Is it really Halloween season without a new horror anthology to enjoy? From classics like Mario Bava’s Black Sabbath to modern favorites such as Trick ‘r Treat and the ongoing V/H/S series, such collections of frights evoke the grabbag spookiness of tales whispered around the campfire, free to indulge in all that genre has to offer. Satanic Hispanics doubly embraces that freedom, offering a feast of Latin talent and folklore in front of and behind the camera while gleefully dancing across tonal lines throughout its varied, visceral segments. As uneven as they may be, the eerie delights threaded through these 113 minutes are infectious.
Satanic Hispanics assembles an electric array of horror creatives from the last twenty years, including The Convent and Don’t Kill It director Mike Mendez, Terrified’s Demian Rugna, Blair Witch Project co-director Eduardo Sanchez and Gigi Saul Guerrero of Bingo Hell, Culture Shock, and El Gigante fame. The anthology’s stories similarly mirror those directors’ diverse styles from folk-horror nightmare to splattery comedic farce, starting with Mendez’s wraparound “The Traveler”. Carried by Efren Ramirez (Napoleon Dynamite) as the sole survivor of a massacre and claiming to incredulous detectives to be a 500-year old wanderer, his tales behind the occult relics in his possession form the loosely-connected basis for the film’s segments; his desperate warnings about the ancient Paraguayan evil San La Muerte hunting him provides action-packed bullet-riddled pay-off.
Director Demian Rugna gave modern horror canon a taste of Argenentian nightmare fuel with his debut feature Terrified, and his segment “Tambien Lo Vi” further cements him as a shining new voice in terror. His Hellraiser-inspired vignette places us in the doomed apartment of Gustavo (Demian Salomon), whose Rubik’s Cube obsession ends up opening a doorway to another realm and its reality-invading threats. Rugna’s haunted backgrounds and creeping dread carry over from his films to “Tambien Lo Vi”, although an abrupt ending snuffs out its effective unease too soon. Gigi Saul Guerrero’s “Nahuales” similarly settles for a grimmer tone and Wicker Man influence, following a CIA operative whose cartel threat and cloak-&-dagger work crashes headlong into ritual-&-witchcraft wrath. Gabriela Ruíz’s shapeshifting witch Madre Tierra provides a compelling face for this segment’s genre blending, Mexican folk horror, and tribal rite worldbuilding.
The other two segments couldn’t be farther from Rugna’s and Guerrero’s dark disturbing terror. Sánchez’s Blair Witch and Lovely Molly bonafides might lead one to expect another unnerving tale, but his segment “El Vampiro” is actually Satanic Hispanics at its most slapstick. A bickering domestic comedy between married bloodsuckers played by Hemky Madera and Patricia Velasquez turns into one bad night for Madera’s ancient vampire. Turns out forgetfulness even strikes elder creatures of the night; realizing it’s Daylight Saving Time means there’s only minutes until the sun rises, thus a limb-ripping race through the city packed with bad luck and giddy practical gore. However, Alejandro Brugués’ “The Hammer of Zanzibar” takes the silliness and genre twisting bedlam of the anthology to its limits, for better or worse. Similar to the big final swings of his zombie flick Juan of the Dead, his ‘90s Tarantino-esque segment escalates from a restaurant date to John Woo-esque dual gun wielding and full-tilt Evil Dead demonic chaos. If the idea of slaying demons with a giant dildo sounds like campy fun, then Brugués’ raucous horror goofiness ends Satanic Hispanics’ vignettes on a bonkers high note.
The uneven quality and tonal gaps that often come with horror anthologies can’t diminish Satanic Hispanics’ wealth of talent, impressive effects, and varied tales. As either a rocky rollercoaster of scares and ghouls or as an introduction to exciting Latin voices in horror, this is a worthy genre addition just in time for Halloween.
Photo courtesy of Epic Pictures
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