BIG BAD WOLVES (2013) movie review

Big Bad Wolves (2013) d. Aharon Keshales / Navot Papushado (Israel)

After their stellar slasher debut, Kalevet (aka Rabies), hit DVD in 2012 following its extensive and wildly successful festival run, horror fans have been eagerly awaiting a follow-up from Israeli writing/directing team Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado. With this disturbing yet darkly funny kidnapping tale, they’re not bound to disappoint many, although their tendency toward third-act cuteness and contrivances undercuts what could have been a masterpiece of grueling tension and terror.

RABIES (2010) movie review

Rabies (aka Kalevet)(2010) d. Keshales, Aharon/Papushado, Navot

The title is a bit of a distraction, but I certainly went mad for this flick, billed as Israel’s first horror effort. (If this is any indication of the blood-blasting instincts of the Promised Land’s population, I say hand over the checkbook and let these kids rock the house.) A group of teens en route to a tennis match, a park ranger and his girlfriend, a homicidal killer and his victim and her brother, and two police officers cross paths again and again and again, with stunning and surprising results. In serving a superbly twisted screenplay in all senses of the word, a wealth of memorable stock characters are tossed together and, through an Altman-like series of close encounters, proceed to slice, dice, hack, shoot and smash each other to bits. Sure there are more than a few scenarios that we’ve seen before in Western horror efforts, but to my mind, half the fun is watching Keshales and Papushado put their own particular stamp on the clichés. Highly recommended.