User reviews

Shrew's Nest (Musarañas) is an acceptable film that exploits one woman's social insanity after being condemned to an apartment prison by her own fears . Spain , 1950s ; Montse's agoraphobia keeps her locked in a sinister apartment in Madrid and her only link to reality is her youngest sister . It deals about the tense relationship between Montse (Macarena Gómez) and her much younger sister (Nadia de Santiago), who has just turned 18 . Montse has become a stern maternal figure ; she's a fragile creature who can only exercise her authority by dispensing corporal punishment to the younger woman as she sees fit . But one day, a reckless young neighbor , Carlos (Hugo Silva) , falls down the stairwell and drags himself to their door . As Monse can't step one foot out of their apartment before collapsing in a fit of anxiety and stress . But someone has entered the shrew's nest and perhaps he'll never abandon .

The picture is full of suspense , mystery , screechy bursts of violence and lots of blood and gore . Shrew's Nest (Musarañas) marvelously exploits one woman's social craziness after being locked to a flat by her own fears . The picture is a peculiar crossover of ¨Misery¨ , ¨What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?¨ and ¨Copycat¨. As this terror as well as claustrophobic flick shown to the audience gets more and more exciting . It's a slow-burn mystery that explodes like a fireworks finale once the side effects of agoraphobia transform in a wild fit of genre psychosis . This slick horror feast is a triumph of style over movie logic . It's packed with overwhelming as well as upsetting images , excessive violence and grotesque killings . The main starring suffers Agoraphobia , it mays sound silly to most, but for its victims, passing through a domicile's entryway is like a portal directly into hell, bringing on panic attacks, insurmountable fear and irrational dread – a fantastic wrench thrown into any horror film's story . Here is treated some disturbing issues such as craziness , astonishing nightmares , incest ; including eerie images and grisly killings . Good acting by Macarena Gomez , she's a fragile woman who can only exercise her authority by dispensing corporal punishment to her innocent sister well played by Nadia De Santiago . And enjoyable performance by Luis Tosar, giving an awesome acting as incestuous father . Furthermore , brief intervention by Carolina Bang , Alex De La Iglesia's wife who usually appears in his films as main star or secondary role .

Thrilling and frightening musical score by Joan Valent . Colorful and evocative cinematography by Angel Amoros . The motion picture was presented at the International Film Festival 2015 in Panama , getting a great success ; being well produced but in low-budget by Alex De La Iglesia , a great expert on terror genre as proved in ¨El Dia De La Bestia¨ , ¨La Comunidad¨ , ¨Witching and bitching¨ and ¨La Habitacion Del Niño¨ , among others . And professionally directed in 22 days by Juanfer Andrés and Esteban Roel that unleash a torrent of pent-up emotions in the form of a bloody suspense thriller . It had Goya Awards 2015 , as Won Goya : Best Make-Up and Hairstyles , Nominated Goya : Best Lead Actress , Macarena Gómez and Best New Directors ; Cinema Writers Circle Awards, in which Won CEC Award , Best New Director and Won Turia Award : Best Actress Macarena Gómez .

Macarena Gómez is astounding as Montse, the agoraphobic seamstress who has been taking care of her younger sister since their parents died. One day, a man who lives above them falls down the stairs and can't move. Montse takes him in, but grows so enamored with him that she makes sure he'll never leave.

Shrew's Nest borrows a little bit from Misery and a bit from melodramatic gothic stories of family secrets and crazy old spinsters going haywire, but it's incredibly well made and the acting, especially by Gomez, is phenomenal. Patient viewers will be rewarded with an all-out gore fest during the film's finale.

It really is amazing that producer Alex de Iglesia has gotten so far without being a world celebrity film maker. This one is a quickie directed by a couple of his colleagues with unfamiliar players (Mrs. de Iglesea, the striking Carolina Bang, has a quite small part) and while it has a personality of it's own we can still see the macabre, master-crafted Iglesea style in it.

