Based on the true story of Manuel Blanco Romasanta who was known as ‘The Werewolf of Allariz’, the film depicts the life of Romasanta as he moves from village to village murdering women.
The film looked beautiful but that is unsurprising considering that it is a European film, but the aesthetics were backed up by great performances from Julian Sands and the gorgeous Elsa Pataky.
The film is slowly paced which allowed Julian Sands to play on his character’s mysterious side and he truly was charming. Elsa Pataky was also able to make the damsel in distress into a fearless werewolf hunter whilst remaining believable.
The film used many ideas from other films but successfully made them it’s own and even managed to put a simple yet clever and ultimately effective twist on the werewolf legend, and ended up being a solid little Euro-horror effort.
The film’s gore effects are superbly handled and effectively realised and kudos to the filmmakers for managing to pull off a solid transformation scene on such a small budget.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Romasanta is not overly gory, is not full of jump scares and is not full of gratuitous nudity, however it includes all of these elements and emerges tastefully as a beautifully realised tale of romance with a taint of terror.
