Game of Werewolves (2011)

Let's be realistic.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

The sub-genre known as the horror-comedy is one that, to say the very least, has produced quite a lot of uneven films. Most often, the horror is diluted by the comedy or the laughs are too lame. Every so often, though, a movie comes along which gets the balance just right. Attack of the Werewolves is such a film. It begins quite excellently, with a voice over giving us the historical back-story over a series of very beautiful drawings. After that we are right into the story about a writer who returns to his ancestral family village only to discover a curse involving bloodthirsty werewolves.This really is a skillful mix of frights and laughs. The former is provided by the title monsters, helped by some nice atmosphere and tension. The latter is provided by a genuinely amusing script with several funny lines and additionally some hilarious sight gags – in particular, look out for the finger/dog scene. The cast all acquit themselves very well, the only one I recognised was Carlos Areces who played the writers old friend, I last seen him play the Sad Clown in the insane comedy The Last Circus from cult director Álex de la Iglesia.This is overall a very refreshingly good film about a traditional monster type. It deserves far more people to see it.

As you can probably tell from my title, I loved this movie. People have described it as Spain's answer to Shaun of the Dead. This is fairly accurate as far as the entertainment quota goes, and its about as scary as Shaun of the Dead too (1), but the plot not a SOTD rip off. Calling it SOTD only with werewolves is lazy. It deserves to be discussed on it's own merits.The movie is subtitled which, while never being ideal, doesn't ruin the fun(2). There are a lot of laugh out laugh moments which tells you that is it a genuinely funny script. The characters are great fun and nicely rounded(3). The humour is a bit school boyish, but that never stopped The Young Ones or The Inbetweeners being a hit did it. There's even a plucky pet dog who gets a lot of action and earns a couple of belly laughs.The werewolves are possibly a tiny bit too "man in fluffy costume" but I admire the director's take on FX vs CGI. Would a CGI werewolf been any better??? No. I very much doubt they had a Lord of The Rings style CGI budget to blow on this movie. Anyway, this movie isn't really about the horror, its an "badult" comedy adventure.Another minor problem could be the lack of a sexy heroine, but to be honest there are plenty of pure comedic genius moments to take your mind of that(4) and lets face it she'd have been wasted on us non Spanish speakers because we'd be too busy reading the subtitles! All told, Lobos de Arga well worth blowing 90 minutes in front of the TV and I'm planning on getting the DVD (5) too. Enjoy yourself, this movie certainly gets my seal of approval.(1) - Shaun of the Dead was not Scary. It was a total laugh though. So is Lobos De Arga! (2) - I want to watch a movie. Not miss it while reading the script! Dubbing is an under-rated tool that allows the viewer to revel in the production values of the movie - kinda important if its a horror movie! Lobos De Arga has scenes in old churches and underground tunnels which I loved to check out the scenery but I'm stuck reading the script, admittedly a very funny script but come on! I want my cake and I wanna eat it! (3) - Look out for the hamster joke! (4) - The dutch Horror comedy Kill Zombie! did have a super sexy kick ass heroine. I quite liked Kill Zombie! BUT Lobos De Arga knocks it out of the park as far fun goes.(5) - Is there a blu ray version? Highly unlikely is my guess, more is the pity!

