Sunday, August 25, 2013

A Silent Death.

In Silencio De Muerte, a silent death is the scariest of all deaths. Imagine not hearing anything and not being heard when dying. That is truly frighting. TRULY FRIGHTING!


A group of actors are struggling to make ends meet in the stage plays they star in. They can't get any work anywhere else either. They realize they are no longer in their 20's, where it was much easier being an actor then. Realizing that they are getting older and know nothing else other than acting; one of the actors hatches an idea of getting a hold of a lot of cash in order to move forward with their lives. The idea is sadly a dirty idea. A dirty, fucked up idea. Sergio (Miguel Angel Rodriguez), along with his fellow actor friends; are gonna rob Teresa, the stage-play theater's cashier, whom holds on to the theater money at her house. Sergio charms Teresa and goes out with her as a way to know what she does, where she goes, and importantly where she lives. The day of the robbing, it goes horribly wrong since Teresa recognizes Sergio. Sergio then stabs Teresa to death, and some of the theater money is taken (not the full amount as they hoped). The robbery didn't go as planned, but they got some money, and that makes Sergio & his friends happy.

After the robbery, strange things start to happen to Sergio & his friends. First they seem to be in complete silent and non-existent whenever they are individually alone. Then they also catch glimpses of a ghostly Teresa. Clearly, Teresa's spirit is haunting them from beyond the grave. Teresa is out for revenge and is going to kill Sergio and all those that have caused her untimely death. They will all suffer a silent death.


Silencio De Muerte is quite the fascinating 90's Mexican horror movie. I actually blind bought this movie back in 2011 at the local video store I frequent. I absolutely had no idea it was a horror movie considering the VHS cover was action-looking and the description in the back didn't mention anything about ghosts or a haunting. Just dramatics and thrills. It was not until January of this year that I finally got around to watching it. I must say, I couldn't believe I shelved this great horror movie for such a long time!

Even though Silencio De Muerte was made with such a small budget; it still turned out to be a pretty good horror movie that actually has some scares. The scenes with ghostly Teresa honestly creeped me out and the loud evil synth music that plays along in these scenes makes it even more creepy.

Now what's fascinating about Silencio De Muerte is that it was written by legendary Mexican Horror filmmaker Carlos Enrique Taboada. It's actually a little surprising that he wrote this movie since this differs from his other movies that he has written & directed. All his movies tended to revolve around mostly females. And while this movie does focus on a woman haunting her killers; she's not really the main character of the movie. Main character is actually Miguel Angel Rodriguez's character Sergio. He was the primary focus of the movie along with Leonardo Daniel's character. Different kind of Taboada story for sure; but it still has that familiar ghost angle going on.

Silencio De Muerte is a 90's Mexican horror movie that needs to be looked into by all you Mexican Horror enthusiasts and Carlos Enrique Taboada fans. This one will entertain you and perhaps even scare you. Check it out sometime. 8/10.

Clip:

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Revenge of the Trashy 90's Christian Videohomes! Another Tribute to Paco Del Toro.

Who knew Jorge Reynoso could play a badass cop and a good Christian. Who knew Rafael Inclan could play a tragic character without coming off too goofy. And who knew Porn was so immoral & dangerous.

Paco Del Toro knew all these things. He knew them all and showed them in some of his weirdest films ever conceived for the home video market in Mexico & USA.

Once again, here's another tribute to the trashiest Christian Videohome filmmaker, Paco Del Toro. Enjoy.



El Despiadado (1990)
This movie has been on my mind ever since I saw the trailer in a Mexcinema tape. I actually had no idea it was a Paco Del Toro movie until I looked it up on IMDb. I couldn't believe such a brutal and ultra-low budget SOV movie was really a Christian movie!

El Despiadado (or "Man Without Mercy") is about a criminal named Pedro (Fernando Ciangherotti) whom and his little gang go around robbing and shooting to make ends meet. Pedro being the leader; shows no mercy for anyone. He is fucked up and hard on everyone.

