User reviews

This is a full-on surreal terror movie that blends thrills , a lot of fun , suspense , tension as well as an intriguing script full of underlying seriousness , horror , comedy and embarrassing situations . This Spanish horror/comedy is Alex De la Iglesia's latest foray into absolute and total lunacy , being titled ¨Witching and Bitching¨ or ¨Las Brujas De Zugarramurdi¨ . The flick centers on a band of thieves trying to flee to France after purloining 25,000 gold rings from a Spanish city . When a bank heist in the city doesn't all go according to plan, José (Hugo Silva) and Tony (Mario Casas) find themselves in possession of some hostages (Manuel Tafalle , Jaime Ordoñez) and speeding through the mountains of Spain . As the gang of escaping jewellery theft get trapped by a coven of witches . A curse is placed on them , and they fall into the clutches of the witches (Carmen Maura , Terele Pavez and Carolina Bang , partner to Alex De Iglesia and his fetish actress) of the Navarrese little town of Zugarramurdi . Meanwhile , the thieves have been pursued by a botcher couple of polices (Secun De La Rosa and Pepon Nieto) . The village of Zugarramurdi has been cursed and it is up to an elected to remove this affliction . The townsfolk need his blood and his sacrifice in order to remove the curse .

Alex De la Iglesia's horror comedy Witching & Bitching blends horror elements with humor , tongue-in-cheek and thrills ; so, the tone of the film is light-hearted . It's a veritable buffet of the cream of recent Spanish horror plenty of action , laughs , scares and witches attacks . Packed with scenes of fantastic nature , robust comedy , this story is exciting as well as frightening , as we follow the strange situations of some peculiar thieves whose destination is dictated by terrible events . The narration is so filled with quirk characters , crazy violence mixed with diabolic elements and an underlying sense of horror , and it is so excessive and plenty of surprises , one can't help but keep watching , much as it is over the top in many an occasion . Witches aren't an easy cult for horror buffs to fall in love with, despite being a prolific symbol for screams , but Alex thrives where most falter . De La Iglesia reigns in his style this time around and gives an utterly watchable takedown of horror/comedy that certainly delivers a few madly inspired moments . Once again De la Iglesia exemplifies why he's one of the most amusing Spanish filmmakers currently churning out foreign cinema , adopting frenetic storytelling much like Quentin Tarantino , Brian Singer , Robert Rodriguez or Matthew Vaughn might dream up . Enjoyable main cast and agreeable support actors deliver one of the most engaging , hysterical, action packed and wonderfully shot witchery movie in years . Witching's ensemble cast boasts some of Spain's biggest film and TV stars, such as Mario Casas (I Want You) , Hugo Silva (Sex, Parties and Lies , The body ), and Carmen Maura , who earned a Best Actress award at San Sebastian in 2000 for her role in La Comunidad . Further cast members are Terele Pavez, Carolina Bang , Secun de la Rosa, Pepon Nieto, Jaime Ordonez , Macarena Gomez , Enrique Villen , Carlos Areces and Santiago Segura ; most of them Alex De Iglesia's ordinaries . This Spanish horror-comedy ¨Brujas of Zugarramurdi¨ was much praised by critics as well as public during its European festival run . Being a big winner with eight statues Goyas was this Alex De la Iglesia's comedy Witching and Bitching which dominated the technical categories .

The motion picture was well directed by De La Iglesia , well known as the Spanish king of black comedy . He's a cool director has got much success as ¨Accion Mutante¨ ,¨Dying of laughter¨ or ¨Muertos De Risa¨ , ¨Baby's room¨ , ¨Oxford murders¨ , ¨Balada Triste De Una Trompeta¨ and ¨Perdita Durango¨ is probably the weirdest Javier Bardem film ever made . And , of course , ¨Day of the beast¨ and ¨La Comunidad¨ obtained the unanimous praise of both the critics and the public and result to be a lot of fun¨, especially for those who enjoy surrealist humor , they won several Goya prizes and and resulted to be a turning point in his meteoric career ; from then on he became his own producer, beginning with '800 bullets' (2002) through the Pánico Films company . Winner of several Goyas (Spanish Oscars), however his movies have not yet reached box office in USA, but he has strong followers , as his films have a kind of comic edge to them . Nonsense, ridicule , laughters , absurdity , disturbing scenes and many other issues ; you can find everything in this flick . ¨Las Brujas De Zugarramurdi¨ captures the essence of the best Alex De La Iglesia, a filmmaker who, at this point in his own story, is respected and admired worldwide and has the most committed fans in the film universe . This is without a doubt a thrilling and enjoyable movie to be enjoyed for terror/comedy fans and Alex De Iglesia fans .

