Film / Errementari

A tale about a man feared by the devil himself.

This story, like many others, begins with a man of flesh and blood. A man who outwitted his pact with Hell. A man so ruthless, so determined, that even the Devil himself would come to fear and respect him. A blacksmith.

— Opening narration

Errementari: The Devil and the Blacksmith is a 2017 Dark Fantasy film about a devil and a blacksmith, loosely based on the Basque folktale "Patxi the Blacksmith" which was first recorded in 1903. It is the first feature film of its director, Paul Urkijo Alijo.

During the First Carlist War, Patxi, a blacksmith serving in the Carlist army, makes a deal with the devil Sartael to ensure his safe return to his home in rural Alava province. Eight years later, Patxi is living in his forge in the forest, isolated from the local townsfolk who consider him a dangerous madman. A government agent named Alfredo Ortiz arrives in town with a letter speaking of a lost Carlist gold chest and an interest in talking to Patxi. About the same time, Patxi meets the young girl Usue, who is cared for by the local priest since the death of her mother when she was a baby.

The movie is most notable for being filmed entirely in a dead dialect of the Basque language, then dubbed into Castilian for release in Spanish theaters out of the Basque Country. It is available in Netflix both in Basque and dubbed in English.

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This film contains examples of:

• Accidental Murder: One of the men looking for Patxi on behalf of Ortiz sets one of his bear traps twice: once with his foot, another with his throat. Obviously he doesn't survive the second one. The townsfolk don't buy Patxi's claim that it was an accident and want to lynch him for it.
• Actually, That's My Assistant: People who see Sartael for the first time assume that he is Satan himself, but he's actually a very low-ranking devil.
• Adaptational Modesty: The Hell scene is inspired by artists like Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel the Elder, but the damned wear breeches and nightgowns instead of being completely naked.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • In the original story, Patxi just trapped two devils sent to collect his soul in succession, and was later denied entry in Hell for it. The movie has him murder the man that hooked up with his wife in his absence and threaten to burn their baby alive, leaving said baby disfigured and inducing his wife to commit suicide, torturing Sartael in addition to trapping him, and becoming an outcast from his village (which indirectly causes another man's death, at least).
  • The aforementioned two devils. One, Sartael, kidnaps a child and chuckles about eating her on his way back to Hell. The second, Alastor, is never trapped by Patxi but merely inconvenienced, unlike Sartael, has Patxi almost killed by hanging, and implicitly succeeds in bringing several people to Hell including a child, Usue.
• A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: Devils adopt human figures to gain the trust of humans. This is actually enforced by Hell's management, with devils who fail to conceal themselves facing punishment for it.
• The Aloner: Usue and the blacksmith share this quality, which contributes to why they get along so well.
• And That's Terrible: Inverted Trope in-universe when Sartael tells the villagers that Usue was refused entry to Hell for being "a saint" and thus too good for it. The audience knows that this is a lie, however.
• Anti-Hero: Patxi made a Deal with the Devil to return home safely only to learn that his wife had given birth to another man's child after believing he was dead. Patxi threatened to burn the baby before the father intervened, and Patxi killed him. His wife then committed suicide.
• Anti-Villain: Sartael, a devil who ends up helping Patxi and Usue after being informed of his demotion and deciding to stay on Earth instead of suffering the indignity.
• The Atoner: Patxi lived in isolation out of grief for his wife's suicide, and ends going to Hell to rescue her and Usue.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: When Alastor reveals his true form, he towers over every other character, including Sartael. An even bigger devil guards the gate of Hell, and Sartael says that there are bigger ones than that inside.
• Back from the Dead: Usue is rescued at the gates of Hell by Patxi and brought back to Earth by Sartael.
• Badass and Child Duo: Patxi and Usue.
• Badass in Distress: Patxi is captured and hanged to the point of unconsciousness by the villagers (unwittingly led by Alastor), forcing Usue and Sartael to rescue him.
• Big Red Devil: The devils are based off Christian imagery, with Sartael being the most typical looking.
• Black Comedy: Sartael is only really scary in his first couple of appearances. Once it's revealed that Patxi captured him effortlessly and repeatedly, he devolves into a Slapstick-magnet Butt-Monkey who is continuously bullied by everyone.