When Pedro & gang are screwed over by a crime boss, they end up kidnapping the crime boss' ill son and demand millions of dollars in exchange for his safe return. Obviously this kidnapping/hostage situation ends up a bust since Pedro's gang is killed off and he ends up in prison for a loooong time. In prison, Pedro adjusts to the locked-up life and begins to sell dope in there. Dope dealing doesn't last as it ends up making him stab a rival and staying in solitary confinement for it. Pedro wanting a change in his life, decides to pick up The Bible and become a good Christian.

El Despiadado is actually a pretty good movie. I really enjoyed this movie since it was pretty darn interesting and sleazy. Fernando Ciangherotti does an excellent job portraying scumbag shit Pedro. Fernando definitely knows how to play scumbag shit type of characters! Now I can see why Paco had him star in almost all his movies. Playing the same kind of character & all.





El Chupes (1992)
Also known as "The Boozer", this movie is about a man (Rafael Inclan) who is a straight up alcoholic. He drinks daily and doesn't seem to think its wrong since he keeps his family intact and is doing good at work. Well, the more he keeps drinking, the worse his life gets. Eventually his alcoholism leads him to abusing his family (verbally & physically), getting fired from work, and becomes a wino.

This movie was pretty sad to me since it hits close to home. I got family that suffer from alcoholism and I personally know other people that suffer from it as well. Seeing Rafael Inclan portraying this type of character really tore my heart into little pieces.

Despite the seriousness & close to home moments; El Chupes is still a an exaggerated Christian movie. The movie goes over-the-top shocking when the alcoholic dad attempts to rape his  own daughter. That seemed a bit too much to me. Calm the heck down, Paco!




Chavos Banda (1995)
Jorge Reynoso stars in Chavos Banda as a preachy cop trying to help out the local street kids. These street kids have hard lives since they come from broken homes, they rob, and do drugs. Jorge Reynoso tries his best at helping the kids with readings of The Bible and starting a soccer team for these kids.

Typical street kid movie with Christian overtones. People assume this is some kind of punk flick when in fact its really not. Also, you got to love Jorge Reynoso's mullet. Its so big and machismo! WOW!


 Altos Instintos (1995)
This has to be the most exaggerated and perhaps even the most controversial movie that Paco Del Toro ever filmed. Altos Instintos is all about S-E-X.

Mexican singer Yuri stars in this movie as a young gal who was raped by her stepfather (Fernando Ciangherotti) and is now pregnant with his child. She wants to abort the child. But when she fails to do so, she is convinced it isn't right to do that and ends up keeping it (yeah, yeah).

Meanwhile, the young gal's little brother gets a part-time job at his uncle's store. The job seems great at first, but then the uncle gets pervy on the boy and ends up molesting him every time he's with him. The boy ends up brutally traumatized by the sexual abuse and is afraid to tell someone about this.

MEANWHILE (again), The stepfather is out & about looking at pornographic material (the good stuff apparently), and his addiction to porn leads him to raping women & children around town.

MEANWHILE (again!), the little brother's schoolmates are all addicted to porn. They view it, they 'read' it, and they even call a sex hotline with stupid looks on their faces. OH, THESE SILLY MEXICAN KIDS OF 1995! When one of the boy's parents finds out about this porn ordeal, the father of the boy tells him he needs to stop viewing such perversion and pray to God instead! "Sex is not a bad thing, but it shouldn't be taken advantage of". OH! MY! GOD!

Say NO to Porn. Say YES to Jesus Christ.



Here are some trailers I ripped from the El Despiadado tape I have. Both have yelling and preachy goings. The Chamula trailer is surprisingly pretty violent.





And to end this post. Here's a scan of a favorite VHS tape from my collection. This is a non-Christian release of Paco Del Toro's SIDA: Sindrome De Muerte. Clearly it was re-titled De Sangre Asesina (Assassin Blood) to sell it off as a typical Action flick. Of course, the actual movie itself is far from being action. There is plenty of other Paco Del Toro movies that got similar releases like this one. I have yet to find them though.



Click HERE to read about SIDA and other Paco Del Toro movies.