Those whose names can not be called, perform an ugly ladder for us: a review of the film “Blacksmithing and Devil” (“Errementari”, 2018)
Greetings of the dear gentlemen of the gamers, in touch Denis Bolshakov, aka Jean Grey, he is the most constant blogger in this side of Stopgame. Netflix, as you know, is not only valuable fur, but also a real content trash with all the positive and negative aspects of this case. The platform is literally littered with different -caliber content, in which it is difficult to navigate enough, because one outstanding project has a dozen films and dubious series (if not worse) qualities. The opposite is true-sometimes all the well-known streaming service can be stumbled upon something little-known, but without five minutes outstanding. The film, which without the support of the service simply would have disappeared on the pages of history, not even receiving the fraction of the well -deserved recognition that he has a chance to get on Netflix’e.
The horror segment of the Russian-speaking Netflix’a is an extremely sad sight. Apart from a dozen Hollywood horrors of the average shift, which we have all seen three hundred times, and a couple of conceptually interesting tapes, he is drowning in films about houses with ghosts. The same cursed house, the same to a toothed gnashing, where the next privileged American family of the middle class \ Minor morons from the eighties \ Poor students come and suck in the fresh air from the drawings of the next ghost of the house under the hill. It’s just funny, I want to see the horror story, so that my inner Zhimishenko Valery Albertovich (54 years old) was carefully scared and dropped the mask again, and I received my dose of adrenaline, but it wasn’t there-look at horror ghosts and do not puff. Against the backdrop of catastrophic dominance, “blacksmith and devil” looks very intriguing-based on the ancient European fairy tale Gothic horror in the decorations of the Basque lands of 1845. Assigned, respectively, in Basque, a director from the Basque Country. When you even heard that someone is making a movie in those places? That’s it, so I rushed without doubt to watch an interesting craft.
Those whose names can not be called, perform an ugly ladder for us: a review of the film “Blacksmithing and Devil” (“Errementari”, 2018)
About what film: Somewhere in the Baskskaya wilderness, a blacksmith lives near the village. All residents are sure that he is evil in the flesh, and in any case to approach his home. But children are children, and harmful boys, mocking the local orphan, tear their heads off her doll and throw it through the fence to the house of the blacksmith. The girl makes his way to the forbidden territory and finds out the terrible secret of the blacksmith. Just at that time, a visiting official convinces local residents that the blacksmith in his house hides gold and prepares gullible Selyukov to attack his house.
About what blog: “Blacksmith and Devil” from the first minutes sets up in a positive way. Director with a not particularly pronounced name Paul Urkijo Alijo definitely knows exactly how to catch up with the atmosphere, for the “blacksmith and devil” is saturated with it from top to bottom, which is the main advantage of the picture. The rural road in an impenetrable dense fog, a bunch of frightened villagers preparing for the execution by government soldiers, a priest, muttering a waste prayer and the subsequent massacre, which ends far from the way to imagine – the opening scene is reduced by darkness and mysticism with violent enthusiasm, which would not subside for this intensity. The film did not deceive the expectations, on the contrary. “Blacksmithing and Devil” very cleverly works with the source material, kneading a fair fraction of a almost dark fantasy into the children’s fairy tale, forcing the brothers Grimm more than once and not twice to look at the course of viewing. The fabulous here goes hand in hand with gloomy, which in combination gives the atmosphere a sort of dark fairy tale for adults. That is, it seems that there is quite a classic fairy tale, which we all heard in a particular interpretation, only people die during the film (sometimes in a very cruel way), darkness, hopelessness and demolition are happening.
The visual part of the picture played an important role https://blackmagiccasino.uk/ in the atmosphere. Despite the fact that the film is poor enough on locations (in fact, all the main action will take place in a forge, churches and a hotel), thanks to the direct hands of the operator and the efforts of decorators, the film from this poverty does not suffer from this poverty. Thanks to the filling of locations by various details, high -quality work with light and successfully selected angles visually the film looks very pleasant. The same location, thanks to working with light and camera, can look completely different and convey a different mood than the film often uses. It is felt that there were not enough budgets for some extracts, but the available funds were used wisely and knowledge of the matter. Not so often in the cinema, you try to carefully examine each scene, noticing interesting details (such as the fact that the gates, doors and walls of the forges are upholstered in both inside and outside, so as not to let evil spirits);“Blacksmithing and Devil” is exactly the same example of the competent work of decorators and operator.
Another thing is that when the action begins in the film, which is suddenly a lot, the delight of the visual part is somewhat dulled. Conceptually, the action scenes are quite interesting, the director is trying to furnish local deadly, in some places even with humor, but an unsuccessful installation prevents them from enjoying them. Is it about the budgetary restrictions, or the inexperience of the creators-the camera during the action segments is noticeably shaking, and the editor cuts everything so that the impression is finally spoiled. This is not somehow very bad, rather mediocre, not impressive. In a world where there is a “hostage 3” it is sinful to scold poor Baskic filmmakers for the installation of the action, but a lot of members are fighting and members, therefore, you subconsciously expect that this part of the film will be made at the proper level. Given the level of quality of everything else, it becomes especially disappointing that it was here that the creators gave a swing. Perhaps it was worth reducing the number of action scenes and concentrate as much as possible on the atmosphere’s injection.
