Romina (2018)

Last place in a creative race

By: JWBM

"Romina"—a low budget Mexican made horror feature—is a nonsensical mix of a camp slasher with a rape-revenge plot with no commentary to speak of, nothing to read between the lines, and on top of that weak thrills and suspense that only gets weaker as the wall clock seems to slowly come to a crawl.

It involves the kind of homicidal psychopath that only exists in movies, except where others would use that gross exaggeration to create a powerful, commanding villain full of raw energy and memorable characteristics, the film's driving point and plot are so far gone as to have been mixed in a blender, swallowed, half digested, and then thrown up. It feels like a short paragraph of premise was outlined on a napkin on the way out the door, and before you know it production was underway with little funding and a group of close friends to make it happen. I can only imagine it was a blast to shoot for those involved, but for everyone else it feels like a stretched out exercise in wasted energy.

The story is deceiving because initially the flow and direction seems simple enough—a group of energetic young men and women on a road trip to their potential doom—but then how one aspect leads up to another is like a hand-me-down jigsaw puzzle missing all the important pieces. You get to watch spineless characters excitedly talking over each other, bickering, and then splitting up and running around with little background, no direction, or game plan in mind. Yep, they're sure to be executed in a bloody fashion, but the film fails to make you care. I've been more moved by a half-heard quick sensationalist clip on the local news. Sure, the main point is to emulate the old grindhouse classics, and to also see some sex and carnage—adding another notch to the realms of horror and widening the eyes a little further—but even then the suspense and build-ups lack creativity and vision to feel like nothing more than a numbing wound.

Rating: 1/10

Director: Diego Cohen (Perdidos; Honeymoon)
Actors: Francisca Lozano
Info: IMDB link
Trailer: YouTube link

Truth or Dare (2018)

Choices: there's only two that matter these days

By: JWBM

Spring break, Mexico: friends, beaches, drinking, sex, and a game of truth or dare at a local abandoned church. How could that go wrong? Soon enough, this group of pals and lovers with a penchant for booze and free time find out how serious this little game will be.

One of the most important aspects of any horror movie is its setup. It's like a comedian that doesn't get you to laugh in the first few minutes, how well do you think the rest of the experience is going to end up? "Truth or Dare" is a perfect example of a film that grazes over this key element in order to try and pick up the pieces later. This not only throws off the pacing, but it never fully recovers. It's like expecting to have the audience cheer for you at the end of the race, but starting out with your shoes untied. The story is far-fetched enough to begin with, though give this better direction and the audience might be right there with you to believe this supernatural force is attempting to make this group of adult-age friends play a deadly game of truth or dare. Instead it feels borderline silly, with odd CGI grins from the villains to put the final nail in the coffin.

The tone of the film is all over the place. It feels pieced together at times and somewhat erratic for where you're going to be taken. One moment they're attempting drama, to a forced scare, to some drum-roll worthy joke all in one scene. It makes all of this bickering between the two best friends over a guy not only abrupt, but nauseating to listen to. The plot at some point explains itself and then re-explains itself in simpler terms at a later point. Didn't we already have that conversation? As if they wanted to make sure your wavering attention span is still with them. Then this turns amateur, 21st century Scooby-Doo, where they must search out clues on Google and Facebook after their friends start dying left and right. Makes this feel like a simple TV movie, and not something you'd see on the big screen. It's like the writers weren't quite sure how to piece it all together. That or went back and attempted to edit the story by trying to appease everyone at the same time, while not actually appeasing anyone that well.

There are worse horror movies out there. This isn't the bottom of the barrel. But "Truth or Dare" is still mostly a waste of time. There are moments where the filmmakers catch your interest with a certain set up, plot point, or at another moment where one of the actors is giving this their best. But they are few and far between.

Rating: 4/10

Recommended instead: "Get Out," and "It Follows"

Director: Jeff Wadlow ("Never Back Down," "Kick-ass 2")
Actors: Lucy Hale, Violett Beane, Tyler Posey
Info: IMDB
Trailer: Youtube


And a bonus, things I learned from "Truth or Dare": 

7. You can easily just drove over to Mexico and back again.
6. Pretty young 20-somethings have ample time to do ample sleuthing.
5. It's never a bad time to say a joke or two.
4. Always pick truth.
3. Whenever a plot is re-explained, it's the editor's way of knowing their pacing is messed up.
2. Never go from drinking at a safe public place to a non-safe abandoned church, unless you're a licensed exorcist.
1. Alcohol is a catalyst for bad choices.

