Capra cu trei iezi is a romanian horror period piece featuring Maia Morgenstern and directed by Victor Canache.
This is an adaptation of the iconic fairytale from Romania 1875 by Ion Creanga. But unlike other fairytale adaptations, it's a much darker and adult take on the story.
As a drama, this movie is great. The actors bring this characthers to life in an impressive way. The movie is pretty short, each scene being relevant to the plot and I wasn't bored (almost) at all. The direction is immaculate: the editing and cinematography do a spectacular job of showing this quiet, isolated setting with a dark and misterious tone. The characthers, while barely of them likeable, have nice interactions that keep you engaged to see what will happen next
But enough with the hyperbolized praises, let's talk about the worst part of the movie: the horror element. As a horror movie, this is honestly the worst the genre has to offer. Overall tense and scary scenes are ruined by corny, out of touch editing that makes the movie feel like a parody. Characthers like Nanasu feel like carichatures, because the movie wants to take ths intimidating villain and make him some blood thristy maniac that comes off more like some Batman 1965 villain, rather than an unstoppable force. Also the characters, just like I've said, are unlikeable. And not just the villain: all of them. In this movie, unless you're a mean, grumpy person or downright a piece of trash, you have little to no power in this world. The mother is always angry and mean to her kids, sometimes even to the little kid who is presented as a pure heroic underdog. And I know that her older kids are mean pieces of rubbish too, but when they're eventually killed, it doesn't really feel like they're the victims 'cause 1. They're unlikeable, non-relatable brats and 2. They pretty much guilty of their deaths. And of course I'm sorry, but if the movie put them in a somewhat more positive spot, their deaths would've felt much sadder, since the audience had an emotional connection with them.
So yeah, it's flawed, but I don't think it's bad like others say.