• The Blacksmith: Patxi is the titular blacksmith.
• Body Horror: One of the devils in Hell's gates has a second face where his behind should be.
• The Bully: The local village kids pick on Usue. Most specially Benito, the barman's son, decapitates her doll's head and throws it on Patxi's land, inadvertently setting them to meet.
• Butt-Monkey: Sartael spends most of the film being beaten, tortured, and humiliated, and it is played for laughs.
• Captain Obvious Reveal: In-universe. Patxi asks Sartael to take him to the gates of Hell - and he does. Patxi's first reaction is to ask "What is this?", to which Sartael can only roll out his eyes and ask back, "What do you think?"
• Celestial Bureaucracy: Inverted. Hell is implied to be extremely bureaucratic, down to demoting Sartael to "Fifth Circle" in punishment for being captured and revealing his true form to humans.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • The bell that Patxi donated to the village's church, said in passing to have been his last good deed before becoming a hermit, turns out to be forged out of the Carlists' gold and a powerful weapon against the devils.
  • Ortiz doesn't go to church, a fact that the priest decries as a sign of government abandoning religious and social values. It's actually because he's a devil in disguise, and going to mass would break his glamour.
  • Furthermore, Ortiz doesn't dare enter Patxi's forge until the locals have cleared the way of bear traps ...and crosses.
  • The hammer, crosses, blessed bells, and chickpeas that Patxi uses to torture Sartael are just as effective against other devils.
  • Usue is an orphan with an ugly birthmark on her face. She's the daughter of Patxi's wife and the mark is a burn from when Patxi threatened to burn her alive.
• Civil War: The First Carlist War that serves as Cold Open and Backstory to the film.
• The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: Usue, the ward of the local priest, doesn't believe in Hell or the sanctity of mass. This is clearly a reaction to the continuous bullying of the religious townsfolk, however. As soon as she's presented with evidence that devils exist, she accepts the existence of Hell and the afterlife.
• Cold Iron: Devils can be pained and trapped by iron weapons, chains and cages, though they can't actually be wounded or bleed from them.
• Companion Cube: Usue always carries a ragdoll and meets Patxi in an attempt to recover it.
• Connected All Along: Usue is the daughter of Patxi's late wife and her "birthmark" is a result of him holding her over a fire with the intention of killing her. Her bully Benito is the son of the tavern owner Ortiz stays at, and Ortiz is a Devil in Disguise come to take Patxi after Sartael's failure and disappearance.
• Crazy-Prepared: Patxi fortified his home for years against devil attacks. Unfortunately the traps are also deadly to humans.
• Creepy Crosses: Patxi's forge is filled with iron crosses that he forged himself. They are also part of his makeshift armor.
• Curbstomp Battle: During the war, Patxi turns the tables on a platoon of government soldiers who were going to execute him by firing squad and kills all of them one by one, while supernaturally emboldened or possessed by Sartael. Years later, he makes short work of the schmucks who try to get in his forge uninvited, all by himself.
• Deal with the Devil: Apparently the only way devils can collect souls and advance their own station in Hell. They act as tempters, but it is humans who condemn themselves with their actions and (specially) their guilt.
  • Patxi traded his soul with Sartael for safe passage home. He refused the deal and trapped Sartael when he learned his wife had not waited for him and she committed suicide. He does it a second time in return for Sartael helping him rescue Usue from Hell, and also letting him bring some of the relics effective against devils in an attempt to rescue his wife.
  • Two locals unwittingly barter their souls with the disguised Alastor for a portion of the lost Carlist gold.
  • Usue trades her soul with Alastor to be with her mother.
• Death of a Child: Usue is killed when Alastor takes her soul to Hell.
• Demon Lords and Archdevils: Hell is hierarchical. Alastor outranks Sartael, and the giant devil guarding the gates of Hell presumably outranks the other small ones with him.
• Determinator: Patxi, as described by the opening and closing narration.
• Devil, but No God: The movie only includes Hell and devils, unlike the original story where Patxi also went to Heaven.
• Devil in Disguise: Ortiz is actually the demon Alastor, trying to drag Patxi to hell since Sartael failed to do so and disappeared. The gold-finding quest is just a way to tempt the peasantry into helping him. Sartael also disguises as a young boy to convince Usue to free him, and then into a young man after he returns from Hell.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Patxi's entire character. He made a Deal with the Devil, then trapped and tortured the devil for years rather than honor him. And the same tricks he used work on larger and more powerful devils.
