montferrato Review of Romasanta

Romasanta (2004)

Brutal Lycanthropy Serial Killer in XIX century Galicia, Spain

[6/10 · 6 May 2013]

It is a decent movie, based on a still popular and true story, very well known in northern Spain nowadays. Manuel Blanco Romasanta actually existed. Romasanta was a short man, somehow effeminate, able to get on well with women due to his harmless appearance. He was not a Casanova, but the guy that women would go with to a dark place without suspicion because he looked not dangerous. He had a feline cunning, and was able to deceive many women into travel with him. His method was always the same: Romasanta always approached widows, abandoned wives and young girls looking for a change and betterment in life. He offered women from the most depressed mountain villages of Galicia a better life in the big cities of the north, where they could find better jobs and good suitors for marriage. Then, while traveling with him in the mountains, he assaulted and murdered the women with a surprisingly strong frenzy and brutality. He also skinned the women and took their fat in order to make soap that he sold in some villages of the Spanish/Portuguese border, and made an assorted collection of jewels, rings, pendants, etc, stolen from their victims. He was convicted by 15-17 murders, but the final death toll could have been higher, as he roamed free for years killing at will and with impunity. When he was caught by the police, he told the judges and court that he was the victim of a curse, and that he couldn't help transform himself into a wolf and kill. Nobody believed him and he was sentenced to death. However, a certain French "Professor" called Monsieur Philipps(nowadays would be considered a total quack and nut-job) sent a letter to the Queen of Spain explaining that Lycanthropy was a mind disease, and the Queen commuted Romasanta's death sentence for a life sentence without possibility of parole. Galicia is a small region of northern Spain, located in the northwest, and bordering with Portugal in the South. It is a very interesting area, the "Spanish Transylvania" if you want. There is a very rich folklore, and Lycanthropy has been diagnosed to several people in the area by doctors, as some people believe they are wolves or behave in a canine or lupine way. The movie is OK, but missed a lot of potential. If this story were filmed with a big budget, better screenplay and were given a different approach, we could be talking now of a masterpiece, as all the ingredients are there: only true story of lycanthropy recorded in an European legal system, mysterious land with dark forests and primitive medieval cities, etc. It all has a taste of authenticity. All in all, pretty decent movie, but not a masterpiece. Pity, because it could have been. Lots of missed potential in this movie.