Supervivientes de los Andes (1976)

No vegetation or wildlife...just your amigos

Based on the book "Survive!" from '73, this was a Mexican made film that quickly jumped in for the cinematic experience of real events that happened just four years prior in '72. The story involved a group of people that after an accident had to make impossible choices for their survival that they would have never done otherwise. To take that even further, this was a special set of circumstances that would more than likely never be repeated by someone else again. Both this and the much bigger budget version of "Alive" in the '90s show how the main events occurred similarly, with some minor scenes emphasized more than each other. However, "Alive" was the more dramatic and captivating version for the visual experience and for an introduction to how some of these people made it out to tell their harrowing story. "Supervivientes de los Andes" didn't capture the full effects of the events, with the exception of some grisly bits that were amped up in marketing tactics for the U.S. dubbed version called "Survive!"--which has a different running time and some other alternations. Shock value sells, and it makes you wonder about "Soylent Green" coming out a year later after the Andes' events with its final twist that wasn't in the original novel it was based on.

Goodbyes are said at the airport with a group of young rugby players and other passengers from Uruguay on their way through the Andes mountains in South America. There is some foreshadowing dialogue in the beginning as if the characters had an intuition for what's to come; that or for a wink-wink to those who already know the story. In the air, weather conditions and confusion on both of the pilots' behalves causes them to crash into a remote area of the mountains where there isn't any vegetation or wildlife and the temperatures are freezing if that wasn't enough. A share are dead, others are injured and the rest try to overcome the harsh and snowy conditions with little provisions. They attempt to stay warm in the remaining portion of the plane, though get at each other with in fighting, until they realize they have to stick together as a union. What originally started with 45 passengers at the outset begins to dwindle with lack of food and slim chances of a rescue attempt. They're losing hope and starving, though soon enough one of them propositions they eat the meat on the dead bodies so as to remain alive.

The avalanche scene--which killed more of their party and in real life caused them to be held up for a few days--in the movie is over and done with in an abrupt and brief scene, causing it to lose much of the impact and then only revert back to shots of cannibalism. I found it to be one of the more emotional scenarios they had to go through because they were so beaten down by that point that it caused the remaining survivors to reevaluate their chances all over again. Their health is failing and they realize a trek with a selected strong few is their only chance out to save the rest. Towards the close it gets a little too drawn out with anticipation before the final pay off. After seeing how down and desperate they were beforehand, the viewer is dying to see some resolve by that point. There's a framing technique with alternate shots of a rescue attempt, not just to detail that they tried, but to make it somewhat of a driving point. However, it comes off as anticlimactic with too much space between the shots of the survivors to put the audience on the edge of their seats.

What's disappointing here, is a share of the transitions between events feel as if they're laid out like a formulaic storyboard, while missing out on some of the emotional impact of the real occurrence or even how they got from one action to the next. In theory, things are bleak and hopeless as they sit around, but it feels like watching this from a distance with the screen still blocking contact between you and the characters. Sometimes the performers don't feel as individuals rather than a general group, therefore there's more concentration as an overview than on specific character's thoughts or their interpretations and motivations. Watching this now or in '76, doesn't always do more than a written account, as the audio and visual cues to translate the events aren't always done justice here. There aren't any memorable performances as a result that stick out--with the exception of the fathers trying to hold on despite not being extensively shot--or even stand out acts of the dramatic, and it can make the story turned into the cinematic experience feel somewhat flat. The production values range from makeshift to just meeting the grade. It comes with some model airplanes to make one stretch their imagination, as well as not so convincing snow sometimes thrown this way and that when they're filming the fuselage on what looks to be a sound stage with actors missing icy breath. Other shots of the surrounding outdoors appear to be filmed on location and give it more of the realism of being there in the barren surroundings. This has some stock sound effects, such as a looped wind effect that becomes tedious after a while, and even some cries from the characters are overdubbed.

