Shrew’s Nest is a Spanish 2014 thriller/horror set in the 1950s. Montse (Macarena Gómez) has lost her youth taking care of her younger sister Nia (Nadia de Santiago) in a dark apartment in the centre of Madrid. Their mother died during Nia’s birth and their father (Luis Tosar), unable to handle the situation, ran away. And so, forced to act as father, mother and older sister, Montse is emotionally damaged, highly strung, and hides from reality, feeding her obsessive, unhinged temperament with fear.
Montse suffers from agoraphobia, and her only link to reality is Nia, until neighbour Carlos (Hugo Silva) falls off the stairs, breaks his leg, and knocks on their door for help. Montse decides to ‘nurse’ him back to health while keeping him a secret in a locked room, refusing to let him leave, or allow a genuine doctor to see to his injuries. But despite Montse’s psychotic efforts to hide him, Nadia discovers Carlos locked in the room, and the two develop a passionate secret attraction which threatens to tip the fragile balance between the two reclusive sisters over the edge, and destroy any remnant of sanity left in the house.
With stellar performances by Macarena Gómez and Nadia de Santiago, a climactic bloodbath ends this disturbing tale of repression and madness.