Witching and Bitching is the latest insane film from Álex de la Iglesia. His last effort was the bonkers violent clown madness that was The Last Circus. This film probably falls a little short of that one overall but it shares the anarchic comedy with violence template pretty closely. Like that film too, this one does lose steam a bit in its final section where it goes for a big ending, which loses sight of what made it good before a little. This is a pretty minor criticism though because on the whole this movie proves again that Iglesia is always someone who delivers something a bit left-field, unconcerned with the niceties of political correctness. The story has thieves on the run from a badly staged crime. On their escape route, they find themselves in a mysterious village in the Basque country where they are soon captured by a coven of witches.

As is common for Iglesia, this one starts out with a great, attention grabbing credit sequence where we are presented with images of witches and evil women throughout the ages. It takes a bit of a nerve to show a picture of notorious female killers such as Myra Hindley juxtaposed with former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher! After seeing that, well you can't say you haven't been warned. The opening heist is pretty hilarious, with the criminals dressed up as street artists and mascots. It's both funny and successfully pulse-pounding and certainly gets things off to a great start. Once the characters meet the witches, the film moves from being a crime-comedy into a horror-comedy, with a focus always on the humour. The witches themselves make for the most interesting characters in the movie, with Iglesia regular Carolina Bang being the standout as the seriously gorgeous biker-witch – she smolders the screen every time she appears. This section of the film focuses on lots of macabre humour and ends with a horde of witches gathering in a cave in anticipation for the arrival of their queen, who is a giant monstrous being. Like I said earlier, this whole finale in the cavern is less interesting than what has gone before – when things get too big and effects-driven you feel Iglesia himself loses a bit of interest too. But overall, this is another very enjoyable, crazy movie from this Spanish maverick.

That's all that should be said but... I'll say a bit more.

After pulling a jewelry store heist, a group of men find their route of escape leading them to an encounter with witches. It is nothing short of a rollercoaster ride that is hard to lose interest in.

I thought this has some great and pretty funny, moments. Comedy horror isn't really something I usually find much interest in but after watching What We Do In The Shadows, which I love, I wanted to see if I could find any other films that might be just as good. This is a film that kept showing up so I decided to check it out.

Horror comedy is tricky. You can twist things up a bit to add humor but if you go too far, it ends up being a cheese- fest. While this gets close to that fine line, it never went so far that it made me want to walk away from it. That's good so, I feel they got it right with this.

The acting is good, it is filmed and scripted well. Some of the special effects were the only issue I had but once again, it wasn't so bad I wanted to stop watching.

I say watch it if you like horror comedy.

A Spanish horror-comedy in which a group of bank-robbers stumble into a witch coven. Hijinks ensue, comedy is had. The theme of this one is about how the robbers (all men) have woman issues and have all but renounced their kind as villainous, deceptive and bitchy (*cough* witchy--get it?) The witch coven has done the same thing (there are no warlocks; though one witch has a son she keeps locked up in an underground vault).

Some lessons are not really learned, and there's a hulking monster witch with enormous boobs at the end the men have to contend with (one woman takes their side, alas). There's definitely some fun to be had here but it's fleeting and I'm not sure it's anywhere near as progressive as it thinks it is (if it does, I don't know).

If your sides are splitting when you watch French and Italian comedies, then there's a very solid chance you'll laugh at this moronic, infantile broad comedy too, because apparently Spanish film-makers love their humour soaked in manic overacting just as much as their Southern neighbours, if not more. You enjoy idiotic farce? Watch this and guffaw at the stupid jokes.

Every character speaks at 10,000 m/h, and that's not my subjective impression as a non-Spanish speaker: the subtitles were practically whizzing by, the fastest subtitles ever. It's as if everyone is in such a rush to say as many lines of dialogue as the writer can possibly cram into 2 hours, which is partially why the dialog is so unfunny, despite a few solid ideas here and there - ruined by the manner and speed of their delivery. Comedic timing: an alien concept to some film-makers?

