When a young girl is kidnapped and brutally raped and murdered, local police take it in their own hands to give justice but when they have the wrong person, Micki (Lior Ashkenazi) takes the fall. Realising that Dror (Rotem Keinan) is the only suspect, he sets himself to find his own justice and hot on the tail of his daughter’s killer is her father, Gidi (Tzahi Grad) who has a clear notion of how to make a man talk. Hiring a soundproof house with a number of choice tools Gidi will not leave the house without finding out the truth.

 

Clever pacing and twisted humour around every corner, this is gripping from beginning to end with Keshales and Papushado maintaining a subtlety to events that have been so glorified in similar style of films (here’s looking at you ‘The Tortured’). The selling point here is not to how much blood will be spilt and how, but instead on how to craft a smart movie for a smart audience.

 

With a small cast and such extreme tormenting, it would have been so easy to have taken a turn to satisfy a much stronger stomached audience but instead there is a more comic tone that makes the film feel more akin to ‘Delicattessen’ than ‘Hostel’.

 

‘Big Bad Wolves’ has connotations of ‘The Usual Suspects’ where you’re kept on your toes as to what is going to happen. You may have everything sussed in the first ten minutes but nothing can prepare you for the shocking climax.

 

Each actor plays their role to perfection and behind Keshale and Papushados direction Ashkenzai, Grad, Keinan, and Glickman create a thriller that is never short of thrills. Add in to the cake mix a dose of comedy so black it will make your morning coffee seem milky. This is story telling and film making to perfection.