''Witching & Bitching'' ( es, Las brujas de Zugarramurdi, links=no; ) is a 2013 Spanish

comedy horror Comedy horror, also known as horror comedy, is a literary genre, literary, television genre, television, and film genre that combines elements of comedy and horror fiction. Comedy horror has been described as able to be categorized under three ty ...

film co-written and directed by

Álex de la Iglesia Alejandro "Álex" de la Iglesia Mendoza (born 4 December 1965) is a Spanish film director, screenwriter, producer and former comic book artist. De la Iglesia's films combine grotesque and very dark elements such as death and murder: most of his ...

. It stars Hugo Silva,

Mario Casas Mario Casas Sierra (born 12 June 1986) is a Spanish actor. He rose to fame in Spain with the television series ''Los hombres de Paco'' (2007-2010), and later in the film ''Three Steps Above Heaven'' (2010). Early life and education Casas was ...

, and

Carmen Maura María del Carmen García Maura (born 15 September 1945) is a Spanish actress. In a career that has spanned six decades, she has starred in films such as ''Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown'', ''¡Ay Carmela!'', '' Common Wealth'', and ...

. It won the most awards at the 28th Goya Awards with eight wins out of ten nominations, primarily in technical categories.

Plot

The film opens with two men, José and Antonio robbing a

pawn shop A pawnbroker is an individual or business (pawnshop or pawn shop) that offers secured loans to people, with items of personal property used as collateral. The items having been ''pawned'' to the broker are themselves called ''pledges'' or ...

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

. Antonio is unhappy that José has brought his son Sergio along on the heist and is even unhappier that the child is participating with them, as this puts both him and them at risk. The robbery turns sour and several people die in the resulting gunfire. The men hijack a taxi and stow its unwilling passenger in the trunk, then force the driver, Manuel, to drive towards

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

's border with the intent to flee to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. The group is followed by Sergio's mother and José's ex Silvia as well as two police investigators Pacheco and Calvo, who are tracking Silvia. The men end up in

Zugarramurdi Zugarramurdi is a town and municipality located in the province and autonomous community of Navarre in northern Spain. It passed into history as the setting of alleged occult activity featured in the infamous Basque witch trials held in Logroño ...

Navarre Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, ...

, where they come across a group of cannibalistic

witches Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have use ...

led by Graciana, whose mother Maritxu tries to cook Sergio in her oven. They manage to escape the witches once but are forced to turn back, and they are thereby swiftly captured by the witches. Silvia manages to find the witches' house, enlisting the help of the cops to break into the house. José, Antonio, and Manuel end up escaping in the ensuing chaos, however Silvia and the two cops are captured, with Silvia turned into a witch with the use of tainted toad juice. The three men are captured by the witches except for José, who survives only through the intervention of Graciana's daughter Eva, who has become infatuated with him. She demands that he leave with her right away, yet José refuses to leave his son behind. With help from Eva's brother Luismi, José finds its way to the ritual chamber. Along the way they free Eva, who had been buried alive by her mother for her betrayal. Already in the chamber, Luismi and José are witness to Antonio, Manuel, Pacheco, and Calvo slowly burning in a pyre and the emergence of Graciana's goddess, a grotesque gargantuan woman resembling a fertility statue. The goddess devours Sergio, who passes through the giant and emerges alive. José confronts the witches with the help of Eva, who manages to cause the goddess's destruction, and José manages to escape the chaos with Sergio, Eva, and the other men. One month José and Eva are shown to be a couple raising Sergio, who is growing into his powers, yet Silvia, Graciana, and Maritxu are shown to be all alive and are content to wait for the couple to grow discontent with their happiness.

Cast

Release

Distributed by Universal Pictures International Spain, the film was theatrically released in Spain on 27 September 2013, opening with

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists ...

1,236,390 in its debut weekend (a 21% share of the entire box office).

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

the film holds a rating of 84% based on 31 reviews. The site's the consensus states: "Dark, nasty, and delightfully subversive, ''Witching and Bitching'' is gross-out genre fun with a heaping helping of warped comedy for good measure". On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

it has a score of 73% based on reviews from 10 critics.

Accolades

, - , align = "center" rowspan = "18" , 2014 , ,

1st Feroz Awards The 1st ceremony of the Feroz Awards was held at the Cine Callao in Madrid, on January 27, 2014. It was hosted by actress Alexandra Jiménez and aired on national TV through Paramount Channel. Winners and nominees The winners and nominees are list ...

, , colspan = "2" , Best Comedy Film , , , , , - , rowspan = "10" , 28th Goya Awards , , Best Original Score , , Joan Valent , , , , align = "center" rowspan = "10" , , - , Best Supporting Actress , , Terele Pávez , , , - , Best Production Supervision , , Carlos Bernases , , , - , Best Cinematography , , Kiko de la Rica , , , - , Best Editing , , Pablo Blanco , , , - , Best Art Direction , , Arturo García "Biaffra", José Luis Arrizabalaga "Arri" , , , - , Best Costume Design , , Francisco Delgado López , , , - , Best Makeup and Hairstyles , , María Dolores Gómez Castro, Javier Hernández Valentín, Pedro Rodríguez "Pedrati", Francisco J. Rodríguez Frías , , , - , Best Sound , , Charly Schmukler, Nicolás de Poulpiquet , , , - , Best Special Effects , , Juan Ramón Molina, Ferran Piquer , , , - , rowspan = "2" ,

1st Platino Awards The 1st Platino Awards were presented at the Teatro Anayasi in Panama City, Panama on April 5, 2014 to honour the best in Ibero-American films of 2013. Nominations were announced on 13 March 2014. '' The German Doctor'' received the most nominati ...

, , colspan = "2" , Best Ibero-American Film , , , , rowspan = "2" , , - , Best Original Score , , Joan Valent , , , - , rowspan = "5" , 1st

Fénix Awards The Fénix Awards ( es, Premios Fénix, links=no) were an annual ceremony of awards celebrated in Mexico City and presented by the association Cinema23 recognising excellence in the Ibero-American film industry. They were delivered from 2014 to 201 ...

, , Best Costume Design , , Paco Delgado , , , , rowspan = "5" , , - , Best Art Direction , , José Luis Arrizabalaga, Arturo García , , , - , Best Sound , , Carlos Schmukler, Nicolás de Poulpiquet , , , - , Best Music , , Joan Valent , , , - , Best Editing , , Pablo Blanco , ,

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Witching and Bitching 2013 films 2013 comedy horror films Films about cannibalism Films directed by Álex de la Iglesia Films about witchcraft Films with screenplays by Jorge Guerricaechevarría Spanish comedy horror films 2010s Spanish-language films 2010s Spanish films Enrique Cerezo PC films