Characters often say or do things that are contradictory. Clearly the writer was more than willing to sacrifice logic just to sneak in a few more (cheap) gags.

Friggin' two hours! Comedy and horror films need to be short, and this is a horror comedy so the travesty of going well above and beyond the unwritten-rule 90-minute limit was a poor decision indeed.

Visually the film is professional, not at all cheap-skate, and some scenes are almost interesting or have potential, but overall Las brujas just has too few things going for it, and far too many flaws, to entertain. The gender theme - handled with confusion and clumsiness - is annoying too: perhaps a Spanish thing? Almodovar had already given us a plethora of truly bad Spanish cinema that revolves around perversion, sex, gender identity and other cheesy (politically-correct) shock-dross, but I was hoping this would be better. Sure, it's better than his garbage, but not by that much.

There are even some annoying, boring, unfunny lady boys, a Spanish-cinema staple, and the movie just goes for the crude jokes the way a starved prisoner goes for an open buffet: it's almost as if the Spanish still haven't gotten used to their "new-found" freedom after Franco, and still have this desperate and childish need to over-compensate for the "time lost", to go overboard, to go for the obvious and unnecessary overkill by being lurid, extreme and tasteless - just to prove how politically and socially "emancipated" they are. Spain is, unfortunately, one of the most successfully brainwashed Cultural Marxist western nations. They might be as bad as Germany in fact. Hopefully they will come to their sense eventually, otherwise bad movies will be the very least of their problems.

The female cast looks atrocious, which is no major surprise (Spanish cinema, just like the UK, tends to cast mediocrities for whatever reason), though there is one major exception and that's the aptly named Carolina Bang, who is rather pretty despite being covered in unnecessarily horrendous make-up and corny punk hair. (Witches are Goths?) She definitely makes Penelope Cruz look like an accountant.

Years ago I saw Alex de la Iglesia's film, Accion Mutante, and I really liked it, despite the poverty-row budget. It had interesting, though unsympathetic characters, whose antics were fun to watch and an amazing artificial world full of surprises.

Witching & Bitching is an absolutely terrible title for a movie. I blame de la Iglesia's unfamiliarity with English. In any case, it is clear from the start that Mr. de la Iglesia's style in this film is the same as Accion Mutante. He has his signature whacked-out, borderline insane, outside-the-law bunglers, alongside seemingly minor characters that turn into major pillars of the plot line. He has his lame running jokes that rarely work, but are somehow comforting nonetheless, and, just like Accion Mutante, the movie has enough plot twists for three or four more conventional films.

Accion Mutante kept you surprised every minute. Witching & Bitching (man, I HATE that name) can't do quite as well, because the title, as well as the title screens both give away the fact that, at some point in the film, witches figure prominently. I was thrilled by the fact that the film managed to mingle fairy-tale witches with earth-goddess shenanigans.

Some of the scenes were spectacular. Many directors, when they get money, don't seem to know how to spend it to get the best results. But de la Iglesia sure did. You got to see every penny on the screen, and as a result, this movie was, in my opinion, superior to my beloved Accion Mutante.

I love the way that his films attack both the status quo as WELL as the revolution. He subverts the subversives. His witches are (obviously) aggressively feminist, but it is clear that if they controlled more of society, the world would not be a better place.

If you've not seen Accion Mutante (which probably most people haven't), then perhaps the closest "type" of movie to Witching & Bitching would be something by Terry Gilliam, or perhaps City of Lost Children. If you like that kind of anarchic, fantasy semi-comedy, this might be for you.

Starts as a funny crime-caper, ends as a very silly horror movie.

This movie had potential. It started very well, with a good robbery and police chase and some very funny dialogue. However, the moment it went from Tarantinoesque crime drama to a supernatural horror movie, it lost all focus and became very stupid. Just scene after mindless scene of hokey, unoriginal horror crap.

Some of the clever dialogue remains, but that's about all that's positive about the last 70% or so of the movie.

Sort of reminded me of From Dusk Till Dawn, which started well and then progressed/degenerated in a similar fashion.

