Animalada

Animalada (2001)

This is a twisted story about a married man named Alberto that falls in love with Fanny while spending the summer at his ranch. It is love at first sight, with Alberto at first trying to fight his feelings, but quickly giving into them. This illicit affair leads to multiple murders, a shattered family, and eventually to his demise. Alberto becomes terribly jealous about Fanny and god help anyone who shows her any attention! Of course the bit that I’ve not revealed yet is that Fanny is a sheep on Alberto’s ranch. Damn Synapse is putting out some weird movies.

Well where do you start with a movie like this? Obviously this movie is supposed to be some sort of dark comedy. I mean they simulate a man having sex with a sheep on more than one occasion so I hope this wasn’t meant to be serious. So I kept waiting for the movie to get funny or so over the top that it would act as a “safety valve”. But for me it never does either of those things. It just gets creepier and creepier, and not in that good way that we horror fans enjoy. Now I’m not saying that this is some sick movie, but I just didn’t see the point to the whole story. Basically they made a movie about an extramarital affair and just replaced the other woman with a sheep. For the most part I spent the movie either bored or rolling my eyes at the unpleasantness that was on the screen. That said the movie does pick up towards the end and tosses a new wrinkle with the sheep cheating on him with a ram, or maybe he is the other “man”. Who knows, but for me it was too little too late.

The performances are okay. I mean the most memorable member of the cast is Fanny, who is of course the sheep! But to be fair I was probably so disinterested in the story and plot that I wouldn’t have noticed an Oscar worthy performance (not that I’m saying there was one here). I can say that the camera work and sound are all nicely done. The movie has a very polished look and other than the subtitles looks like something that Hollywood could have churned out. Though I doubt they would have touched this subject matter. Which I will give the filmmakers and cast, especially Carlos Roffé who plays Alberto, some credit for.

In the end I’m not fond of Animalada. I found the entire movie to be very unpleasant to watch. But then that might have been the intention of the filmmaker, who again put together a very polished and slick looking movie. That said I still can’t recommend the movie. If you are still interested check out the Synapse website at http://www.synapse-films.com/ for more information.

1 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer