exterior of Tomás' family manor house lend themselves perfectly to this tale of late night lycanthropy. Or at least you imagine they would if you could see them. When the sun sets it's hard to see exactly what is gong on, other than the odd close up of a furry, fanged face, the odd severed limb flying through the air and a lot of screaming and crunching of, what one presumes, are bones.
In the glory days of Hammer, the studio which put horror on the map was well known for its day for night shots, which must have been reasonably effective as the scenes shot this way appeared to be taking place at night, yet still let you to see everything that took place. Many modern fright films should be provided night vision goggles in order to let you see what is happening once the sun goes down, and as a result leave the viewer guessing as to much of what is taking place.
Attack of the Werewolves is, on the whole, not bad. One can only imagine its brilliance if you'd been able to see it all.
Cleaver Patterson
UK Rating:15
DVD/BD Release Date: 8th October 2012
Directed By:Juan Martínez Moreno
Cast:Carlos Areces, Secun de la Rosa, Luis Zahera, Mabel Rivera, Gorka Otxoa, Manuel Manquiña
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