User reviews

Here is a film based on the Spanish Inquisition in the 1600's. A judge arrives at a small fishing village and with his cohorts interrogates young woman with accusations of witchcraft. The nuns at my Catholic school failed to mention this unsavory part of our history. Religion in all forms can be used in dangerous ways. The women here are tortured to the point of confessing to relations with the devil. The atmosphere is historically accurate and the actors are good. It will not restore your faith in humanity or religion, but it is a worthwhile viewing.

The plot is decent and the actresses are very good; I recommend it if you are a fan of Spanish movies.

I couldn't finish it. It was desperately slow and dull. I thought it would show how the Inquisition worked in the XVII century. I'm a history teacher and I was thinking to watch it with my students but it's terribly written and historically inaccurate.

The girls accused of witchcraft seem like they were taken from this contemporary time to that century. They act and think like girls from the XX century.

The inquisitors are stupid beyond repair, what they do it doesn't make any sense. None. And is because the writers don't know a thing about history. They just took elements from an average exorcist movie, clichés from the Spanish Inquisition, some postmodernist feminism here and there and mix it up together with no quality or style.

Avoid like the plague.

I thought it would be another witch trials story, but it's actually a story about women empowerment and feminism in its purest forum.

Acting is very good, cinematography is beautiful and plot is engaging. It is historically very accurate in depicting how these trials went and what people thought in that period of time.

It is worth your time as it is not too long (1 hour and 30 minutes).

Another movie that has a bad ending! Movie goes developing well to the middle and took a bad direction that screw up at the end!

I'm glad to read all negative reviews are from shallow moviegoers who are looking for magic tricks. This is a masterpiece in all aspects. Haunting, interesting, historical, deep, disturbing, sexy. Genius! Good plot, good acting, good music, good timing and pace... Very serious filmmaking.

So the religious idiots of 17th century Basque Country decided to round up women who live near the woods and try them as witches. Of course, they're all guilty in the minds of these sorcerer believing half-wits which leads to burning the poor girls at the stake. Between the poor acting and the nonexistent script this is a big time waster. Most of the non-action that takes place in this movie occurs in a dungeon. If you're looking for some important message to derive from this low budget bore-fest it would be to not waste your time.

Abstract

Akelarre (Coven) -recent winner of five Goya awards- constitutes a powerful and lucid chronicle of the macho and misogynistic religious fanaticism of the Spanish Catholic Inquisition, of how it "adapted" reality to its prejudices, and does not hesitate to stage its comic stupidity at times , imposing an unexpected twist on the story and projecting all these towards the political present in an eloquent way but never underlined thanks to its realistic register and with a great staging.

Review

At the beginning of the 17th century, a group of inquisitors led by the investigating judge Rostegui (Alex Brendemühl, Dr. Mengele de Wakolda) and his Counselor (Daniel Fanego) arrived at a fishing village in the Basque Country (just one stopover in their disastrous journey ) and arrests and tortures a group of young adolescents accusing them of witchcraft, in a typical case of the investigation processes carried out by the Spanish Inquisition.

The approach that the Argentine director (and co-writer) Pablo Agüero makes of this historical event is very rich, with its multiple dimensions projected onto the present.

In the first place, the inquisitive duo, which combines the religious fanaticism of the investigating judge with the skeptical bureaucratic coldness of the counselor. The way in which Rostegui interprets and "adapted" reality to his prejudices in the interrogations, the ridiculous syllogisms of the dialectic in which both are sometimes trapped, have a powerful and current political resonance. And his timely quotes from the mystical poetry of Santa Teresa de Ávila are an eloquent reminder of the undeniable sexual charge that underlies.

The group of adolescents, accused of participating in a Sabbath (that one) -that is, a black mass to worship Lucifer- for the simple fact of dancing in the forest, is described and acts with an adequate anachronistic register or if you want timeless.

The girls, led by Ana (notably Amalia Aberasturi), somehow little contaminated by the dominant macho and misogynistic culture, display a totally rational spontaneity and put it into play to face the judgment of the inquisitors, imposing at a certain moment a turn to the gloomy of the story by exposing and taking advantage of the comic stupidity of all fanaticism.

The harsh scenes of captivity, interrogations and torture are absolutely current and at the same time, in a round trip, they impose the stamp of "medieval" on all the authoritarianism, fundamentalism and political abuse that followed later.

The period reconstruction and staging, with strong pictorial chiaroscuro that refer to Goya are very successful, as well as the music and songs that the prisoners sing at times are overwhelming. Special mention for the use of the off-field, which particularly in a scene, constitutes a great decision.

If you want to waste time, this is your movie. Nothing happened, like, literally.

We are taken to 17th (not 16th) century Spain, where the Inquisition is trying to find evidence of witchcraft among the peasantry. A group of young girl/women are found and accused. Imprisoned and tortured they concoct a bizarre mess of a story about what the witches sabbath is about.

It seems that by confusing the clergy and their soldiers by ridiculous rituals they try over-power them and escape.

Some have complained that "Why don't they try to argue their case?" Simply because it would be completely pointless - the whole inquisition wasn't about finding the truth, but to alleviate fears attributed to external forces (like witches). There was only one outcome of "trial" for those accused - death. Which is evident by one methods used - tow the accused to sea. If she floated she was a witch, guilty and should be killed, if she sank and drowned she was innocent.

The film depicts the atmosphere of these "trials" in a believable manner, and the misfortunes the unlucky women faced. Well worth a watch - don't expect anything in the way of horror movie, it is not.