Alright, well Spanish director Juan Martínez Moreno comes out of nowhere with this movie and totally breathes life into an otherwise stale werewolf genre.Don't let the fact that "Lobos de Arga" is a Spanish werewolf movie throw you off, because this movie is awesome. Just as what "Shaun of the Dead" was to the zombie genre and "Lesbian Vampire Killers" was to the vampire genre, then "Lobos de Arga" steps up and puts a much needed comedy twist to the genre."Lobos de Arga" is the story about Tomás Mariño (played by Gorka Otxoa) who travels to his old childhood village, thinking he is about to be celebrated for his slight fame as an author. Little does he know that the village is plagued by a hundred year old curse where a werewolf is rampart, and that his bloodline is needed to end the curse.The story was actually good and managed to incorporate enough comedy without it turning into a laugh-fest. And the amount of comedy that was here was used at all the right places, with funny comments, funny events and effects.As for the people hired for the various roles, then I will say that people did surprisingly good jobs with their given roles and characters. And there was a lot of cool and interesting details to the characters and much witty banter in the dialogue.The effects in the movie were really great as well, and the werewolves looked really cool. Even the transformation scenes were great, despite being a bit 'simplistic' by today's possibilities of CGI effects. But it worked out well, because it had that late 1980's werewolf transformation feel to it. And it was just right on the money.Being a Spanish movie, of course the dialogue is in Spanish, but it shouldn't be a thing to scare away the audience, because they will lack out on a great movie."Lobos de Arga" is a great movie that you owe to yourself to watch, especially if you enjoy werewolf movies, and/or enjoyed "Shaun of the Dead" or "Lesbian Vampire Killers".This movie gets a 7 out of 10 rating from me. You shouldn't be missing out on this particular Spanish gem.

Newly released horror movies like "Game of Werewolves" boost up my confidence, hope and enthusiasm that the genre isn't – contrary to popular belief – dead and buried just yet! Even allegedly exhausted and old-fashioned themes, like for example werewolves, can still result in refreshingly original and terrific films; it all just depends on dedicated cast and crew members that demonstrate an obvious respect and worship towards the genre. Heck, "Game of Werewolves" even proves that it's very well possible to make a horror effort that is scary and gross but simultaneously funny and light-headed. Writer/director Juan Martínez Moreno, together with his excellent ensemble cast and crew, clearly has the right attitude towards the horror genre and obviously knows his classics. When he was present at the Brussels Festival of Fantastic Films to introduce the movie to the audience, he stated that he was fed up – like all the rest of us or at least me – with the nowadays portrayal of werewolves and intended to make them iconic monsters again. "Game of Werewolves" is first and foremost an ode to the legendary classic Universal horror movies, in terms of storytelling and atmosphere, and the immortal lycanthrope hits of the 1980's in terms of special effect and transformation make-up ("American Werewolf in London" and "The Howling" of course). I'm usually very skeptic when directors claim they want to revive traditional horror values, but Moreno is one of the first directors who actually deliver their promise! Straight from the moodily narrated opening sequences, you just know the film will be a genuine treat! The narration, guided by neat drawings, tells us about a malignant Duchess who lived in a small Galician town around the year 1900. She desperately wanted to have a child, but her husband couldn't give it to her, so she kidnapped and male-raped a handsome gypsy male that traveled through the region. After she was impregnated, the Duchess ordered the villagers to slaughter the father as well as his entire gypsy community to eliminate any link with the boy's father. Just before dying, one of the gypsy women cursed the Duchess and foretold that her son would turn into a werewolf at the age of 10 and he would terrorize the village for all eternity. The only way for the curse to break would be the sacrifice of a direct descendant of the Duchess. More than a century later, Tomas – a debuting author with a severe case of writer's block – retires to the area to work about a new novel. Little does he know that his great-aunt was the evil Duchess and that he will serve as werewolf bait to lift up the curse. This short description actually just illustrates a very brief part of the film. The story is much more convoluted and elaborated, but it's too much of a joy to discover yourself. Just know that the screenplay is very well-structured, coherent and waterproof. All the main characters are extremely likable, which is also a rare quality to encounter in horror movies, and there's a masterful interchange of sequences that are downright hilarious (the finger!) and sequences that are good old-fashioned scary and tense (the unfolding of the subsequent curse). The finale is grotesque and outrageous without becoming ridiculous and the unpretentiousness of it all is a great added value. The filming locations and scenery are perfect and hallelujah for the special effects. Damn all them films like "Twilight", "Underworld" and whatever else to hell… "Game of Werewolves" is the real stuff!