People will often ask me “what exactly is a trash-mex movie?”, “what is trash-mex?”,or “why call your site trash-mex”? Well it’s all very simple to answer and the mission here at Trash-Mex is to bring light to trashed (discarded), marginalized & forgotten Mexican movies from the past. I want to make people remember these movies & to also see the artistic, cultural & entertaining value they all seem to have, despite some having a small and/or poor production. Sometimes the productions on these movies are actually really good, but somehow were just overlooked & never given the proper attention. Since 2011, I’ve brought many of these Mexican movies to light for many people in the US, Mexico & so on (you’re welcome by the way), and it really brings a smile to my face that my little reviews brought some kind of excitement enough for y’all to want to see these movies, remembering them, and loving them as well. It’s also nice to know that there’s haters always lurking around as well. Trash-Mex has its share of haters (and I know this from word of mouth & the unusual bitter-toned messages I sometimes get), but despite the criticism & hate Trash-Mex receives, these same haters always come here & on my social media pages to see what next great trashy Mexican title I’m showing off. That also brings a smile to my face as well.
Now what is the next great trashy Mexican title to talk about now? Well, this one came to me by chance. The expectations were kept at the very minimal level, but it ended up being quite the surprise & of course I just had to share it on here at Trash-Mex.
In Sembradores Del Crimen (roughly translated as "Sowers of Crime"), a cop by the name of Gabino Garza (Agustin Bernal) is chasing after the local drug bosses which consists of a tough as nails woman "Cerelia" & 2 brothers "Victoranio" & "Militon". Gabino takes on every single hitman & drug dealer he comes across and when he manages to kill Militon; Gabino’s family unfortunately pay the price for that when they’re all killed at the birthday party for baby boy Alejandro. Gabino of course goes out for revenge on everyone involved with the death of his family and he is not playing by the rules either! He will get them all no matter what!
Sembradores Del Crimen really exceeded all my expectations because I honestly felt this was just going to be yet another cheapie action-crime flick that I’d only watch once & forget about—but sure enough, Sembradores brought upon lots of trashy goodness that I savored up until the end. And what trashy goodness did Sembradores bring? Well for starters, the movie is straight up low-budget as hell & despite that, you can truly tell that there was so much effort put into making an entertaining movie. The guns in the movie were obviously toy guns, but the filmmakers didn’t give a fuck about looking realistic and just went ahead with what they could get. They also didn’t have the means in getting the really good-sounding shooting effects and just proceeded with cheapie old sound effects because honestly that’s all they really needed. Realism in a movie is just not necessary sometimes and that is the case here.
The sidekick of the woman drug lord Cerelia who’s called “El Montañez” is supposed to have a half-burnt face, but clearly some cheap latex was just pasted on the actor’s face—but again, who cares if it doesn’t look real because El Montañez still comes off as a grimy fuck of a character anyway. There’s also plenty of other grimy characters around and 3 of them actually dress up for the birthday party massacre scene and those costumes consist of a clown, a white yeti & a big bad wolf. That scene alone really made the movie so trashy & so fun since everyone pretending to die looked hilarious & baby Alejandro manages to survive all this—he then glances to his right side and proceeds to smile adorably at someone off-camera. Baby Alejandro also makes an appearance at the end and it seems it was his first steps walking. Incredible. Speaking of walking, Agustin Bernal does a lot of that in the movie aside from fist fighting, firing various guns and sitting down in his office. The sitting down at the office scenes were clearly all done on the same day. Incredible? nah. Hilarious? Yes. Very.
As you can tell, Sembradores Del Crimen is a completely trashy, oddball action-crime movie made on such a small budget; but it was also made with so much care & thought. Sembradores was a labor of love made by a family of filmmakers dubbed "Hermanos Martinez Franco" who were based in Reynosa, Tamaulipas & to my knowledge had released all of their titles under the American Cinevideo label. The Martinez Franco brothers really made something quite special here and the admiration I have for them is high up there. Wherever these brothers may be, I hope they know a big fan of theirs is right here at Trash-Mex. Sembradores Del Crimen is a must see and my highest recommendation is given.
