Errementari: The Blacksmith and the Devil

Errementari: The Blacksmith and the Devil (2017)

Runtime: 98 minutes

Directed by: Paul Urkijo Alijo

Starring: Kandido Uranga, Uma Bracaglia, Eneko Sagardoy, Ramon Agirre, Jose Roman Argoitia

From: Many different French & Spanish companies

Not only this is folk horror, but in an extinct variation of a particular ethnic tongue. For a few years now, this picture has been in my Netflix queue; about time I pulled the trigger. The Spanish/French production was set and filmed in the Basque region-to be brief, the Basque are an ethnic group from that part of the world who have their own distinct culture. This 19th century tale is not only based on local folklore, it's in a dialect of Basque from the time that is now extinct. 

Turns out, I enjoyed the film more than some & now there are regrets that it wasn't streamed much sooner by me. It's a particular version of an Indo-European story, The Smith and the Devil. In this case, a blacksmith makes a deal w/ a demon for a particular reason, but things go wrong. Years later, the blacksmith is an outcast in a poor Basque town in 1843. When an 8 year old girl stumbles onto his land... I'll just say that in fact a demon is a supporting character and not reveal much more.

It's a movie I dug from the very beginning. The foggy forest setting was awesome. I enjoyed the characters and the dark nature of the plot. It had great lighting throughout and sometimes scenes were bathed in colored light for a particular reason. The little girl was an outcast herself and I felt great sympathy due to how poorly the rest of the town treated her. The music, the introduction of dark humor in the second act that increased until the finale, the lore, it all enthralled me. The folklore presented all had to be period-accurate. After all, there's lore surrounding demons and... CHICKPEAS. Don't worry, it's humorous rather than intelligence-insulting.

Many may not be as over the moon for Errementari as I was; that is all good but for those who are intrigued by my comments, it's always worth a shot. Even getting to hear the Basque language was a rare treat. I'll be in the minority here but give me modern films like this instead of “elevated horror”, “fan service crap” or “over the top grotesque gore” anytime.