The Wolf House, La casa lobo in Spanish, is a stop motion animated horror film directed by Cristobal León and Joaquín Cociña and co-written with Alejandra Muffat. It’s nothing like you’ve ever seen before. It’s a hauntingly fascinating film, with an even more haunting plot which will leave you in an utter daze. The good kind though.
The story takes its roots from a real event that took place in Chile. A German fugitive who ran away to Chile during the Post WWII period started a colony called Colonia Dignidad, where he ran a sex cult and abused dozens of children. He was arrested in 2005. Yup, pretty recent if you think about it. QAnon doesn’t seem too wild of a theory now does it? The film follows a young girl Maria, voiced over by Amalia Kassai, who runs away from her town and takes refuge in this old abandoned house. Things get very freakish very quick from the moment the pigs morph into two tiny humans. And though the house isn’t a character it did everything a character is supposed to do and it definitely deserves a place in the cast. The way the entire house reacts to Maria’s feelings and becomes her world is quite enthralling. Maria is constantly afraid for her and her ‘pig turned human’ kids, Anna and Pedro because of the wolf that is constantly outside the house, trying to lure her out and get her to go back to her town. And so she raises the kids with the rule that you are never ever to leave the house because if the wolf doesn’t get you first then the tree which sucks animals in will. No, it’s not a black hole but wouldn’t it be cool if it were though? This movie takes almost over five years to film. That’s roughly sixty months. That is a helluva lot of time. The ever-evolving nature of this film makes it all the more uncanny. The sculptures are seen in their raw form, with duct tape sticking out, wires hanging loose, and we see the elements forming and breaking down which makes the visuals almost overstimulating.
The sound plays an extremely vital role. The sound of tape being used as the structures are remade every time adds life to the film. The little sounds of doors creaking, growling and footsteps of the wolf as they circle the house helps make the experience so much more haunting than it already is. There are various themes in the film like race, where the pig human kids are first born with dark hair and eyes and once that turns to light hair and eyes Maria calls them beautiful. And even when the hybrid kids get charred she gives them honey so they could become beautiful again. There’s a very prominent theme of sexual abuse as well as nazism with the Swastik appearing in the former part of the film. Maria talks about how she was punished in dark rooms and wasn’t allowed to cry which could also mean that perhaps she runs away from her village not just to run away from the villagers but also the abuser.
One of the things that make this film so oddly unsettling is the way it is filmed. It is a retelling of ‘Three little pigs’ and ‘The big bad wolf’ with a wicked twist. This film is essentially made for the kids of the colony to watch. It’s a very dark yet clever way of brainwashing the little minds into never crossing the walls with barbed wires surrounding the colony. Heck I know if I had grown up watching this, I wouldn’t ever let the thought of an escape linger let alone attempt one. The film almost feels like looking at a modern art exhibit made by an intense individual with a sinister past who is way too high for their own good.
If you’re into art or dark twisted things with even darker meanings hidden within then this film is for you. And if you’re not, it is still for you.
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