The Angelmakers (2005)

Director: Astrid Bussink

Starring: Old-ass Hungarians

More Info: IMDB

Plot: A documentary recounting the poisoning of over a hundred men in a small village in Hungary after World War I. For many, it was their wives who killed them.

My Rating: 7/10

Would I watch it again? Yes

Here's a rich as fuck story that I'm DYING to see. After WWI, one of the most respected women of the Hungarian village of Nagyrev discovered how to extract the traces of arsenic from fly paper and use it to slowly poison her husband until he died two months later, seemingly of circumstances that certainly didn't look like murder. She hired herself out to other dissatisfied women of the village. The problem was so widespread that the authorities looked into it, leading to the arrest in 1929 of 51 women in connection with an estimated 140 cases of murder!!! Someone in Europe with the right eye needs to film this story and not make it a comedy or a straight up horror.



This documentary is only 33 minutes long and there is very little to show except current interviews with some of the townspeople who were children at the time and those who can pass along the stories that have been told over the years. It's a fascinating story but there's not an awful lot here. I really wanted more details with more vintage photographs. For what the film makers do show us, the 33 minutes is a nice length. I love the setting. Hungary is such a beautiful country and the people have such amazing features in their faces and demeanor.




It turns out that Nagyrev was not alone. This was happening all over Hungary at the time. Most of the women in other villages went unpunished. Man, I really need to see this story on the big screen.