When it was released in 2013, Big Bad Wolves It was a small Israeli film, indebted to the style of Quentin Tarantinowhich acquired a certain notoriety thanks precisely to the approval of the maestro who qualified it as the best film of the year, as well as a series of awards at festivals such as Sitges (Best Director and Best Soundtrack).
Directed by Aharon Keshales y Navot Papushado, the tape proposed a simple plot and bet all its interest on the tension between characters confined in an enclosed space and the plot’s doses of torture and black humor. In our opinion, the tape did not live up to the comment of Tarantinoespecially a year where, without leaving the genre, we could find jewels like prisoners o Stoker. In terms of on-screen violence, it didn’t reach the levels of the Torture Porn that was still out there, but, in general, it was attractive entertainment for lovers of the genre.
IBERIAN WOLF
The concept of the remake is common in certain cinematographies, especially the American one, where the new versions of recent films also respond to the absence of dubbing in the country and the dislike of its inhabitants for reading subtitles during the film; however, this phenomenon is not so common in Spanish cinema. That is why it is surprising, a) that the film has not had a remake before in Hollywood, taking into account the praise of Tarantino; and b) that it was in Spain (with a co-production with Uruguay) where a project like big bad wolf.
The script adapted from Juma Fodde y conchi del rio It’s pretty faithful to the original. Cashles y Don’t rest and the main changes are found in the variation in the sex of two of the original characters. The 2013 film featured a predominantly male cast, where all the relevant characters were played by men. In the remake, Adriana Ugarte assumes the role of the mother whose daughter has been found dead and mutilated by the pedophile killer, while Juana Acosta She occupies the role of the detective who collects the witness in the case after the suspension of the leading police officer, a character who here inherits Javier Gutierrez.
LOOKING FOR THE RIGHT TONE
Despite the fidelity he maintains with the original work, big bad wolf fails in two of the basic, fundamental aspects that allowed the success of Big Bad Wolves. The first is to reconcile the different tones of the film. The film seeks to maintain that complex navigation between the violent thriller, the black comedy and, to a lesser extent, the particular dramas of the main characters. These are very disparate components and the director Gustavo Hernandez is unable to level. This causes the film to lurch and the climatic moments lose effect, becoming artificial and excessive.
The other main stumbling block is the direction of actors. We cannot talk about bad interpreters because most of them have a high caliber professional career behind them; however, none of them ends up connecting with their character, resulting in hollow interpretations, where the efforts of the performers to give dramatic weight and intensity to the protagonists are overemphasized and unsuccessfully.
THE SOFT WOLF
What was presented as an intense, painful, sarcastic and raw film fails to meet any of these objectives. The tone is so false that, at times, the tape falls into unintentional parody and inappropriate laughter. Not that our bar was exactly high.
As we mentioned, in our opinion, Big Bad Wolves it does not rise above effective entertainment. However, this new version is a weak start for Spanish cinema in 2023.