• The Dreaded: As said by the opening narration, by the end of the story Patxi has become this to the devils of Hell.
• Driven to Suicide: Patxi's wife committed suicide after learning that Patxi wasn't really dead, he killed her new husband and threatened to kill her daughter. Usue, arguably commits suicide when she asks Alastor to take her to her mother in Hell, and Patxi when he asks Sartael to help him rescue Usue.
• Eats Babies: Having been released but failed to kill Patxi (again), Sartael grabs Usue and chuckles about eating her on his way back to Hell.
• End of an Age: Very downplayed and not upfront, but the movie is set in the aftermath of the First Carlist War, which ended with the defeat of the Carlists who defended Absolutism and the Catholic confession of the state. Thus the local priest denounces that the new government representative (Ortiz) doesn't go to church. The movie is also filmed entirely in Basque yet most humans have non-Basque names (Alfredo, Benito, Francisco), echoing the decline of the Basque language in the 19th century. Indeed the region where the film is set in would be entirely Spanish-speaking by the end of the century, and the dialect used in the film is not spoken anymore.
• Enemy Mine: The long-enemied Patxi and Sartael end teaming up against Alastor, each for their own reasons, and almost behaving like old Bash Brothers.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Downplayed: when Usue offers her soul to Hell so she can be with her mother, Alastor is genuinely surprised and asks her if she's sure. He's still willing to take it, but it's telling that he confirmed that she really wanted to go through with it.
• Fearless Infant: Usue is brave enough to enter The Dreaded Patxi's forge when no other kid will go near him, and later to as a devil to take her to Hell just so she can meet her mother.
• Glamour Failure: Alastor partially loses his human disguise when he hears a blessed bell, whose sound is extremely painful for the devils.
• Guile Hero: Patxi lived for 8 years after a Deal with the Devil because he knows the weaknesses of devils and how to exploit them.
• Hellgate: The only part of Hell that actually appears on the film.
• Hell Seeker: Fed up with everyone else's bullying, Usue is ready to ask a devil to take her to Hell just so she can be with her mother, since everyone also tells her that she's there. Patxi also becomes this after growing fond of Usue and pissed with the whole infernal business. In fact, since he had the Carlist's gold turned into a bell capable of deafening bigger demons, it's possible that he plotted going to Hell from the beginning. That said, he has no intention of staying there.
• Holier Than Thou: The village's priest is both shocked and relieved to see Sartael, betraying that he wasn't as sure about Hell's existence as he was letting out. He immediately dreams of taking him to the Vatican and be rewarded with a great position, possibly becoming Pope himself.
• Holy Burns Evil: Invoked but Averted Trope. Patxi's forge is filled to the brim with protective crosses, also present in his makeshift shield. However the only cross that burns Sartael is heated on the fire, and would have burn a human.
• Humiliation Conga: Sartael is repeatedly beaten and bullied throughout the film, most notably after he tries to escape. He is caught in one of the Patxi's bear traps, dragged back to his cage, and tortured with a blessed bell and chickpeas. Usue apologizes to Sartael, but this might be more humiliating for the poor bastard. In his second escape, he steps into another bear trap, destroying the villagers's fear of him and prompting them to beat him with Torches and Pitchforks. To make it worse, he learns that Hell is furious with him allowing himself to be captured and broken his glamour, and has decided to demote him. Enough to make him shout Screw This, I'm Outta Here and decide to never return to Hell.
• In Name Only: In the original tale, Patxi tricked a devil into gluing himself to a chair, then another into gluing himself to a bed years later. He ultimately was sent to Hell, but the devils were so afraid that they refused to open the gates to him. So he went to Heaven, but he was refused entry as well until an old woman spoke for him. Patxi being a blacksmith, his Deal with the Devil for a safe return from war, the presence of two devils, his capture of one, and having the gates of Hell close on him, are the only elements in common with the film.
• Jerkass: The village priest takes in Usue and keeps secret that he got her from Patxi, but not that her mother committed suicide, nor makes any attempt to stop people from bullying her for it.
• Large and in Charge: The higher in the hierarchy a devil is, the physically larger it is, as well.
