Big Bad Wolves (2013) Reviewed by corpus_vile
A dark, twisted yet blackly humorous Israeli horror from Directors/writers Aharaon Keshales & Navut Papushado
A brutal, sadistic child sex murderer is terrorizing Israel. Miki, (Lior Ashkenazi) is an uncompromising hardass cop who makes Dirty Harry & Stallone’s Cobra combined look like bleeding heart liberals.
Miki is convinced that the killer is Dror, (Rotem Keinan) a mild mannered schoolteacher and he’s prepared to go to any lengths to get a confession, including beating the absolute shit out of him with some enthusiastic flunkies. When his spot of police brutality badly backfires, Dror is of course freed and Miki gets suspended until further notice. But, not one to let such formalities deter him, Miki resolves to get answers from Dror one way or the other, even if this means kidnapping the paedo scumbag and subjecting him to a repeat spot of third degree in order to get his answers… such as what the killer has done with his child victims’ heads…
However, Dror insists- as he has fervently insisted all along- that he’s innocent, would never commit such repugnant acts and that they have the wrong man, due to some sort of horrible mistake. Miki is not impressed and is convinced of Dror’s guilt. But it turns out that ultimately, it really doesn’t matter whether Miki believes Dror”s guilt or innocence or not, because ultimately it isn’t Miki that Dror must convince… It’s Gidi (Tzahi Grad)
Gidi has been the watchful third element that neither Miki nor Dror have been aware of and he is a man on a mission. He may just possibly have a murky military intel style background and he also wants answers from Dror. Reason being, Gidi’s daughter was the monster’s – the Big Bad Wolf’s, you might say- latest victim. Gidi is determined, implacable and utterly ruthless and he will get answers.. and if he needs to use some of the many tools he has at his persuasion in order to get answers from his suspect- such as the pliers, the hammer and the blowtorch- then so be it. And if this upstart cop Miki has any sort of issue with this then Gidi has a plan prepared for that too…
Big Bad Wolves is a decidedly dark & twisted horror thriller from Israel, that’s also however infused with some surprisingly successful (albeit pitch black) humour that really shouldn’t, but actually does work all the better for the film as a whole and balances out an otherwise dark and grim horror quite nicely and gives it a nicely quirky and slightly unpredictable edge. It is not however a horror comedy or anything really resembling a standard one. While not a particularly gratuitous flick violence wise, what brutality there is is full on and nasty. Tone-wise, it has certain descriptive narratives in regards to the killer’s treatment of the child victims that would rival In a Glass Cage (1987) for sheer uncomfortable viewing. Its humour is dry, for the most part underplayed and very very dark indeed in places to the point where it’s uncertain if it’ll work for some viewers, and one specifically humorous aspect toward the finale has a distinctly and genuinely bitter tone.
From the makers of Kalavet/Rabies (2010), a rather miss-marketed horror which I also nevertheless liked for what it was, Big Bad Wolves is a marked improvement upon its predecessor in terms of overall quality in regards to plot and character development, and its production values are nicely high.
Directors Aharon Keshales & Navot Papushado are two talented up-comers that any self respecting horror fan should keep an eye out for, and I’ll be personally keeping an eye out for any potential future project by them to see if they can deliver a third win.
8/10
A taut, well made and well acted horror- thriller that’s well recommended for any horror fan.
Thank you for reading.
Corpus_Vile
