Witching and Bitching (2013)

Hello Internet!
I am Torstein from Cinema Terror and today I will be reviewing the Spanish crazy comedy
horror film Witching and Bitching from director Alex de la Iglesia.
Witching and Bitching, or The Witches of Zugarramurdi, as the directly translated English title is
from the Spanish one, is one of his newer efforts of director Alex de la Iglesia and
it was released back in the last half of 2013.
The story starts with a group of armed robbers, dressed up in street performers customes,
robbing a pawn shop and driving away to the borders of France.
Before they get the classy country of red wine and cheese, they have to go through a
dark small village called Zugarramurdi.
This little village with a name that I prefer to not try to pronounce out loud again, is
a village that has a history of being a haven for witches and when our gang of thiefs arrive
there, they find out just how magically bloodthirsty and demented witches can be.
Witching and Bitching is a absurd, strange and fun ride of a film where you never know
where the story will go or wait waits ahead of you in the very next scene.
While it does start out with a bang by having our main guys rob the gold pawn store while
being in costumes, giving way for some pretty cool visuals, it still does take its sweet
time in getting to the witches.
Oh, and before I go further with the review, let's just take a peek at this awesomeness

I started to loose a bit of patience at this
point and after finishing the film I don't see any reason for why the first fourty minutes
couldn't have been reduced to nearly half, as the main characters aren't all that interesting
and there was just no need to spend that much time on the build up as the 115 minute running
time felt a bit too much for this movie.
The movie becomes a fun fantasy action film once the witches gets their butts in motion.
While not much backstory or explanation of the witches or the village is given, it is
not needed either as they do a good job in selling you on this world.
The witches are bad ass, with some cool powers to them, even if they are a bit inconsistent
if you pay too much attention to details.
It's cool to see the supernatural beings of witches being portrayed in a new light as
they are usually left behind by being portrayed more traditionally compared to other old monsters
such as vampires.
These witches however are not afraid to fight and get bloody at all.
Their magic is displayed with a mixture of CGI and practical effects and the filmmakers
do a good job of mixing them together, although there are some things every here and there
that does stick out as below average CGI if you want to nicpicker.
While the action is fun and thrilling, there are some problems with the characters.
I didn't care much for any of them, and while some of the humour might be missing for me
as I don't speak Spanish and therefor have to rely on the subtitle translation being
great, I just found the so-called good guys to be a bit unlikeable.
There was also a change of heart, if you will, of the hot witch Eva that felt a bit out of
place and only there because the plot needed it.
That's not to say that any of the actors did a bad job though, it just felt like the focus
was on everything else than the characters, even if the time spent with them would say
otherwise.
And again, something might have been lost in translation, but it's not like I'm not
used to watching movies in other languages than English either.
This is the first Alex de la Iglesia movie I've watched and I wouldn't mind getting exposed
to more of his films in the future.
There is an almost childlike enthusiasm to the movie and if I have to compare this to
anything else, then I would say that this reminded me of something my fellow Norwegian
Tommy Wirkola would have been proud of creating.
Putting entertainment above logic, even in a movie about witches, is more apparant than
ever in the final part of the film when the mother of witches is introduced.
And my god... if you could actually take the Mother of Tears from the last three mothers
movie by Dario Argento and just go the exact opposite direction, then you have what Alex
de la Iglesia delivers here.
The overall look of the film is superb and shows that there is plenty of competence behind
the camera.
From what I've read, this is one of the higher budget productions that de la Iglesia has
had so far and judging him by the work here, I'd say that producers should feel safe by
throwing more big budget productions his way.
Witching and Bitching is a fun fantasy film that tries to thrill and entertain you for
nearly two hours, and while it went on a bit longer than what it should have, ultimately
it was an enjoyable experience.
I do believe that I would have ranked the movie even higher if I watched it at a younger
age before my mind had been exposed to thousands upon thousands of other movies.
With that being said, Witching and Bitching is worth a purchase if you see it available,
but not something you should go out of your way to get unless you already are a Alex de
la Iglesia fan, in which case I am sure you already have it.
Witching and Bitching gets a 3.5 out of 5.
So, have you seen Witching and Bitching?
What did you think of it?
What should be the next de la Iglesia movie that I check out?
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Oh, and just to end this video on an awesome note, let's just watch this scene one more
time.
Thank you.

Witching and Bitching (2013) - Movie Review

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