• Literal Genie: Sartael made the deal with Patxi so he could return home safely after deserting to be with his wife, but he didn't promise his wife would also wait for him.
• The Lost Lenore: Patxi's wife who committed suicide after Patxi killed her new partner.
• Madman in the Attic: Sartael makes himself look like a young boy to make Usue release him from his cage.
• Minion with an F in Evil: Sartael. Alastor takes his time chewing him out for his incompetence in tempting souls and dragging them to Hell.
• Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold: Patxi is a Downplayed example. Most of the things the villagers say about him are true, but he's not the complete monster they imagine him as.
• Mood Whiplash: Despite its dark imagery and themes, the movie slides into Black Comedy and even slapstick with ease and very often.
  • Chiefly when Alastor has just killed Usue and sent her soul to Hell, Sartael takes advantage to escape, threatening the peasants around him before moving towards the gate - only to step into another bear trap, and the peasants start beating him with Torches and Pitchforks.
• Morality Pet: Usue for Patxi, to the point she unwittingly redeems him, and arguably even Sartael as well.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Alastor's true form, which he reveals when Usue rings Patxi's blessed bell.
• My Greatest Second Chance: Patxi has been tormenting himself for years because of the death of his late wife, who committed suicide after Patxi killed the man she had hooked up with in his absence. He ends going to Hell to rescue Usue, his wife's child, and try rescuing his wife as well.
• Narrator All Along: The narrator of the opening is Sartael.
• Noble Demon: Sartael turns out to be this. Patxi successfully persuades him to rescue Usue from Hell as gratitude for freeing him from his cage. At the end, he tells the peasants that Hell refused her entry because she is a saint and that they should treat her as such.
• No-Sell: Subverted. Patxi throws a jar at a giant devil, who is amused when it falls but doesn't break. Then Usue picks it up, throws it again, and the chickpeas all spill out, forcing him to count them while she runs away with Sartael.
• Not Afraid of Hell: The film ends with Patxi going to Hell to save Usue from her Deal with the Devil, striking down a devil after weakening him with the sound of a blessed bell, then marching through the closing Hellgate to rescue his late wife's soul from the clutches of demons.
• Oh, No... Not Again!: Said word for word by Sartael after he steps on a bear trap for a second time.
• Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions: Usue is introduced stealing the sacramental wine and mocking its use in mass, then loudly yells that Hell is a lie.
• Outside-Context Villain: The devils for the soldiers and townsfolk. Then Patxi becomes one for the devils.
• Papa Wolf: Patxi becomes one to Usue. She's the daughter of his late wife, though he also killed her real father, who died defending her.
• Parental Substitute: Patxi becomes Usue's protector and closest thing to a father figure. He only learns later that she's his late wife's daughter.
• Redemption Equals Death: The townsfolk only change their tune about the outcasts Patxi and Usue after they are killed and dragged down to Hell (thankfully briefly in the case of Usue).
• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Played for Drama. Patxi flew into a jealous rage upon returning home and finding his wife had borne another man's child - she had been told that Patxi was dead, but he wouldn't listen.
• Returning War Vet: Patxi is a Carlist veteran of the First Carlist War who became an outcast after returning home.
• The Reveal:
  • Ortiz is the demon Alastor, come to take Patxi in Sartael's absence.
  • Usue is the daughter of Patxi's wife, whom Patxi threatened to kill but later gave to the village's priest to raise after his wife killed herself.
  • Patxi made the church's bell from the lost Carlist gold.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Sartael decides to never go back to Hell rather than accept his demotion.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Unbenownst to everyone else, Patxi keeps a devil trapped in a cage in his home.
• Secret-Keeper: The village priest kept secret that Patxi had killed a man for partnering with his wife in his absence and that Usue is their daughter. He doesn't make a secret that Usue's mother committed suicide, however.
• Self-Inflicted Hell: People can go to Hell one of two ways, making a deal with a devil, but also, the sheer belief someone is a rotten person is enough. Sartael claims, and we later see, that the line of the damned walking into hell is made up of guilt-ridden people— so much so, that when the door to Hell starts closing in, they rush forward instead of trying to run away. Patxi is immune to this because he genuinely doesn't blame himself for his wife's death - he blames Sartael instead.
