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On their way to Caba San Lucas, the cast and crew of a low-budget film get lost and come upon "La Sangre De Dios", a ghost town with a spine-tingling legend about an insane Mexican wrestler. The leader of the pack and first time director, Alphonse, likes the town's gritty appearance and decides it would be the perfect setting for his film. The crew positions the camera and snaps on the lights. When Alphonse yells "Action!", it arouses the famous and now insane Luchador, "El Mascarado" (The Masked Man), who begins a game of his own. One by one, the cast and crew are snatched, beaten and dragged to a bloody death. The few left alive must figure out how to beat the wrestler at his own deadly game, or die trying.
--IMDb
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Review by Chad
Added: May 31, 2007
Who says that there's nothing original in the world of horror these days? I have to admit that I wonder that myself sometimes, but just when I thought that the genre was on its deathbed, something like WrestleManiac comes along and reminds me why I'm so addicted to murderers, gore, and pure terror on the big screen. Granted, this movie may not be the definition of originality, but there are some truly great moments to be found in here, and it's definitely not another serving of the same ol', same ol' that we're rapidly growing accustomed to.
Our story begins with the cast and crew of a porno film heading to Caba San Lucas in order to shoot their debut film. These people - director and male star Alphonse (Adam Huss), cameraman Steve (Jeremy Radin), stoner Jimbo (Zack Bennett), and the ladies (Leyla Milani, Margaret Scarborough, and Catherine Wreford) - wind up getting lost on the back roads of Mexico and eventually stumble upon the ghost town known as La Sangre De Dios. What's so special about this town? Well, as we soon learn from the Mexican wrestling fanatic of the group, it's supposedly the home of El Mascarado (Rey Misterio). What's the big deal about him? El Mascarado is the ultimate Mexican wrestler, created by the government back in the sixties so that they could win Olympic gold - only, he was a little too good at wrestling and killed everyone that he fought. Realizing that their experiment was a failure, they dumped him in this town and left him to rot... but thankfully for him, he'll have a few new "opponents" when the porno stars arrive in town.
The great thing about the film is that, quite simply, it's just a fun movie. It's not going to redefine horror as we know it and it won't win any awards, but once you pop that disc into your player, you're guaranteed about seventy minutes of entertainment. In these days of faux snuff films and ultra-realistic murder sequences, it's nice to see that some people out there still know what horror is all about: pure entertainment with just the right amount of edge to it.
Just from reading that synopsis, you can tell that you're going to get a little bit of everything that one would expect from an entertaining horror flick: campy humor, a unique killer, and plenty of gratuitous nudity (and although she comes close, Diva Search contestant Leyla Milani doesn't bare any skin - sorry, guys). What you may not realize from reading that is that there is a surprising amount of gore to be found as the story progresses, and this is thanks to the fact that El Mascarado chooses to finish his victims off in the traditional Mexican wrestling style - by ripping off their masks. Well, none of them are actually wearing masks, so their faces will have to suffice... and let me tell you, there's some damned fine gore as a result of this unique tactic.
Now, with all that said, I should point out that this is not just a comedic film with a bit of horror thrown into the mix; no sir, there's a genuine horror film tucked away in here, and it's a surprisingly good one at that. It's all done in the slasher style which was popularized during the eighties, that being that the group splits up and meets their fate one by one until only one person is left and is forced into a showdown with the killer. Again, this is far from being original at its very core, but it's done in an entertaining and shockingly effective style that will actually pull a couple of scares from the audience.
Finally, I should point out the cast: quite simply, I enjoyed the hell out of the performances that they turned in. The true star of the movie is Rey Misterio, as he made a damned fine villain and left me wanting to see him return in at least one sequel. Pro wrestling fans may know his nephew Rey Mysterio, Jr. as being "that scrawny cruiserweight on SmackDown", but rest assured that his uncle is appropriately huge and menacing for this sort of role. I also enjoyed Adam Huss as the foul-mouthed leader of the group, as the man was pure comedic gold and I lost track of how many times this man pulled a laugh out of me. Leyla Milani was also decent enough, especially when one considers that she's the lady best known for "accidentally" slipping out of her top on live television. Watch for her "accidental" stripping scene that makes Carmen Electra's run through the yard in Scary Movie look like a genuine horror pursuit.
A highly recommended film, and this is the type of movie that WWE Films should take a couple of notes from for their next wrestling-meets-Hollywood venture. 9/10.
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#1:
Tristan
- added March 15, 2008 at 12:46am
Picked this up the day it came out, for a hefty
price I might add, and I was extremely
disappointed in it. It was too short, had next to
nothing in the gore department, and NONE of the
performances were good. I appreciate the effort,
but this one fell flat on its face. 4/10
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#2:
Nirrad
- added March 15, 2008 at 11:30am
Screw that, this movie was a classic! Everything
about it was great.......Oh!
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#3:
danimigra
- added March 15, 2008 at 6:26pm
For sure a classic slasher movie..!!! with
everything a slasher is coming..!! 9/10 is fine
for me..!!!
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#4:
Ginose
- added September 19, 2008 at 5:43pm
Good fun and definately worth the $7.50 I paid for
it. The gore was good (though, as Tristan said, a
bit lacking) but there was alot I liked about the
story as well as the premise alone... fairly
original, or, atleast original enough to get
repeated viewings from me. 7.5/10
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