The film is set in the 1950s. Montse has lost her youth taking care ofyounger sister Nia, both locked in a dark apartment in the center of Madrid. Their mother died during Nia's birth and their father ran away, unable to handle the situation. And so, forced to act as father, mother and older sister, Montse hides from reality, feeding an obsessive, unhinged temperament. She suffers from agoraphobia and her only link to reality is Nia. That link breaks when Carlos, a neighbor of them, falls down the stairs and looks for help knocking on the only door he can drag himself towards. Someone has entered the shrew's nest, and might not come out again. In the end we learn that Montse is actually Nia's mother and older sister, for her father raped her after the mother died. After having Nia and raising her as a little sister, she kills her father when he starts to show sexual interest in 5-year-old Nia, and hides his body in the blocked fireplace. This is all learnt by the latter in the final moments of the film, the last scene depicting Nia choosing to hide, forever, in the "shrew's nest".
Critical reception
Shrew's Nest has received generally positive reviews. Jordi Costa wrote for El País, "one could criticize Shrew's Nest for some underlinings and missteps, but it is an energic debut film, capable of modulating with a good pulse the escalade towards its final excesses." Jonathan Holland of The Hollywood Reporter, while dismissing Hugo Silva's performance as "literally and metaphorically flat", claims that the film is an "enjoyable if unsubtle historical horror featuring a deliciously over-the-top central performance by Macarena Gómez." On the negative side, Daniel Lobato wrote for eCartelera: "Explaining the reasons that make a failed proposal out of Shrew's Nest would require entering spoiler territory, so I will just say that the concord of credibility between viewer and author breaks irreparably as soon as danger raises its head", and also criticizes Silva's performance, claiming that he "should at least have seen The Sea Inside before laying in bed."