But not on one atmosphere the picture is held. The Blacksmiths and the Devil makes a very positive impression throughout the viewing, because in all aspects you feel diligence and sincere desire to make a good movie. If we talk specifically about the plot, then it is quite simple, but with its pleasant features. The creators are emphasized not on the twist of the storyline, but on its feed. The film does not stop for a second from the very first minutes, most excitingly and dynamically telling the well-known story, not forgetting to throw some interesting details that deepen what is happening. Nowadays, this is especially valuable: personally, I have already tired of the languidly stretching horror, where the creators very often confuse the concepts of “catching the sappress” and “pull the rubber for two hours” (hello, “solstice”). The “blacksmith and the devil” stumbles only closer to the end, about 20-30 minutes until the end. If until this moment the creators managed to keep the balance between the dynamics and the plot filling and the disclosure of the characters, then something went wrong, the film appears in the film a slightly deteriorating confusion. If without spoilers, then suddenly the heroes of the film closer to the end of a couple of scenes are developing arcs of their characters, which in other films would require much more timing. There is a feeling that there are another 20 minutes of material left on the mounting table, important for the events at the end to be perceived more logical and slimmer. Here, after viewing, there are questions that no one is going to answer for obvious reasons. Well, I knew a minute one and a half minutes (spoiler) with a heroine, well, inflamed with fresh sensual love for (spoiler) a blacksmith and decided to save everyone, well, it happens. The creators seemed to throw a couple of scenes, which is why the picture is sharply losing in the intensity of the characters in the point of view of experiencing the characters, because I could not understand why the hero behaves this way, and in the next scene it is already completely differently. This is a very offensive omission by the creators, a spoiling impression of well -done work in everything else.
Despite the fact that if you abstract from not very successful work with characters, the very last 20-30 minutes are entirely chic and completely. Just a good film, thanks to its last act, risks getting stuck in my memory for a much longer period of time than I expected and go from the category of just solid films to the category of films, solid to extreme. It is very difficult to explain without spoilers that this is in the last act of chic, but I will try. Imagine that you are playing some “beast inSide”. The atmosphere is pumped out, the plot is thrown out, everything is moderately dynamic and pleasant, but without revelations. And suddenly, in the last third of the game, you suddenly find that you are playing “Doom: Eternal”. On all sides, hellish evil spirits, the epic gates of hell, the protagonist in Dumahaevsky is enough giant Christian BFG of the 19th century and is going to bring good and positive in hellish booys. I expected everyone from the last act, but the fact that the film suddenly piles a solid epic did not expect in any way. In order for me to begin to squeak with delight not enough Mick Gordon on the soundtrack, honestly.
By the way, about hellish evil spirits. Actually, the same devil from the name in the film is (spoiler!), and even not one. The creators did not begin, following the example of the Hollywood twigs, to turn back the next crooked miscarriage of specialists in computer graphics, but gave the title jabak of the film to the mosquito specialists. God sees, it was a very correct decision. A demon around which the local plot is spinning, it turned out a miracle how good, becoming the main decoration of the film. By design, this is a classic damn straight with biblical pictures, red, with horns and tail and the actor playing it tries very hard to make his devil not only look authentic, but also sounds and moves. He screams, praises blasphemy, creates meanness, cunning, gives one, but a homerically funny scene with traps and generally plays out for all the money. I especially want to praise his choreography. At first it seemed to me funny that the devil jumps very funny, but the character and habits of the character are perfectly combined with twitching, breaking down on jumping, moving. I was always frustrated by the fact that the culture of makeup and animatronics in the horrors has gone the past, because not a single computer garbage can be compared in realism with a well -made actor or a well -made mechanism. The film is generally minimized on CGI, concentrating the entire graphene in the last third of the film, which only benefit him. Yes, this is not an “avatar”, but a relatively low -budget fairy tale, taken away from where, because in some moments graphene raises questions, but the creators deftly mask the shortcomings of the graphics fog, darkness and competently selected angles, although at times the eyes also cling to a very cheap CGI.
On the page of the film on Netflix, the description proudly flaunts the “Film of Horrors” dick, which seems to mean that “The Blacksmare and Devil” should be scared, and the creators were afraid that they were doing the Gothic horror. Iiiiiii he does not scare. At all. There is a gloomy atmosphere, tin, murders and other charms of a horror segment, but specifically to scare the film is not able. Yes, and during the viewing there is a feeling that he did not set this purpose, first of all, trying to interest, and not scare the viewer. But those who come here for a purebred horror about the devil can go to the extremely disappointed, especially considering that the trailer just advertises the film as a horror and, in fact, misleads. If you, like me, sit down to watch a movie just in anticipation of a solid picture, then you will never be disappointed.
Total: “Blacksmithing and Devil” is an unexpected, which is why even a more pleasant find from the open spaces of Netflix’a. Visually impressive Gothic horror without a horror with a simple plot, carried away from the first to the last minute. The film is not without drawbacks, but for me a chic atmosphere outweighed not the most successfully removed action and scenario flaws. Watch be sure.
I liked it
The last 30 minutes are just so good that I have already sat down to write this blog, stupid extravaganza of brutality and coolness
I didn’t like it
Assessment in numerical equivalent: 8 out of 10 (good 7, but the last 30 minutes-a point plus in any way)