This is kept simple in some areas, yet it switches over to show some candid shots of eating flesh of what's supposed to be humans, not to mention cutting it off and laying out strips so the survivors can economically munch their portion. My guess is to curb fighting over it and keep it civilized. It's somewhat shocking as the camera doesn't pull away even when the point is made, but they also didn't kill to eat or do it in a way that's rapid, which makes it more an act of human will to hang on for life and see your loved ones on the other side than something outright animalistic. From being backed into a wall, they were still conscience as to what they were doing to make it out: from first the plane crash without falling out or exploding, to the weather conditions, to their own bodily functions failing, to then having to trek through mountainous terrain. To point out, if any one of the those situations failed, they were dead, so focusing on the cannibalism portion does feel somewhat leaning towards sensationalism, though I'm sure the investors had to sell tickets for the morbidly curious.

Rating: 4/10

Director: Rene Cardona (Night of the Bloody Apes)
Link: IMDB

From Dusk Till Dawn 3 (1999)

Rough and pale riders square off in the past

I originally rented "FDTD 2" and remember turning it off for lack thereof to the original. Similar to "Exorcist II" missing the mark and losing the essence of the first, I didn't even give the third part a chance for a while. "From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter" moves at a much more steady pacing than the mentioned and has a story that is richer with legend. This is a western/horror prequel that includes some characters from the first film but set a hundred years ago in Mexico with additional outlaws and more folks that just got mixed up at the wrong place at the wrong time.

A man named Johnny Madrid (Marco Leonardi), who looks to be doomed by the fate of a broken neck with a crowd of onlookers, is walked to a podium and first suffers the whip of The Hangman (Temuera Morrison). He escapes with the help of a younger friend and shoots his way out, but not before kidnapping the ruthless executioner's daughter Esmeralda (Ara Celi) who radiates a comely look and innocence opposite of her scarred face father. The younger friend, Reece, wants to join the newly formed gang of Johnny Madrid and gives him information about a cynical writer by name of Ambrose Bierce (Michael Parks) who is set to trade Pancho Villa something valuable to his revolution. Madrid and gang catch up with Bierce and a religious couple riding in a stagecoach. They knock them around and steal their belongings, only for everyone included to catch up at a bar/whorehouse later where every vice imaginable is taking place, and, of course, a deadly trap awaits when some blood is spilled.

The western/adventure aspect was handled pretty well with some decent enough acting and performances. Michael Parks, as Bierce, gives some charisma to the role with a certain wit and a pessimistic outlook, along with strange visions that give him a kind of mysteriousness--possibly due to alcoholism--or something else? Marco Leonardi brings some fun to his character of Madrid, even if you can't take his persona as the toughest outlaw to ride despite the scruffy facial hair and bladed boot. There's some gory scenes that make this one of the bloodier westerns out there--the Italians would be proud. This has a share of setups and a consistent pacing when it comes to action sequences instead of milking a certain set for budgetary reasons. There is also some atmosphere at times to show that there isn't anything but antiheroes out on the harsh, dusty terrain--just a you or me attitude.

For the latter portion the characters end up at what looks to be a slice of heaven with a saloon/whorehouse. By this point the setups were handled with less of the steady flow and tact of the earlier portion by instead going for an all-out, in-your-face delivery. Where most of the humor was somewhat dry before then, they threw in Orlando Jones as a salesman with a lisp and he seems so out of place, it's as if he just got off the set of a Mad TV skit without switching tones for the movie he's in. There are a share of extras and they don't always seem to be coordinated, as it feels like a free-for-all with strobe lights to add to the confusion of vampires gone wild. The first film jumped right into the horror portion as well and threw out some tongue in cheek humor. Though here the horror aspect feels like nearly a complete joke and a parody of itself, not to mention it's hard to take it seriously with soap opera looking lighting and with some of the props looking just shy of what you'd get at the Halloween store with styrofoam and painted on stones. It takes a complete miss on any suspense of the survival horror aspect and concentrates more on gags.

Looking at director P.J. Pesce's filmography with some westerns and action films, he feels out of his element with the horror portion. Yeah, there's some nudity, vulgarities, fights, more gore and vampires running amuck for amusement, but it also feels like it immediately got cheapened. The most to get out of this section is some character change away from the straightforward, and then a momentary twist regarding Esmeralda, which gets somewhat buried to concentrate on the others. There's tragedy in it, but it goes by so quickly as to be unrecognized.

