The Goat and Her Three Kids

A Romanian folk horror based on the well-known fairy tale about goats and wolves, only it features children and has an A24 studio feel to it. It's a praised hit in Romania (7.8 pm IMDB), but overhyped mainly because Romania doesn't film anything interesting and it's their national folklore, so most automatically overrate it just because of that. From my point of view, it's nothing remarkable, though the effort is undoubtedly there. The film is set in 19th century rural Romania, where a single mother lives with her three children. As soon as the mother leaves the house, an unexpected visitor, Marius Bodochi (who is to play the wolf), arrives at the house with one intention and that is to murder the children. Admittedly, Bodochi plays the psychopath brilliantly, he is unpleasant in appearance and I have no complaints here, but he lacks the motive to commit such a horrific act. The whole home invasion sequence is rendered fine (it's actually the only horror scene in the film), but it's a bit of a bummer that the slitting of they slit the child's throat off-camera – the shocking effect would definitely have been more intense. The final showdown is still interesting, but unfortunately nothing much happens beyond that and for me it's more of a grim drama with one grittier sequence. Watchable, but don't expect miracles. 5/10. (27/03/2023)

I never thought a movie would match, or perhaps even surpass, the chilling atmosphere of the fairy tales by the Grimm brothers or The Sorcerer's Apprentice, but the Romanian filmmakers caught me off guard. I'd say it's more of a three-star film, though I decided to give it a higher rating and I'll explain why. The storyline was fine, and the atmosphere was wonderfully dark and full of despair. However, despite these positives, the pacing left something to be desired. There were moments when the plot dragged on, leaving me feeling like something significant was just around the corner, only to find myself waiting a little longer. With better pacing, the experience would have been far more rewarding. Nonetheless, it offered a decently bizarre experience, and I appreciated its original adaptation of The Wolf and the Seven Young Goats fairy tale, which proved quite educational, so I'm adding an extra star. Such fairy tales might provoke neuroses in children, but they also impart valuable lessons about the consequences of disobeying parents and the appropriate punishment for wrongdoing. With just one set, and five actors, it managed to deliver a commendable outcome. / Lesson learned: The right combination of lime, blood, and water yields a delicately pink hue. (05/11/2023)