We get one of his closed environments like the apartment block in LA COMUNIDAD or Resines' space ship in ACCION MUTANTE, here a flat in a fifties Spanish apartment block, which the camera never leaves. Shut in seamstress Gómez (who proves to have a scream queen background that includes a Stuart Gordon Lovecraft adaptation) terrorizes her younger sister, former child actress Nadia de Santiago, now at the age where getting out of the house to work has made her take an interest in boys. Then neighbor Silva falls down the stairs - and proves to have a secret of his own. Throw in religious fanaticism and morphine addiction.

Gripping, perverse, bloody but not without rounded characters in the confusion. The great Luis Tosar is particularly imposing in his small footage.

Giving us some idea of the shortness of the film critic memory a few writers have cited MISERY but no one seems to notice that it's retreading WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE.

Although this is a bit of a copy of the Stephen King book and movie Misery it does it in spades and illustrates the quality of horror / thriller / drama that Spain has always produced and still continues to while Hollywood just bashes out the same old regurgitated plots and remakes and the UK cannot make anything worthwhile anymore either.

The main thing that puts this head and shoulders above other films is the utterly magnificent acting from Macarena Gomez not to mention all of the cast who are superb. Then we stir in the excellent makeup effects, camerawork and direction and you have simply everything coming together to make a worthwhile nights watch which is a rare thing these days!

Whilst it may not be that original in story it is a refreshing and utterly horrifying true horror movie - Instead of feeling revulsion you actually feel sorry for the Shrew herself and the dreadful life she has had - The director has excelled in evoking emotion from the audience and if a film can do this then its a good one in my view.

I give this one a full 7.5 hatchets!

Plot is centered about agoraphobia of the main character. She cant get out of house, but beware she wont let you leave the house too.

Some fine acting and tight script never let u off the hook. Go for it.

I have to admit, that when I saw where this was going (you can spot the signs early on), I wasn't expecting to like this as much as I did in the end. Predictability aside, this is very well acted. It's graphic at times (with the violence), but it's what it does in your head, that is most effective.

If you do love horror movies in general, then this might be one for you, otherwise the drama aspect of it, might not be enough to keep you interested. I do think they mix it up in a nice fashion, acting contributing and elevating a sort foreseeable outcome or at least direction this is heading.

Maybe because it's a foreign film (only Americans classify anything non- US as such) it looks more than it is but this highly predictable plot drags for too long and shortly after about 1/3 it is very obvious where it is going. Stuck between Misery and Psycho, this movie doesn't have much else to offer. Hoping it would go somewhere I watched to the end but particularly the last 20 minutes were just hard to sit through. Clichés galore and some of the most irritating, like dragging a wounded person lying on your back. Come on, just get up, grab them under the armpits and schlep them away. It could have done a lot more with just suspense and less gore.

I have to admit I was expecting a different type of plot, more psychological less psychopath, at least from the only synopsis i've read before watching it (my bad...sorry), but even though it was a great movie, it actually reminded me of Korean thrillers... you know, the type of movies that get's your attention and you expect more. Another thing that i liked was the color/camera approach... it blended correctly with the music, a peculiar old obscure environment where it should be. I would give this more if part of the plot wasn't obvious at some points, but was good most of it. Also after reading that this is a work from a new pair of director's then i just can't wait to see more of their work! Also i really liked the main actress performance and the great make up they did on her.

Once again, Spanish cinema's fixation on the Catholic religion and its darkest demonstrations, what they call religious horror. From the first scene, the horror stories that the older sister tells the younger sister at night...it turns out that they are the Bible and the monster that harasses the older sister...is the crucified Christ.

Naturally the origin of all evil is the most religious father, an unfortunate Tosar, who like all the most religious fathers is a monster of madness and evil.

This fashionable speech aims to give a certain weight (this is sadly considered to give dramatic weight and content to a film) to a cheap rehash, between Misery and What ever happened to Baby Jane, an impossible rehash with the sole interest of make us forget that we are facing the most trite, and that taking into account the inability to make it moderately plausible, it insults the intelligence of the viewer who wants to see something new with a minimum of sense.