Jose, a deadbeat, single and desperate dad, forgets that it is his assigned day to be with his young son. Unable to afford the time to find a sitter, he takes the boy on a brazen daytime robbery of a "cash for gold" shop. Jose and his companions (some of them kidnapped) along with his unfortunate son, head for the border with France. They stumble into a town that is not only inhabited by witches but is the birthplace of witchcraft. The witches set their sights on the trunk-full of gold rings, not so much for the gold as the broken promises and dreams they embody. The robbers, as well as those who pursue them, soon are wishing to be in a safe jail cell somewhere. The film is irreverent, gory, and funny, yet it is never firing on all cylinders. Even allowing for a certain amount of wackiness and implausible situations, the film gets too far out of control. Seen at the 2014 Miami International Film Festival.

This is not Spanish director Alex De La Iglesia's best effort (my personal favorite is Ferpect Crime), but is entertaining and watchable, if you like his brand of anarchic, corrosive, politically incorrect and pitch black humor. Here three misogynistic thieves on the run, trying to flee to France after a botched burglary in Madrid, end up in a little Basque village called Zugarramurdi (a place in which there was a real witch trial in the 17th century) where they are captured by a coven of feminist witches (the leader of which is Almodovar regular Carmen Maura) who subject them to a number of torments. Many more outrageous things happen, but they are not for me to reveal. A couple of very beautiful actresses (Carolina Bang and Macarena Gomez) help the film.

Las Brujas de Zugarramurdi, Álex de la Iglesia, 2013

The story follows a group of thieves who rob a gold buyers shop in Puerta del Sol, Madrid and then flee to the boarder of Spain-France. There they are captured by a group of Basque witches who want to use the main character's son for a ritual, believing him to be the chosen one. The thieves spend the rest of the film attempting to escape.

While there isn't much cultural significance in the film, the location of Zugarramurdi is an important one. It a region on the Spanish and French border notable for the accusations of witchcraft during The Inquisition in 1610 and the death of thirty-nine women. Despite the wackiness of the film, the director did a good job invoking the dark horror tones and ambience. The music was dark and looming and could have been the soundtrack to a much more serious film. The effects of the film were a bit overdramatic to me, but they worked in the context of the world being built. I was not a huge fan of the lighting, but the dark grayish and brown tones reminded me of other cult horror flicks. The story was lackluster and although the acting was good the characters didn't really delve deep or go anywhere.

I should have guessed from the trailer that this movie wasn't going to be my cup of tea, but from the abundance of well known actors I really wanted to like it. From the start the story had good potential with fun witty dialogue and a great heist scene; however, once the supernatural portion began it fell apart for me. Everything feels over the top and unfortunately that type of comedy doesn't work for me, so I found myself rolling my eyes and sometimes uncomfortable by the jokes, or just plain annoyed when some of them ran on for far too long. One of the most notifiable issues of the film, even if you enjoyed the humor and horror up to this point, is the overall run time. When I watch a comedy I like it to be short and to the point, but many scenes and bits dragged and could have been cut about a half hour short not to mention an underwhelming and ridiculous conclusion. Overall, if you can enjoy the often tasteless humor and mature themes then this film might be an enjoyable watch for fans of comedy-horror.

This movie starts pretty good, with quick, simple action and the trashy humour Alex de la Iglesia introduced to us in El Dia de La Bestia.

Unfortunately, the film begins to degenerate after the visit to Zagarramurdi's mansion. The "romantic" parts are all but necessary or adequate, and the movie tries to get too serious, sometimes.

It also tries too hard to be "impressive", towards the end.

It'd have been much better to stick to silly jokes and trashy cinematography, following the track of El Dia de la Bestia.

Anyway, the special effects are more than acceptable and it could make an OK film to just watch and forget.

While I did like Angelina Jolie in Maleficent, there is a witch right here, that I'd die for. All puns and jokes aside though: This is a comedy and it does start with a Bang (not Carolina, a literally one) and does not stop from there. It works because it is funny, but in an adult kind of way. No joke or poking fun is too low to go there (and while I'm not a fan of "toilet humor", there is one here, that I think is really good and nicely shot).

It is predictable obviously, but the actors make the whole thing work and you will have "sacrifices" that have to be made (no pun intended), for the inevitable outcome. The effects are really good and while you might argue about characters and their moods, this all get "explained" ... at least in a fashion, that is sufficient enough for a comedy

A stupid movie absolutely not funny. Bad acting. For kids only. Don't watch if you have a brain. Nothing There.

