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Reviewers seem to either love or hate this film. I gravitate toward the former camp. Seligman did a good job in my opinion of maintaining a suspenseful atmosphere. I thought the three leads played well together, particularly the mother and daughter. Camila Mendes should have a bright future ahead of her. The palm definitely goes to Adriana Barraza for playing one of the most hardboiled customers in film, right up there with performances by legends like Richard Boone and Lee Van Cleef. The fact that this was done by a middle aged woman makes it even more noteworthy. On a final note, this film reminded me very much of a Japanese film from 1964, Onibaba, again about a mother and daughter who murder people, only this time fleeing soldiers for their armor and money. That's worth a watch too. My general impression is that the people who dislike the film like their cinematic gratification fast and furious. For those prepared to give Coyote Lake a chance, you may well find it rewarding.

This is one of the funniest movies I've seen in years, a true screwball comedy for the early 21st century about two slackers who break into vacation homes in the Catskills and ransack them. Doomsdays plays like a Hope & Crosby Road picture only with sociopathic criminals as the rascally ne'er-do-wells who charm their way into your heart. To carry the Road analogy further, the straight Crosby role is played by Dirty Fred (Justin Rice), a wisecracking, booze guzzling pickup artist with the manner and appearance of an extremely scruffy grad student, and the Hope role by Bruho (Leo Fitzpatrick) who looks and acts like an escapee from an asylum for the criminally insane, a deeply antisocial personality with a penchant for slashing tires and trashing cars (all for a very altruistic reason) and a hidden kink that plays an important part in the plot.

The dynamic between these two alone provokes steady entertainment as they drift from one empty resort home to another. They break in, get caught yet talk their way out of it, and trash every place they visit, making sure to drink all the decent alcohol and carry off any good drugs they find. The action kicks up further when an acolyte joins, Jaidon, a kid they find passed out after a riotous party who follows them, intrigued by their footloose, glamorous lifestyle. Brian Charles Johnson gets big yuks from the role, consummately playing a chubby putz with a burning desire for a life of action and danger.

The group is completed by Reyna (Laura Campbell), a bright, lively young woman who Dirty Fred chats up at a party (that he crashed, natch). Reyna throws over her conventional lifestyle and joins the wild and groovy housebreaking scene. She quickly proves more adept than the men, effortlessly talking their way out of being caught. This character adds sexual tension to the plot with shifting relationships between Reyna, Dirty Fred, and the initially hostile Bruho. The film did drag a bit during the last half hour as the relationships played themselves out, yet this did lead to a satisfying conclusion I won't give away. The lull in the last third is easily forgiven, given the frantic pace of the first two thirds as the gags fly hot and heavy.

There is a lot of really funny dialogue, most voiced by Dirty Fred, with his perpetually sardonic, unflappable, been there, done that manner. There are so many jokes, the film warrants a second viewing to catch stuff you missed the first time. I found this film amusing for personal reasons since I've vacationed in upstate New York a lot (a really beautiful part of the country), but Doomsdays should appeal to just about anyone, so long as they like their humor black.

This fast paced, Spanish film is simultaneously a really disturbing horror tale, a meditation on the battle of the sexes, and one of the funniest movies I've seen in years. Things get off to a lightning start with a holdup of a gold buying emporium in downtown Madrid by criminals posing as living statues with a critical assist provided by a ten year old accomplice, one of the wildest film heist scenes I've ever seen and worth the price of admission alone. Seriously, you'll never forget the sight of a gold painted Jesus sprinting for his life while toting a little kid who's shooting back two handed at the police.

A beginning like that would be hard to surpass, but W&B continues to pile it on under Alex de la Iglesia's masterful direction. Having commandeered a cab whose driver willingly agrees to assist them, the criminals try to flee north to France to escape the law and to fulfill the promise made by the leader, José (Hugo Silva), to take his son to Disneyworld in Paris, with the police and José's divorced wife in hot pursuit. Already a tense situation for the hapless thieves, things take a decided turn for the weird and the worse when they reach the witch infested town of Zugarramurdi, in the heart of Basque country. Led by a three generation family (the oldest witch reminded me of Grandmama from the Addams Family), the witches capture the thieves with malign designs upon them, namely to use the men as sacrifices to restore an oppressive matriarchy.

The pace rarely lets up and the jokes fly fast and furious, interspersed with over the top, gross out scenes of gore. The men lament their inability to get along with women only to find themselves trapped in a decaying mansion (is there any other kind in a horror movie?) by a bunch of smiling, evil, literal witches who want to torture, kill, and eat them. They fight back as best they can, but their fates ultimately depend upon the attraction felt by the youngest witch in the family (well played by the stunningly beautiful Carolina Bang) for bumbling José. The climactic scene of a Witches' Sabbath simply has to be seen to be believed, but I won't give away any spoilers.

About the only real criticism I have of this film is the English title, which I don't think accurately conveys what the film's about. The Spanish title, Las Brujas De Zugarramurdi, The Witches Of Zugarramurdi, was apparently a non-starter due to the long, difficult Basque place name. This minor cavil aside, this was a crackerjack movie, absolutely entertaining from start to finish.

I recommend this film to horror fans who don't mind comedy mixed in with the scares (some horror fans are big purists that way) and anybody who likes a good laugh in general, although I will provide the trigger warning that this is not for anyone with a weak stomach.