Thursday, April 17, 2014

The Prophet Mimi.

By day, Angel Peñafiel or "Mimi" (Ignacio Lopez Tarso) sits outside of his apartment building typing letters for people in the neighborhood who can't write. By night, Mimi walks the streets of Mexico City and searches for prostitutes to rid of with a black scarf he carries with him. When he finds a prostitute, he strangles her with the scarf and believes he's done a job for God. The reason why Mimi started to murder prostitutes is because when he was a child, he witnessed his father drunkenly enjoying himself with a prostitute while his helpless mother just kneels & prays to God. Young Mimi then pulls out a gun from his parents' room and fatally shoots his father and the prostitute. This has then scarred him for life.

The sad part of Mimi's "Acts of God" is that the prostitutes he murders are women he knows from his neighborhood. They have asked to write letters for him and even confided in him with their troubles since Mimi comes off so trustworthy and kind. Mimi has been acquainted with the young Rosita (Ana Martin) for a while now. Rosita too confides in Mimi with her dilemmas and even asks him to join her to sermons from a bizarre church runned by a "Hermano Mackenzie" (Ernesto Gomez Cruz). Hermano Mackenzie preaches a lot of nonsense which Rosita takes serious. Mimi too takes him serious since his mother has begged him to pray to God all the time, so religion is a very serious thing for Mimi. Serious but deadly.



Just a month ago I saw promo for El Profeta Mimi (aka "The Prophet Mimi") on De Pelicula and I was just sold completely. I had to see the movie. I sadly missed the TV screening, but I did pick up a VHS copy later on that same week.

  El Profeta Mimi definitely lived up to my expectations. The movie was just amazingly filmed, the plot was amazingly creepy & tragic, and the acting was of course great. Ignacio Lopez Tarso really pulled off playing this messed up character perfectly. His appearance and the way he said the lines just made Mimi so real. Mimi felt like someone you would know in real life. I did however felt the movie could of been longer. I mean its long enough don't get me wrong (an hour & a half), but I just wanted to see more Mimi! While we do learn his origin, I did feel there was just still more to tell about Mimi. Incase you're wondering why Angel is called "Mimi", its because as a child & later in life, he grew obsessed with the "Sì, Mi Chiamano Mimi" song from La Bohème since his mother would play the record of it while they talked. The song of course was playing during the whole father/prostitute murder. Twisted, isn't it?

El Profeta Mimi is so far one the best movies I've seen this year. Definitely a classic from 1970's Mexican Cinema. If you like good thrillers, then this one is a must watch for you. A high recommendation for sure.





Friday, April 4, 2014

The 9 Faces of Fear.

A bloodthirsty demonic spirit awaits for its next victims in an abandoned hotel. A TV crew and some mediums are inside that abandoned hotel doing a report on a mass murder that happened there a long time ago. After facing the demonic spirit several times—the TV crew & mediums realize they cannot escape the hotel and must fight the demon that is possessing everyone inside. This demon will brutally kill off everyone inside until there's nothing of them left to tear up!

Christian Gonzalez takes on the horror genre with Las Nueve Caras Del Miedo (aka "The 9 Faces of Fear") and it features all the obvious ghoulish scares in a haunted setting and has plenty of blood & gore to make you squirm. Several limbs & organs are pulled out and even weird blue vomiting ensues. Very “splaterry” sounding, huh?

I also have to mention that the entire cast of the movie is excellent. I really need to see another horror movie starring Roberto Ballesteros, Manuel Ojeda, Guillermo Quintanilla and Armando Silvestre together. All these badass & talented dudes in a horror movie is just so damn good. What's also damn good is that the character Roberto Ballesteros plays insists on filming everything that goes on in the hotel—even when his colleagues are bleeding to death and getting very much possessed. He clearly gives no fuck and somehow feels he'll survive this whole scary, demonic ordeal. Isn't that great?

Las Nueve Caras Del Miedo is a great 90's Mexican horror obscurity directed by the great Christian Gonzalez. He once again impresses me with another film of his and in particular a straight-up horror film—a genre he was barley tackling into at the time. Christian added all the scares & splatter needed for a horror film, but also still added in his gritty style of storytelling with smirky dialogue that is all too familiar. 

I would like to thank Christian Gonzalez's wife Patricias Rojas for providing me a copy of Las Nueve Caras Del Miedo. Thank you, Patricia!