I saw this film at the Imagine (SF/horror/fantasy) film festival Amsterdam 2014. I had mixed experiences (see www.imdb.com/title/tt1572491/reviews-14) with the previous film Balada Triste De La Trompeta (aka The Last Circus) from the same director. The short version of my review at that time: After a beautiful 1st hour, the remaining ¾ hour disappointed completely. It was not a complete waste of time, however, so I decided for a second chance and booked tickets for Witching & Bitching (at least the title is a nice find).

You can imagine I had no high expectations for this movie. So I may be prejudiced, but I still don't know what to think of Witching and Bitching, that was scheduled to close the Imagine film festival 2014. A bit of humor, but not specifically the category of humor that I like. Many stereotypes about man/woman relationships, and many more stereotypes about witches and their magical powers, also something that I don't specifically like. Technically it is not a bad movie, all things considered, but I did not find any interesting contents to admire. In other words, this whole movie is lost on me.

In other words, the second chance that I allowed this director, can be considered a failed experiment. I speak for only myself, of course, since it received a 19th place (out of 43) for the audience award with average score 7.54. Controversy is an inherent feature of this film, given the mixed user reviews that I have seen until now (I've waited half a year before submitting above text, while I was distracted due to other business).

This fast paced, Spanish film is simultaneously a really disturbing horror tale, a meditation on the battle of the sexes, and one of the funniest movies I've seen in years. Things get off to a lightning start with a holdup of a gold buying emporium in downtown Madrid by criminals posing as living statues with a critical assist provided by a ten year old accomplice, one of the wildest film heist scenes I've ever seen and worth the price of admission alone. Seriously, you'll never forget the sight of a gold painted Jesus sprinting for his life while toting a little kid who's shooting back two handed at the police.

A beginning like that would be hard to surpass, but W&B continues to pile it on under Alex de la Iglesia's masterful direction. Having commandeered a cab whose driver willingly agrees to assist them, the criminals try to flee north to France to escape the law and to fulfill the promise made by the leader, José (Hugo Silva), to take his son to Disneyworld in Paris, with the police and José's divorced wife in hot pursuit. Already a tense situation for the hapless thieves, things take a decided turn for the weird and the worse when they reach the witch infested town of Zugarramurdi, in the heart of Basque country. Led by a three generation family (the oldest witch reminded me of Grandmama from the Addams Family), the witches capture the thieves with malign designs upon them, namely to use the men as sacrifices to restore an oppressive matriarchy.

The pace rarely lets up and the jokes fly fast and furious, interspersed with over the top, gross out scenes of gore. The men lament their inability to get along with women only to find themselves trapped in a decaying mansion (is there any other kind in a horror movie?) by a bunch of smiling, evil, literal witches who want to torture, kill, and eat them. They fight back as best they can, but their fates ultimately depend upon the attraction felt by the youngest witch in the family (well played by the stunningly beautiful Carolina Bang) for bumbling José. The climactic scene of a Witches' Sabbath simply has to be seen to be believed, but I won't give away any spoilers.

About the only real criticism I have of this film is the English title, which I don't think accurately conveys what the film's about. The Spanish title, Las Brujas De Zugarramurdi, The Witches Of Zugarramurdi, was apparently a non-starter due to the long, difficult Basque place name. This minor cavil aside, this was a crackerjack movie, absolutely entertaining from start to finish.

I recommend this film to horror fans who don't mind comedy mixed in with the scares (some horror fans are big purists that way) and anybody who likes a good laugh in general, although I will provide the trigger warning that this is not for anyone with a weak stomach.

Hillariously crazy comedy that keeps on turning more and more crazy the more the story unfolds.

I thought this movie was great. It starts off very normal with a quite funny movie and slightly zany humour. This then slowly builds into an over the top, hilariously funny romp which also manages to bury a few home truths in amongst the jokes and craziness.

Very surreal its technically a horror movie but more realistically I would say it was comedy with a few horror elements.

I honestly hope more people see this, I think its a shame its not better known and currently not as highly rated as I at least believe it should be. At the very least I think its worth a look if you are intrigued.