Plot
On their way to Caba San Lucas, the cast and crew of a low-budget
porn film get lost
and come upon La Sangre De Dios, a ghost town with a horrific legend
about an insane Mexican wrestler. Director Alphonse decides that the town's gritty
appearance would be
the perfect setting for his debut film. However their presence awakens the spirit of
the dormant wrestler who proceeds to unleash his own deadly brand of lucha libre
upon the cast and crew.
Review
Slasher films will run out of killers
someday. Not content with having the killer be a spurned ex-lover, tormented
adults bullied as children, murderous camp counsellors, crazy doctors,
psychotic cops and even insane priests, the genre has finally found someone new
to start killing teenagers. Enter the wrestler! Recently we had a wrestler
playing a killer (Kane in See No Evil) but here we have a wrestler
actually playing a wrestler. I mean apart from doctors who know the human body
inside out, who else would be able to dissect and tear apart a human like a
wrestler, trained in the arts of submission and focusing on beating down body
parts to win a match? And given the sheer size of most professional wrestlers
nowadays, it's not a proposition I'd like to chance. So how does a wrestler fare
in a slasher film instead of the squared circle?
The film runs like your traditional slasher film where some people get lost in the
middle of nowhere, ask for directions and get told not to venture to some place
that the idiots are obviously going to venture to in the end and who then come
across the local legend they were warned about in the first place. What makes it stand out a
little more than the rest is a sense of fun, creativity and clear passion from
the crew to make the best film they could. It has pretty decent
production values for what is clearly a low budget film ($150,000 apparently)
and it's put to great use. It looks like a full blown feature film, not one of
those cheap and nasty shot-on-video films. The ghost town looks good, with
plenty of creaky sidewalks and boarded up windows, lots of dust and sand blowing around and not a
great deal of
lighting. There are plenty of legitimate scares as well as the luchadore lurks
around the village, peering through gaps in windows and stalking people around
dimly lit corridors.
It's obviously the killer that is
the attraction here and like many of the old slashers, the film slowly reveals his
appearance bit by bit until later in the film. You see an arm, a leg, a glimpse
of the mask until you see his entire body. He's played by Rey Misterio Sr.
and this guy is absolutely jacked! This looks like someone who could snap your
back in two with a backbreaker or pop your eyes out of your head with a
headlock. They have even thrown in some
traditional luchadore elements to the film, including the ultimate humiliation
for a luchadore - having their mask removed. Being a horror film and being
that most of the characters don't wear masks, the crazed luchadore has to rip
something else off so that leads to plenty of gruesome face-rippings. Apart from
these nasty moments, the rest of the film isn't overly gory.
Casting wise, I've already stated
that Rey Misterio Sr looks the part in his killer role. The rest of the cast is
ok. I mean there's nothing wrong with their performances but it's not like you
expect anything great from them from the start! Adam Huss does his thing as the
jackass porn director. The chicks provide necessary T&A. Jeremy Radin is the
token wrestling geek on hand to explain to everyone in the cast (and watching)
what exactly the luchadore is all about if you don't follow wrestling. The scene
where he decides to take matters into his own hands and put his wrestling
knowledge to good use is great. The cast isn't big enough if you ask me, as I
wanted to see more people smashed to pieces by this brute. And I'm no expert,
but six people to make a porn film? I know it's supposed to be low budget but
come on!
Verdict
In this current fad of torture, sadism and being as
authentic
and serious as possible, it's nice to see a film come along with no designs on
being anything than just a fun slasher. Wrestlemaniac is an enjoyable timewaster
with a decent villain and some decent moments. What more can you ask for?
