Fantastic!

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

The police accuse Bible study teacher Dror (Rotem Keinan) of molesting and killing three young girls. His "questioning-questioning" known as torture gets recorded and uploaded. The suspect is set free, but the consequences disrupts everyone's life. Later the father of one of the daughters captures both the policeman and Dror with his own plans in mind.One of the big plot holes is what was the CSI evidence? No DNA on the girls? Was Dror's place combed for fibers, hairs, prints? The film is made in Israel and is in subscripts. There are some attempts at humor in this torture drama, but the delivery and timing seemed off. I felt like I was being told a funny story by someone who messes it up.The film was a big hit at the 2013 Israeli Film Academy winning many awards (not best picture). It is highly rated by critics and fans. The film lacked the big twist and gave us a small, almost obligatory one instead. While it copies some aspect of Tarantino, you can detect it is a knock-off like a fuzzy print DVD.I think a better twist would have been if the dad was the killer and he got the innocent Dror to confess, the cop then kills Dror, the audience sees that the dad was the killer...then you go to the second twist ending as the cop is arrested for murder.Guide: No f-bomb, sex, or nudity. Some blood squirt. The torture scenes were either from a distant or showed you the after effects...except for maybe that one thing.

Since reading about them making the first ever Israeli Horror Rabies after seeing Julie Estelle living Comic-Book role as "Hammer Girl" in Gareth Evans Neo-Noir epic The Raid 2,I've been meaning to check the work of writers/directing duo Aharon Keshales & Navot Papushado.Getting the honour of being the host for an event held on IMDb's Film Festival,I was excited to find that Papushado and Keshales latest had been chosen for the fest,which led to me crying wolf.The plot:After the kidnapping of a number of schoolgirls (who are found murdered) police officer Micki believes that school teacher Dror is the killer. Grabbing Dror,Micki starts torturing him for info.Failing to get any info,Micki receives an anonymous call over the location of the latest victim,whose head has been taken. Unknown to Micki,someone has recorded his beating,which leads to him getting sacked. Blaming himself for his daughters death, Gidi learns that Dror is the main suspect.As Micki vows to go rogue and get a confession, Gidi starts getting set to make Dror afraid of the big bad wolf.View on the film:Backed by an excellent roaring score from Haim Frank Ilfman,writers/directors Aharon Keshales/Navot Papushado and cinematographer Giora Bejach cast an atmosphere of Neo-Noir dread,set alight by the kids being caught in the darkness via stylish slow motion,and wide crane shots capturing the isolated Noir world the duo now inhabit. Locking the guys up in one room,the directors deliver the violence with a blunt-force,that is burnt with a gallows edge to the torture,which gives it an under the skin seedy edge.Before the wolves cross paths,the screenplay by Keshales and Papushado take inspiration from Nordic Noir,as Micki's claws of high-level corruption shine as the police find themselves in the wilderness over identifying the killer. Locking them in a basement with strips of jet-black Comedy,the writers cross the paths of Micki,Gidi and Dror (played by the excellent trio Tzahi Grad, Lior Ashkenazi and Rotem Keinan) and get the tools to drill rough Horror with crisp Neo-Noir discoveries.Whilst the comedic shots give the torture a jet-black snap,the writers become unwilling to cut into the inner horrors of the trio,which leads to the characters remaining still and failing to slice into the power-play Noir offering that is at hand,as the wolves blow the house down.

A serial killer film from Israel isn't something to be expected and as such is pretty much a sensation in itself. But what makes this really the best Israeli film of late isn't that it won so many awards or that it might be remade by Hollywood, but that it has pretty subversive undertones hidden within a story which, at first glance, plays along well trodden serial killer / suspense movie lines: The only suspect of a series of killings of young girls is being manhandled by a group of cops, then forced to let go by their chief for lack of evidence. Since the event was filmed by a witness who uploaded the video online, the leader of the pack is temporarily dismissed. He decides to go after the suspect, an unassuming teacher (of religion, on top of it), by himself. So does the father of the last victim, a secret operations army officer. They're both determined to make the teacher confess before killing him, but with conflicting means.That doesn't just make for a good suspense movie, but it's also a thinly veiled critique of certain aspects of Israeli society. From the onset, there's abuse of authority. There are barely any female characters - the men talk to their wives on the phone, and their relationships are all in disarray. There's a recurrent motif of them neglecting the parental duty of supervising their children because they are driven by other goals. All of them (seem to) have had extreme experiences in their army days, which make them use violence with such ease that the central question of the film is: 'Who is the monster here?' And about the only normal, non-menacing character is an Arab on horseback, who doesn't really have any function besides being there. So 'Big Bad Wolves' is actually a lot more clever than the story and the title suggest, and also proof that film (and society) in Israel is very well aware of its inconsistencies, and doesn't require Western criticism to realize that it's not perfect. As such, people who feel the urge to criticize Israel should watch this film and wonder: 'Hm, maybe there's no real need for me to vocalize my TV-based disapproval of Israeli politics, they seem to be doing pretty well for themselves.'One should perhaps watch this alongside Hany Abou-Assad's 'Omar', a highly convoluted tale of conspiracy and backstabbing among Palestinian terrorists (for some) or freedom fighters (for others), which carries a similar message: the presence of the enemy screws up men's perceptions about themselves, they become (self-)destructive without the enemy having much to do about it. In both films, everybody loses, nobody wins.If I'm rating 'Big Bad Wolves' 7/10, then because unfortunately the film gives too much away suspense-wise. If ten seconds in the middle and the last shot were edited out, it would be a masterpiece, making everyone wonder: 'What the hell did I just see?' As it is, it's a very good suspense thriller with a lot of subtext, but you can only watch it once because there's no mystery left to decipher.

Watching this film, I was saddened as there is so much potential and really the only thing which I feel kneecaps the film from truly reaching the pinnacle of suspense is the a lost forced humour. There are many instances at attempts of humour, however if you were to remove them, this film would be much more intense, almost to the point of perfection. The acting could've been much better, especially in the case of Tzahi Grad, who has a tough role in playing the father of a murdered and sexually assault girl who is pursuing vengeance. Although he nails down the sadistic aspects of the role, it's the lack of emotion towards the fact that his daughter has passed away, the singular moment in the film in which the character shows emotion towards this was during the scene when he has to be held back at the scene of the discovery. The movie is certainly worth a watch as a Revenge Film, I believe this film is a lot better than "Blue Ruin" which was a good film but extensively long in certain parts and overall unfulfilling. Without the comedic parts, this film would probably stand on the same level as "Spoorloos" however people who watch films purely off the recommendation of Quentin Tarantino, please understand his style before you complain, look at the movies he produces (not the ones he writes and directs) and also maybe actually listen to the man speak about films, what he likes about them and maybe also a list of his favourite movies for the year or decade. (Tarantino puts "Speed" above "Fight Club" and says that "Speed" was one of the best movies of the 90's)