(1990)
Dir - Juan Piquer Simón
Overall: MEH
The silly yet adequate haunted house movie Cthulhu Mansion, (Black Magic Mansion, La Mansion de los Cthulhu), is at least better than what one would come to expect from Spanish filmmaker Juan Piquer Simón. The Lovecraftian deity is nowhere to be seen and serves more of a mood setting purpose for the mansion in question which holds some dark, otherworldly secret involving elemental evil being trapped behind a locked door or something. The supernatural occurrences are as random as ever for such movies, including cliches like the old bleeding shower, a phone call from the dead, (on a line that has been cut), animated foliage, and monster hands coming out of the fridge ala Ghostbusters. Such moments are fun in a purely spookshow, eye candy sense and the movie has a consistently creepy mood as well. The fact that more than half of the characters are obnoxious, drug dealing scumbags is more of a problem than the repetitious pace and lousy dialog, plus things derail into nonsense more as it goes on. Far from a masterpiece, but its macabre, schlocky heart is in the right place.
(1996)
Dir - Alejandro Amenábar
Overall: GOOD
A rather unmistakable commentary on people's voyeuristic draw towards violence, Alajandro Amenábar's debut Tesis, (Thesis), is an impressive one with enough red herrings to keep even the most jaded thriller aficionado satisfied. Writing about what you know, Amenábar made the movie while studying filmmaking at Complutense University in Madrid, which is exactly where it takes place and more or less what the central characters here are engaged in. The subject matter of snuff films is universally disturbing and the localized ring of such individuals taking place in their filming and distribution here does not unveil a conspiratorial network of underground murder as much as it shows the morbidly curious draw for those outside of it. Ana Torrent's college student persistently denies her fascination with such unpleasantness until it is too late to fool anyone and at that point things have persistently pointed in all directions, which casts a wide net as far as how much and to what degrees different people can be consumed by that fascination. It can be argued that the movie might have a few too many set pieces, but the unveiling of layers is expertly handled by Amenábar and its level of suspense is certainly commendable.
(1997)
Dir - Álex de la Iglesia
Overall: GOOD
A Hispanic companion piece to David Lynch's Wild at Heart as it was an adaptation of the third novel in Barry Gifford's series, Perdita Durango, (Dance with the Devil), takes a different kind of absurd approach to such satirical ultra-violence. Spanish filmmaker Álex de la Iglesia is not the utterly singular, surrealist wizard that Lynch is, (nor is anybody), and the resulting movie here lacks the kinetic, acid-fueled presentation of Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers to compare similar thematic material, but Iglesia's hilarious, very dark humor shines through in his unmistakable, auteur manner. Rosie Perez' title character and her Santeria practicing cohort, (played with a trademark ridiculous haircut in tow by Javier Bardem), are the type of thieving, raping, and murdering anti-heroes that challenge the viewer to sympathize with main characters that are complete villains in every conceivable way. Party due to their engaging performances and the gritty yet ludicrous tone throughout, a slew of vile acts seem less disturbing than they actually are. Supporting roles from James Gandolfini and Screamin' Jaw Hawkins of all people are also delightful, with the former getting comically tossed around like OJ Simpson in The Naked Gun series and the latter as, (of course), a rambling voodoo priest.
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