(1990)
Dir - José Ramón Larraz
Overall: WOOF
The penultimate film Deadly Manor, (Savage Lust), from José Ramón Larraz is easily his worst and most pointless; a hare-brained slasher that is foaming at the mouth with cliches and only the worst aspects that the abysmal sub-genre has to offer. Young, horny assholes are going camping somewhere that they can neither find nor pronounce, they pick up a hitchhiker who is also an asshole, their car malfunctions, and they then end up at a creepy, completely isolated abode with randomly creepy things inside. A decade and some change before this, Larraz was still capable of boring, lackluster work, but at least it often had an evocative aura to it that made his films singular amongst other exploitation offerings. Sadly, he closed out his career with several bandwagon-hopping, slasher crapfests where the quirky bits were fewer, father between, and hardly enough to elevate their pedestrian scripts and uninspired presentation. If you are a fan of obnoxious characters being obnoxious with only two kills happening far apart from each other within the first hour, then you probably need psychiatric help, but you also may find this dung heap of a movie somewhat tolerable.
(1993)
Dir - Álex de la Iglesia
Overall: GOOD
Emerging guns-a-blazzin with his debut Acción mutante, (Mutant Action), Álex de la Iglesia established his ridiculous, ultra-violent, and chaotic shtick with a Natural Born Killers-meets-Mad Max satire. The approach is bombastic for a first-time filmmaker as it presents a dystopian landscape full of wild wedding ceremonies by the fascist elite, a "shoot first and never ask questions" police state, tasteless news programing, a barbaric/sausage-fest minor planet, a bride suffering from aggressive Stockholm syndrome, and a terrorist organization full of deformed nitwits and outcasts who are led by a morally dubious antihero. Visually, it is a gloriously filthy mess as if this universe has long been overwhelmed by its post-apocalyptic sludge even if technically the wealthy and good-looking people are the ones that are calling all the shots, hence Antonio Resines and his rag-tag group of freaks haphazardly throwing anarchy into the mix. Cruising at a hundred miles a minute and full of numerous surprises within the first act, Iglesia dishes one hilariously low-brow, (and mostly outrageously violent), gag after the other and all of the characters are so delightfully deranged that almost any of them can end up on top and it would provide a satisfyingly "happy" ending.
(1997)
Dir - Alejandro Amenábar
Overall: GOOD
Spawning the A-list remake Vanilla Sky by Cameron Crowe and Tom Cruise, Alejandro Amenábar sophomore film Open Your Eyes, (Abre los ojos), is an effective, topsy-turvy bit of science fiction in its own right. Co-written by Amenábar's frequent collaborator Mateo Gil, it takes a Twilight Zone-worthy premise of artificial existence within a literal dream state and utilizes it to examine a type of crippling narcissism suffered by Eduardo Noriega's womanizing protagonist. On the cusp of meeting either the girl who will tame his flippantly selfish ways or merely be another conquest at the cost of backstabbing his best friend, Noriega's wealthy playboy César finds his life in shambles after one of his previous flings crashes her own obsession with him right off of the road. The film not only deals with César's inability to cope with his misfortune, but more his inability to face his own insecurities and self-absorption, resorting to an artificial reality that comes apart at the seems. Wonderfully performed by all parties involved, particularly Noriega and Penélope Cruz, (the latter who would reprise her role in Crowe's version, breaking her in the States in the process), it gets by on its potent themes even if some of its pseudo-science details fail to properly land.
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