Errementari - A Hooligan Review

 

I got to watch Errementari: The Blacksmith and the Devil last night while I was working. It is a Basque film that retells a classic fable about a blacksmith battling it out with a devil. In this movie, a blacksmith named Paxti has captured Sartael - a devil en route to claim his soul - and has secluded himself away from the townsfolk until one day a little girl named Usue accidentally stumbles into the scenario and unwittingly lets him out. Beware as there are:

SPOILERS AHEAD!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!

Errementari is playing on Netflix, and I had been wanting to watch it for some time now. It was dubbed in English, so there was that awkward mismatch that comes with all dubbed films. To be honest, I would have liked to watch it in its original language with subtitles, and I still just might if it's an option.

The Good

Across the board, most critics and audience reviews claim the set design was top notch, and I agree. The designs were very stylized and the practical demons themselves had great looks to them that seemed much more real than fabricated. I particularly enjoyed the basic transitions / transformations that happen along the way though they were few. The cinematography was done really well throughout the movie too. I am a fan of the ending with Sartael changing into human form (same actor unlike his younger self earlier) and getting picked up to tell a story to someone new.

The Bad

There were moments where the story felt a little forced and wishy-washy, particularly in the 2nd half. Many parts didn't make sense, for instance, when Usue died but was somehow brought back to life after being stabbed by a giant pitchfork. Another instance is the taking of the physical bell and hammer to hell from the real world - still just unsure how that happened and just seemed to work for the movement of the story. Regardless, there are others, but those were the 2 that stuck out to me the most.

The Ugly

My biggest gripe about this movie is the pacing for the setup in the beginning. Although I threw this on in the background while doing some work, I still felt the pacing needed to be picked up. The opening image was good, but then it started to slow to a crawl. However, I did notice that after about 30-40 minutes, the story picked up and paced itself at a much more acceptable speed.

My other gripe is that although it holds many horror elements - like a stylized version of the Gates of Hell - I wouldn't really call it a horror film but rather more of a Dark Fantasy.

Follow-Up

In the end, I did really enjoy this movie for all that it was. As mentioned, I still want to watch it in its original language with subtitles to get a better feel of the actors and world they've built. I feel like this is one of those films where you just have to go see and let it take you into its story till the end. I'm almost at a loss of words for it, which is almost a bad thing (Dave always talks about how being neutral is a sign that it didn't resonate on any emotional level - and he's right). I didn't really feel for the characters as much as I wanted, but the story was interesting and the set design was amazing. I still recommend that you just go watch it on Netflix.

Written by: J. Hooligan

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Did Anyone Catch the Similarities??

 

This is not really a review of the movie, but there are...

SPOILERS AHEAD!!

Whether you liked Predator or not for your own reasons, I found there was a huge similarity in the story that was akin to another movie that kept sticking out to me like a sore thumb the first time I watched it in theaters, and I haven't talked to anyone else who caught it yet.

Were you able to catch it??

Here's a hint, it's an animated movie.

Still no?

Well, here you go... It was just like:

Ah yes... the movie Predator had a resolution the same as the animated movie The Incredibles. If you missed it, that's OK. It was actually rather subtle in its application, but it was still there.

RECAP: At the end of The Incredibles, Syndrome's giant robot was terrorizing the city after he lost the remote control. How did they defeat it though?? By using it's own arm launched at himself as Mr. Incredible realized the only substance that could penetrate it was itself (a la the fight he experienced with the earlier model).

So what happened at the end of Predator? The exact same thing!! Nothing seemed to penetrate the new Predator's skin (*ehem* except the shield tech that severed its arm *cough cough*). Quinn strapped an explosive device to the arm and fired it at the Predator which penetrated itself and won him the battle. Yay! Win! Earth is saved! Thanks Mr. Incredible- err, Mr. McKenna. And not the other McKenna, but the miltary McKenna... err, not the end-of-the-movie McKenna, but through the whole movi- the Dad... the fricken Dad McKenna. Nobody likes first names including Predators.

What do you think? Maybe I'm a bit like Quinn in that I've seen a few too many animations with my kid and pull ideas from them to solve my problems. Let me know what you think.

Written by: J. Hooligan

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