Rating: 6/10

Director: P.J. Pesce (The Marshal TV series, The Desperate Trail)
Stars: Marco Leonardi, Ara Celi, Michael Parks, Temuera Morrison, Jordana Spiro, Rebecca Gayheart, Danny Trejo, Orlando Jones
Link: IMDB

From Dusk Till Dawn 2 (1999)

It's as if no one stepped in with both feet

Right off the bat, this was executively produced by Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino and Lawrence Bender, but sent straight to video, came with a third of the budget and was also handled by a different director and writing team. Not the biggest deal, as other horror sequels such as "Hellraiser II," "Aliens," "Psycho 2" and even "Amityville II" had different directors and scriptwriters and worked in their own ways. Though two of the biggest issues here is they didn't take it as seriously as their counterparts and they tried to do a story on its own that's very loosely related to the first to the point of losing context. It doesn't come with any revelations and the plot feels flat and unremarkable to try to carry its own weight. The opening scene sets up the tone of the rest of the picture with purposefully campy acting, inflated music, overextended screaming, gore and a tongue so far in the cheek that it bores a hole out the other side.

Gone are the glue-you-to-the-screen personalities of the first, and present are a bunch of nincompoops from Texas. The characters are inept, run at a slower pace and have few things on their mind but money and having a sleazy time. It makes you watch this from a distance as there aren't any relating points, just a group of guys that are neither cool, smooth or that you want to be in the same room with. One of them is a criminal named Luther (Duane Whitaker) who escaped from custody in Texas. There are news briefs and a Sheriff named Otis Lawson (Bo Hopkins) looking for him. Meanwhile, Luther contacts Buck (Robert Patrick) about a Mexican bank deal for $5 million of laundered drug money. Buck rounds up a team with his old buds C.W., Ray Bob and Jesus, and off they go to Mexico without showing how the known criminals got there.

On an empty road and with the whole barren area to fly a bat charges into Luther's car grill. After shooting the bat, he heads up the road to the Titty Twister and mentions the situation to the barkeep (Danny Trejo), who offers to give him a ride to the hotel where the rest of the crew are meanwhile extensively watching and talking about porn. The barkeep instead heads to Luther's car, gets out and follows the blood trail of the bat. The bat is transformed back into a regular vampire form and after a scuffle, Luther gets turned. He heads over to the hotel, turns one of the others into a vampire and then tells the rest of the crew that they need to do the job tonight. Not being the brightest people, they head over and from one thing leading to another more of the crew gets turned and Buck tries to escape only to get caught up in a heated cops vs vampire shootout.

Some of the characters here don't even make sense. The barkeep returns without explanation as to why he's still alive. Bruce Campbell and Tiffani-Amber Thiessen play lawyers for a pointless opening scene that gave another homage to Hitchcock but otherwise was pointless. White hotel clerks, black security guards, and then Texas Rangers allowed to investigate a crime scene in Mexico where they have no jurisdiction. Some poetic license for entertainment value is fine--the first movie even had some omissions as well--but this just pushed the bar and it makes it look like it's not even trying. As if everyone here treated it as a stepping stone by giving it half an ounce of effort with the intention of moving on as fast as possible. For a viewer, all those little nuances that made the first returnable are lost with the second followup, and that in itself is disappointing.

"From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money" is a movie that does it all on purpose, so how do you fault it for doing nothing but that? Except it feels like it missed the mark completely with very little redeeming value even by those lesser standards. The dialogue doesn't always give separation of character between the performers. There are a few momentary puns and jabs at its own devices that get some chuckles, a nude scene, and a few inventive camera setups, but those areas only carry it so for amusement. There's very little relating points emphasized--not even the money angle; even a 'Got to do it for a cause' line--nothing to learn, not much to see as far as locations and all of the characters you want harm to come their way, but then get upset that it took too long to do so. This has none of the elaborate creature effects of the first, but then again some are made to look cheesy, such as enlarged bats. Though money was spent in the last quarter of the movie. That segment was entertaining to a degree as it turns into an all out action battle with tons of fire power gone off and some gory deaths. Still doesn't make you forget what came before it.