• Serious Business: If someone spills beans in front of a devil, it will stop everything else to count all, despite considering it akin to torture. They are also deeply pained by blessed bells.
• Shapeshifter: Devils make themselves appear as humans when they go to Earth and tempt mortals.
• Shot at Dawn: The movie opens with government soldiers readying to execute captured Carlists by firing squad. They kill all but Patxi, who has already made his deal with Sartael, and Sartael kills the soldiers and a priest assisting them for good measure.
• Superpowered Evil Side: The devils's true form compared to their human appearance. Higher ranked devils are gigantic compared to humans, yet can also take in human appearance.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: At the climax, Usue makes a deal with Alastor to be taken to Hell to reunite with her mother. This comes after being ostracized and bullied by everyone in the village for the entire movie, including the priest who had, moments before, berated and slapped her for releasing Sartael from imprisonment in exchange for helping Patxi.
• This Was His True Form:
  • In the Cold Open, Patxi appears as Sartael to the priest as he overtakes and kills the government's soldiers one by one, evidencing that he has supernatural help.
  • Sartael reveals his true form after Usue releases him for the first time, as he readies to strike Patxi.
  • Alastor's face partially changes into his real one after Usue rings Patxi's blessed bell in his presence, revealing his nature to the villagers.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: At the end, Sartael succeeds in bringing Patxi to Hell (because he asks him to), making the peasants fear him again, and leaving Hell forever.
• Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Usue endures the whole village's bullying until she asks to be taken to Hell to her mother. Only after this do the villagers fall in shock and regret their actions. This is then inverted when Sartael brings her back and tells the villagers that she was too good for Hell.
• Too Kinky to Torture: One of the people in the line going to Hell is a masochist who keeps calling himself "trash" and looks forward to be tortured in Hell. His eagerness disgusts the devils themselves.
• Torches and Pitchforks: The villagers invade Patxi's forge armed with this, believing that he has murdered a man and kidnapped Usue. They put them to good use when Sartael escapes and falls on one of Patxi's traps.
• Unreliable Narrator: The closing narration is provided by Sartael, who even adds "And remember - whether you believe what I told you or not, you should never let the truth get in the way of a good story."
• Viewers Are Geniuses:
  • The movie's dialogue is in the dialect of Basque that was spoken in Alava province in the early 19th century.
  • The English sub finishes with the line "Whether it is so or not, get in at the pumpkin and out at the square." This is a literal translation of the Basque rhyme "Eta hala bazan o ez bazan, sartu dadila kalabazan eta atera dadila herriko plazan" which is said at the end of fairytales, but since it's not explained anyone without Basque background is left with a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment. The Spanish dub translates it with the equivalent "Y colorín colorado, este cuento se ha acabado" ("And little colored goldfinch, this tale is now over").
• Weaksauce Weakness: Devils have many weaknesses shared with The Fair Folk, such as Cold Iron (they can be hurt and trapped by it, but not wounded), blessed bells, and spilled chickpeas (which they cannot stop themselves from not counting). This has allowed Patxi to escape his Deal with the Devil for years.
• Weaponized Weakness: Blessed items, such as bells, hurt devils when they ring, even a tiny hand-held one. Now imagine a large bell...
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • Patxi was ready to burn alive his wife's baby with another man, and held her over the fire long enough to give her a face mark.
  • Alastor doesn't think twice about accepting Usue's offer to take her to Hell. This comes after the priest slapped her for releasing Sartael and crushing his dream to take him to Rome.
• You Are the Translated Foreign Word: Errementari is Basque for "The Blacksmith".
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: The over-eagerness of the masochist to be punished disgusts the devils themselves, who ask him to step back from them.
• You Can't Go Home Again: Sartael deserts from Hell, forcing him to live on Earth under the guise of a human.
• Your Mind Makes It Real: Downplayed. Hell is real, but only people who are convinced they deserve it will cross its gates, and they will do it by themselves (even if the devils encourage them).

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"Whether it is so or not, get in at the pumpkin and out at the square."