Akelarre (or Coven for the English title) is a Spanish movie although the language is mostly Basque since the story is from that region of Spain. I read a lot of positive reviews for this one, even one stating this movie should win all the Oscars. Let just say we know who writes this kind of fake reviews, someone involved in the movie, or relatives or friends from someone involved in the movie. To me it deserves zero awards or there has to be one for 'pretty boring movie' which then it would be a contender. The acting wasn't bad, I'll give them that, but all the rest is not good at all. Repetitive scenes in an already boring story, that didn't help. I wouldn't waste your time with this one.

You will be taken back to the 1600s in Spain. The acting is impecable, sublime and evoking. The photography is like that of an oil painting and the music is involving and delicious. This is a film that will make you think throughout the movie, it's not a comfortable movie to watch, however I feel it's a movie many people need to watch. Allow yourself to submerge in a journey to the Middle Ages where women where considered dangerous, mainly by religious leaders. It will remind you of many situations that we see still to this day in our societies. This film is a masterpiece, for what it says, for what it hides and for what entails.

Do not bother of the good reviews .i read them and was tricked . Tried to watch it without pausing it due to its boring flow .

Couldn't manage to . At least 20 times paused it to do something else .

Just a movie to be playing as you are doing ANYTHING else .

Watch the reproduction of hippos on Nat Geo instead .

Great and ambitious film describing a process against women led by the inquisition. I found it engaging and refreshing, great actors and excellent photography.

Good and talented actors, Bad story and no ending. Sometimes netflix movies are really time wasting. I am so surprised that this movie has more than 3+ score here in imdb. After half I had no hope and I just couldnt wait and paused a lot to check how long this movie gonna continue. There is literally nothing in it.

It's a film that hurts the soul, for we are sure it was even worse than the film, the reality, I stopped a few times, by the feeling of discomfort and discomfort caused by some scenes, the poetic and hopeful ending... The film troops inquisitors, and we see blind and disoriented faith, when even the youngest priest and friend of the girls, who finally see them as witches... And They flew...

For some reason I quite liked this movie, despite not all that much happening. I think what really got me was the acting and camaraderie of the female leads. They all had great, natural dialogue and delivery and they really did have an endearing magic about them. Very cool "celebration" scene towards the end, a few engaging moments sprinkled throughout... but other than that it really didn't have all that much going on. Would have loved to have seen this movie with a bit more meat to it, maybe an unexpected twist. However, it wasn't necessarily unsuccessful as is... it just didn't really feel, complete I suppose.

All in all I did enjoy it and I would recommend.

For anyone wondering, NO this is not a horror movie. But, horror is many things such as the evil many women had to face during these times. This movie is a film if brave young women and what they endured during such witch hunts.

First the positives: very very good acting, I'm Latino so is could enjoy the performances a bit more. Photography was also very good. The plot was interesting, but from here we have to go to the bad. The inquisitorial process of the Spanish Crown depicted in the film can't be further from the truth, as here just omits all the stages, guarantees, and more that were developed centuries before. I understand the movie has to make us fear the inquisitors, but in reality, accusations of witchcraft almost never ended with a sentence, the vast majority of cases were dropped. Specially because in the last 200 years of inquisition, almost no one was murdered (murder is bad, but come on, if you put your movie in a specific historical moment, get it right! This lame process could only be expected from the German Protestant inquisition, not from the law process that evolved in the Church. 5k deaths from the inquisition is really bad, but not as bad as 25k of un-judicial processes of the Protestant inquisition, as the Catholics were focused on eradicate heresy, and the protestants on the search of witches. Most witchcraft notices were dismissed by the inquisitors without starting a process as since the XIII century it was noted that such thing just didn't exist). The movie takes inspiration from the Zugarramurdi trials, where the inquisitors decided to break the rules from the Supreme Council of the Inquisition, and carried on without the proper procedure, excited by the french trials in the neighboring region. Six people were executed in this trials, breaking all inquisition rules, condemned for heresy, not witchcraft.

The movie proposes a clash between truth and fantasy, and it taunts the audience to expect a psychological drama with all the little changes in narrative, but fails to deliver, deciding to side with one party. To explain myself a bit more, think about the Conscience character in Joan of Arc (1999), could have used some of that. Also, could have used a token, as the dress, to deliver a final shot to insert doubt after the final scene, but they used it as just an unimportant object. The issue is: you don't want to side with one party, you want to make people doubt! The movie of course must start with one side as the good , and the others are the bad guys, but should have made them move into the other side little by little to put doubt in the audience. Sadly, we all knew the truth throughout the entire film. Put this idea in the hands of David Fincher and an educated writer, or at least one that knows a bit of history, and we will get a masterpiece, because the idea is good, but the movie just didn't want to be great.

A new Spanish added to Netflix about the witch trials. A group of girls got accused of witchcraft. To delay the execution, they must lure the inquisitor into witnessing the Sabbath.

This movie is pretty much a satire about the ridiculousness of the hysteria in the past about witches. It demonstrated the saying-is-believing effect: the more you say or do what you think others want to see or hear, the more you believe in it.

As the plot progressed, I started to see how stupid and funny the old beliefs and signs that people used to identify witches. It's easy to trick and invoke curiosity from someone who blindly believe in something.

Overall, a ridiculous and crazy story that poked at the extreme and blind beliefs in witchcrafts. A good refresh from the popular movie genre. 8/10

So gooood movie, brave girls, stupid men I love it