Rating: 3.5/10

Director: Scott Spiegel (Intruder, writer of Evil Dead II)
Stars: Robert Patrick, Duane Whitaker, Bo Hopkins, Raymond Cruz, Danny Trejo
Link: IMDB

From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

A series of wrong places at the wrong times

The first peak I had of "From Dusk Till Dawn" was when attempting to sneak into the theater back in '96 and seeing the words "Titty Twister" on a sleazy bar front but then being kicked out right after. Soon enough a kind--or demented--neighbor leant the tape without alluding to the plot or genre. Being just excited that it was a "movie," not to mention with two guys and guns on the cover, I put it on without even reading the back and was surprised to find that not only was the beginning a cursing and violence filled crime adventure but then the latter half switches locales and turns into a kind of action/horror with monsters running amuck. My ignorance doubled when special make-up effects wizard Tom Savini--only known to myself before reading horror mags and dialing up to Internet access as that actor with the crotch gun--came to town to the local hobby shop and signed "my snot rag" (napkin) I had in my pocket--all for free! Good times.

Two men who live by their own rules make a mark on small town middle America by breaking every law in the book when they end up at a rinky-dink gas station in Texas. Fingers get itchy on their triggers and before you know it everyone's dead and a massive explosion ensues. "Low profile. Do you understand the meaning of the words "low profile"? Seth says to his brother Richie who ended up with a bullet hole through his hand. Richie (Quentin Tarantino) is the violence prone, perverted brother who constantly needs an eye looked after him. Actor George Clooney, as Seth, would get somewhat typecast after this as not the criminal, but the confident leader type that he does so well with a dead-set stare and words that command. This builds up to a kind of twisted redemption from a low life that is only out for himself--bank robber, cop killer, escaped felon--to unlikely antihero to protect his fellow man when something greater comes into the picture that jeorpardizes everybody's life.

From hotel rooms with one hostage to an RV with three more--including a former minister named Jacob (Keitel) and his two children Kate and Scott--they make it across the Mexico border and the Gecko brothers await a rendezvous with another criminal to make a score. That place is the Titty Twister: a Mexican bar that houses some of the rowdiest scumbags with neon lights and every vice offered to lure them in. Cheech Marin doubles as the boarder patrol agent and over-the-top host at the door selling prostitutes to bikers and truck drivers that layover in that seedy part of town. He puts a hand up to the Geckos and they return the favor with a beating. The brothers bring their captives inside and find strippers, loud rock 'n' roll, fist fights and hard liquor--their kind of place. Soon enough the incident outside and Richie's hand injury comes full circle to bite him where it counts when the host comes back in and the main table top dancer Satanico Pandemonium (Selma Hayek) can't help herself when it comes to the bloody wound. Within a split second all of the employees turn into something else and the patrons inside either run or fight for their lives by quickly using methods learned from other horror films. Yep, sometimes these things can be survival guides.

What's different about this picture compared to a straight horror film is that there isn't any foreshadowing. Though it's more action than horror by causing the characters to leap into making decisions on the fly, instead of slowly creeping up. Replay value is a blast, since you essentially have two differently toned movies in one with the same cast handling both sides. This is going for the full cinematic experience and escapism rather than truly making the environment authentic. Some of the mechanics are sacrificed for entertainment value over being thoroughly sound, so some things happen at opportune times, such as certain infected people turning faster than others or one monster having one ability and another doesn't. What makes that work is there is a decent amount of purposeful tongue-in-cheek humor, along with room left over for timed out suspense.

The beginning half of the film isn't all flash and fancy talk as they don't always hold back in what's said or done, whether it be racist comments to raping an innocent woman. Savini as "Sex Machine" and Williamson as "Frost" aren't the best actors but they still possess an onscreen tough look. This has some cool special makeup effects by KNB EFX Group that would later go on to do other big pictures; despite when CGI started to rear its head just after 2000 as the norm rather than utilizing it in a few areas. For instance, this uses some CG for transformations from normal to monstrous but the rest is prosthetics, giving it that unmistakable physical presence. There are facial masks, as well as full body casts. Not to mention some grisly gore, with anything from the straightforward brutal to the downright inventive. Most of the music feels more hip and flavorful than scary, apart from some choirs. Time just flies with this movie, from one captivating scene and piece of catchy dialogue to the next, it's hard to take your senses off what the next thing they have in store. It's one of those rare films that you'll wish didn't have to end.

Rating: 9/10

Director: Robert Rodriguez
Stars: George Clooney, Quentin Tarantino, Harvey Keitel, Juliette Lewis, Salma Hayek, Cheech Marin, Danny Trejo, Tom Savini
Link: IMDB


Writer's note:

This is the first time I've seen the casual walking away from an explosion in the background. Since, it's been done from here to the moon.