Day 18: Lobos de Arga/Game of Werewolves (2011)

Can a once-prolific blogger who hasn't written 31 posts all year find it in his soul to review 31 previously unseen horror films in 31 days of October? Let's find out...

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I've seen this film in the horror section of HBO Go for quite some time now. Frankly, it looked ridiculous. Well, the screen-shot that they used for the film looked ridiculous. Then I started watching other films on HBO Go and I realized that they almost never use a screen-shot that is NOT ridiculous. So kudos to whatever sarcastic psycho is doing that for them. It doesn't say so in the brief description of the film on HBO, but it is billed as a horror-comedy in other places. OK, let's get down to it, boppers.

In a pre-credit bit o' comic-book-style exposition, we find out about what happened in the small town of Arga in rural Spain all those many moons ago. A desperate and blood-thirsty noblewoman, after failing in many attempts to get pregnant, becomes enamored with a traveling gypsy man who is in town with his crew putting on a show of some kind. He rebuffs her advances so she has him kidnapped and she takes his seed by force. She then leads her men in the murder of the entire gypsy camp, including the man's wife. But with her last breath, she curses the noblewoman and her offspring. Her son has a normal childhood, but at the age of ten the curse reveals itself and he becomes...da da DUM...a werewolf!!!

Fast-forward to present times, we see a young man traveling to his birthplace of Arga. He is an author of some sorts, and he believes the town has invited him back to celebrate him as a favorite son. But what they really want is to sacrifice him to the werewolf that has been terrorizing the town for 100 years. They believe that if the last male heir of the line is eaten by the wolf, the curse will end. If that doesn't happen, then the town will be cursed once more. This time something much, much worse.

But it's all shits and giggles, really. The townfolk aren't really up to the task, so to speak. And the man's bumbling friends and dog help him escape again and again. Even his grandmother gets into the act. Listen, it's no Shaun of the Dead. But it's not half-bad. I like how they went old-school with the werewolves. No CGI here, kids. Just a dude in a suit kinda looking like a modernized version of Michael Landon in I Was a Teenaged Werewolf. Without the super keen letterman jacket.

Lots of gags. Some of them work, some of them don't. In the end, it didn't really matter. It was a whole heap of fun wrapped up in a silly, little horror movie. Just don't expect it to make any sense at all. I mean, c'mon...it's a werewolf movie.

Be warned: it's in Spanish with English subtitles, and that might not be your bag.

Verdant Dude rating: 3 out of 5 pumpkins