Lobos de Arga

Plot

In 1910, in Arga, a small village from Galicia, the Mariño family are cursed by a gypsy woman as punishment for the excesses of the Marquise de Mariño. Upon reaching the age of ten, her son becomes a werewolf.

A hundred years later, Tomás (Gorka Otxoa), a struggling novelist and the last descendent of the Mariño family, returns to the village on invitation from its mayor to both participate in a ceremony and to seek inspiration within his childhood home: a large and abandoned mansion. In his exploration of the village on the days that follow, he reunites with his childhood friend Calisto (Carlos Areces) and with his uncle Evaristo (Manuel Manquiña), the latter of whom has been elected both the town's priest and mayor. Despite being touted as the guest of honor, Tomás feels concerned over the fact that he is virtually unknown among the locals. Further adding to his dismay is the sudden appearance of Mario (Secun de la Rosa), his shady publisher on the run from the law.

On the night of the ceremony, Tomás and Mario are brutally abducted by the villagers and taken to an reinforced barn on the village's outskirts. There, upon cryptic prophecies told by Evaristo, the both of them are dropped into a dark labyrinth beneath the village. In their search for a way out, they inadvertently awaken the werewolf of legend, who proceeds to give chase. Meanwhile, Calisto locates a secret way to the labyrinth and pulls Tomás and Mario out, leaving the werewolf behind.

The group takes shelter into Calisto's house, and he goes on to explain that the village was seeking to end a century-old curse by feeding a descendant of the Mariño family, lest another greater curse take effect. Furthermore, the villagers have blocked the ways out of the town and disabled Tomás car. Tomás attempts to call his grandmother for help but his cellphone's reception is too poor for his pleas to go through, and the call drops after a short time.

Under suspicion from the village and in light of gruesome deaths having happened the night before, Calisto is sent down into the labyrinth to kill the werewolf as the curse is presumed to have remained in effect. Instead, he finds a young boy, whom he covertly takes into his home. Hoping to end the curse, he and Mario feed one of Tomás fingers to the presumed wolf-child.

The group wanders out at sundown to escape the village by foot, but are caught by Evaristo and his mob. As the confrontation escalates, the sun sets and the second curse takes effect, transforming all the villagers into werewolves - except for Calisto whom despite being a local, was actually born outside of the village. Tomás grandmother, Rosa (Mabel Rivera), arrives at the same moment, taking the group into her car and escaping to the family mansion.

Meanwhile, two policemen arrive into the village upon a tip from Rosa, suspicious after Tomás' earlier call. While one of them panics and runs to his death, the other (Luis Zahera) escapes by shooting himself in the head.

Tomás and the group are forced to leave the mansion after the werewolves invade it, but are rescued by the policeman revealed to have faked his suicide by letting the bullet only graze his scalp. Retreating to the village's church, they fend off another werewolf attack at the cost of Rosa's death, narrowly escaping into the underground labyrinths before destroying the church and most of the werewolves with a stack of dynamite. As they take their distance from the village center, the child's age briskly catches up with him, and he dies after turning into an old man before Tomás' eyes.

The church's explosion and Luis' lack of radio response has attracted the police's attention, and rescue teams arrive at daybreak to find the mass of dead werewolves. Suspicious that Calisto and Mario might have been bitten by the werewolves and infected, Tomás' chains them to a piece of furniture in his home and stands guard with a shotgun in case they turn. Unexpectedly however, it is Tomás who transforms, and the film ends as he prepares to take revenge on the two for his missing fingers.

Cast