This came out on Netflix a few days ago and the trailer got me interested so I decided to give it a look. There are a few different things that captured my eyes too but since everyone will be talking about them first I wanted to check out something different.
Errementari – aka Errementari: The Blacksmith and the Devil – is a 2017 Spanish/French fantasy horror movie directed by Paul Urkijo Alijo. It was produced by Álex de la Iglesia and stars Kandido Uranga, Eneko Sagardoy and Uma Bracaglia. It was based off Patxi herrementaria – a Basque folk tale that was collected by a priest and archeologist called José Migel de Barandiarán.
It is a tale about a Blacksmith and his battle with the devil. Here, we see a man from the government visit the village of the blacksmith looking for him. He enlists the help of the local villagers and sets forth to find him. The villagers are hesitant at first, telling the tale of how the blacksmith is horrifying and how at night you can hear screams of agony, but a series of events forces them to help him. During this a little girl gets bullied by some other kids and they throw the head of her doll over to his house. This prompts her to enter the estate and start looking for her. Once there she finds a little boy trapped in a cage who asks for her help. From here on things get really interesting.
The movie itself is not amazing. There is some flawed acting and the pacing is a bit slow at some parts but I really enjoyed it. The scenery itself is beautiful. I’ve always been a fan of movies set in this time period in rural villages. The story although nothing special was pretty unique. It’s simple and yet effective. The blacksmith is a very interesting Character, I seem to really love tragic characters like him. You begin to see the real him and how he tries to handle the consequences of his actions. The little girl was also a great character. Her innocence and purity was a perfect contrast to the other characters in the film, even the adults around her.
It actually managed to pull off something very hard. It made me feel sorry for and actually like a certain character that I never expected that I would feel sorry for. I don’t wanna spoil it but I’m sure you will notice who it is if you watch the film.
It’s a low budget film and it has some flaws as I said but you can clearly tell that a lot of work and passion went into it and for that I really appreciate it, it had everything that I love in a movie like this. If you enjoy movies like these definitely check it out.
Final verdict: 7/10