You have to put up with Macarena Gómez, totally out of control from the first shot. Each gesture is from the repertoire, but exaggerated to the point of boredom. On the contrary, Hugo Silva is almost invisible, and Tosar cheaply menacing.

The characters are impossible, and once again childhood traumas are used to justify stupid behavior that staggers forward an impossible and ridiculous plot. The problem is when Silva's non-traumatized character behaves as stupidly as the sisters.

The last quarter of an hour, if anyone is interested in getting there, is absolutely hilarious stupidity.

And agoraphobia is the least of them.

This movie is worth watching just for Macarena Gómez's performance alone. Such an actress! Others in the cast pulled their weight as well. Some critics are dissing Hugo Silva, but an actor can only do so much when his or her onscreen time mostly involves just lying prone in a bed. Silva did fine in scenes when his character was more or less mobile.

Clearly this is a horror movie, but it has a low key comedic element as well. Only someone with Gomez's talent, and that of the director who turned her loose, could get away with the 'shenanigans' she portrayed (as Montse) and not have the audience simply shrug off the show as a silly slasher flick.

For those interested in making a low budget indie movie themselves someday, note how practically all the scenes took place in one apartment. Far less expense dealing with lighting, weather, set up time, transportation, etc. Lots of movies use one or two indoor sets for the same reason, but they rarely even approach the same energy level as Musarañas, aka Shrew's Nest.

It has an inventive plot that keeps you on your toes, sharing some beats with Misery, but never feeling derivative. It's slow build brings depth to the character's before erupting into disturbing violence. Most remarkable though is the clever way that the character of Montse becomes both the protagonist and antagonist as the film flops between humanizing and demonizing her. Macarena Gómez masterfully embodies this dichotomy, playing on the edge of sympathetic and loathsome. The disturbing twists continue up till the very end making for a very compelling ride.

I was just looking for a moderate movie when I picked this up. This is a very disturbing story about misery and love. It is a nice movie overall but what a fantastic performance by Macarena Gómez, such performance would have easily landed her an Oscar if this was a Hollywood movie

One unanswered question: What happened to their actual biological mother? It's never explained and i would really like an answer to that. Now, this movie is extremely dark. Even when you want to hate our "villain", you really cant, because she is written in a way that you feel terrible for her, knowing the all the suffering she went throught, you just feel terrible for her man. She tried her best to save her little "sister", but it's just impossible.

The camera work in this is incredible. Very well shot. Acting to me seems pretty strong. We got strong writing, characters you can care for. Maybe we could have a bit more depth given to Carlos, that might of helped? Because he has barely any depth in this movie. Maybe the sister she could use a bit more depth, because all the depth is drilled into Montse, i think the girl could use some depth too. But then again what depth, when she does not remember anything.

That ending was really out of left field i was not expecting that ending. My eyes were burning during this, but it did not break me like Triangle and Grave of the Fireflies did, the two movies i just mentioned rip your soul apart. But anyway, the movie is for the most part pretty good. The intro is a bit dull, but it gets better really fast.

I will tell you the something: if you see that Luis Tosar is playing in the film, then there is a 99% chance that movie is excellent! But if there are Hugo Silva and Macarena Gomez too, and a little spells from Álex De La Iglesias then the film is a masterpiece. I love this film! Actors are briliant, the story is tense, music is great.

Its an underrated movie.. 6.7 is too low. Its atleast 7.5.

Now this is what I call a real movie Hollywood takes notes

The movie really surprised me. It wasn't as intense as i thought it would be, leaning more on the Drama side, but it didn't make it any less enjoyable for me. I really couldn't predict the way things would go down. It was one surprise after the other.

The characters all developed in a unique way throughout the movie. You really see them struggle through what they're living. It gives purpose to each event in the movie.

To top it all, the ending has a twist that, for me, made an already excellent movie even better.

I would definitely recommend it!

A perfect psychologically angled horror-thriller with high performance by Macarena Gomez. It's one of the most interesting options for twisted horror-drama.