ATTACK OF THE WEREWOLVES (OCTOBER 8TH)

YOU'VE GOT RED ON YOU TAKES PART IN THE 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE; WATCHING ONE HORROR MOVIE A DAY THROUGHOUT OCTOBER. SOME OF THEM OLD, SOME OF THEM NEW, SOME OF THEM HAVE JUST BEEN ON OUR SHELVES FOR YEARS GATHERING DUST, STILL IN CELLOPHANE...

I couldn’t have a respectable Halloween film schedule without a least one wolfie treat in there, and here’s one that I hadn’t yet seen. It’s a Spanish comedy horror from 2011 that also goes by the alternative title “Game of Werewolves” (makes a change from thrones I suppose…). The original home-territory title is “Lobos de Arga”, which rather disappointingly translates as just “Wolf from/of Arga”. I chose this for one of my “unseen” choices for 31 Days of Halloween, mainly because the UK Blu-Ray cover is so disturbing … but only because it’s one of those lenticular ones and it really bloody hurts the eyes to look at.

It starts with a comic-book-type prologue telling the story of the small farming hamlet of Arga in Spain. The wicked landowner of the village was the Marchioness de Mariño in the year 1901, who craved a son to take her place when she pegged it. But her husband was unable to “do the business”, so she kidnaps a gypsy knife-thrower and forces him to impregnate her. As you do. As a reward for his conception prowess she murders him and sets fire to the gypsy encampment. Which of course leads to the inevitable gypsy curse from an old Romany sort, and we all know what they take the form of. So on her sons 10th birthday the curse takes affect…

Cue credits and moving images and we’re in modern day Spain … albeit still in the rural farming area of the country. Tomás Mariño (Gorka Otxoa) is travelling from Madrid to Arga with his cute doggo Vito (best canine cinematic performance since Uggie from “The Artist”). Tomas is a semi-successful writer who is about to be recognised by locals and given “Freedom of the Village”, although he left years ago when he was still a teenager. Although given a fairly robust welcome by his Uncle Evaristo (Manuel Manquiña) and his boyhood friend Calisto (Carlos Areces), there still seems something odd within the community. There’s something scratching and howling in the barn, and the honorary ceremony that he’s looking forward to, ends up with him being knocked out and chucked into the tunnels beneath the local monastery. And then things start to get really bad…

The film has been likened to a furry version of “Shaun of the Dead”, but to be honest it’s closer to the less-than-successful “Lesbian Vampire Killers”. (NB: Mind you, look at where James Corden is these days!). If “Shaun” was a comedic take on the Romero zombie films, then “Attack” is more or less inspired as a humorous take on the Paul Naschy “Hombre Lobo” films from the 60’s and 70’s. It pretty much relies on broad and obvious humour and a scattergun approach to werewolf lore. That doesn’t mean to say that it’s not without its charms though.

The werewolves (or wolf-men to be precise) are almost wholly practical. They’re not exactly convincing, but they’re kind of fun and old-school. Fur-suits and prosthetics rule the day … err … night here and there’s a smirk-inducing amount