In the second film of this series — originally as 12-part movie serial — the professor finds that he must admit that the undead walk the Earth. He joins with a vampire hunter to stop Nostradamus, who is the son of one of the most powerful bloodsuckers of all time.
Nostradamus takes his evil even further by basically explaining to both of them how if they don’t stop him, he’ll make the world an even worse place. To prove his heart is in the wrong place, he also kidnaps several children and repeatedly places them in danger.
The vampire hunter Igor is played by Jack Taylor, whose career may have started in American television, but would take him all over the world. Of course, most of his roles have been in the kind of movies that only I would care about, like Mexican vampire movies, Jess Franco sleaze (Eugenie, Succubus, Count Dracula), Spanish horror (Dr. Jekyll vs. The Werewolf, The Killer Is One of 13, The Ghost Galleon, The Vampires Night Orgy) and appearances as a priest in Conan the Barbarian, as Professor Arthur Brown in Pieces and as book collector Victor Fargas in The Ninth Gate.
Perhaps most famously in the United States, this movie ran out of sequence as an April Fool’s Selection on the USA Network’s Commander USA’s Groovie Movies. Seeing as how that episode aired on April 4th, I find it even more amusing.
Nostradamus is not the fortune-telling mystic that scared you so badly in 1981’s The Man Who Saw Tomorrow. No, he’s an aristocratic vampire played by German Robles, who also played Count Karol de Lavud in the two El Vampiro films.
Murray’s nickname was Kagey and he led a pretty amazing life. The son of an Irish-American funeral home director, he grew up in Bloomington, Illinois, which is right next to the town of Normal. That’s where many of the carnie folk spent the off-season and Murray grew up around them. Instead of going into the family business, the teenager started a “corn game”, which is sort of what we’d call bingo today, in one of his father’s cemetery tents. Imagine — people were so starved for entertainment that they’d go play games of chance surrounded by the dead.
Regardless, that game got him on the road with the World Wonder Shows Carnival. After becoming the manager, Murray used his circus and carnie contacts to help cast the Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz. While he was doing that, he was also getting rich from a series of not-so-legal slot machines all over the Midwest.
After a move to Hollywood, Cecil B. DeMille hired him to help promote The Greatest Show on Earth. This led to a career in film, which of course brought him into the orbit of Kroger Babb, where he learned to take movies and make them more emotional. He did that with redubs of Mexican films, as well as becoming the King of the Kiddie Matinee.
We’ve discussed at length how Murray brought the brain-melting opus that is Rene Cardonna’s Santa Claus to America, a movie that seasonally played in theaters for thirty years. In all, he’d release sixty movies in fifteen years. The only thing that stopped him was the IRS, who seized his beloved films to get some back taxes, and the heart attack that the stress of the court battles caused.
Notable Murray imports include The Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy, The Brainiac (El Baron del Terror), The Wrestling Women vs. the Aztec Mummy (Las Luchadoras contra la Momia Azteca), Shanty Tramp (which he also wrote), The Swamp Of The Lost Monsters(El Pantano de las Animas) and Curse of the Doll People (Munecos Infernales), The Living Coffin (El Grito de la Muerte) and a series of Little Red Riding Hood movies where he played Stinky the Skunk (even dressing as the character when the films played live). He would also bring El Santo to America, re-releasing Santo Contra Las Mujeres Vampiros as Samson vs. the Vampire Women and Santo en el Museo de Cera as Samson In the Wax Museum.
Anyways, let’s get to this movie, which starts with a professor who has been re-elected to lead a society dedicated to the destruction of superstition, all so he can prove that werewolves and vampires aren’t real. However, he’s soon visited by a 400-year-old vampire, the son of Nostradamus the Alchemist.
He wants to begin his father’s cult again and to do so, he’s killing thirteen of his greatest enemies. Like some Medico Phibes, he’s writing to each of them — who says the art of letter writing and politeness is dead? — starting with burying a man alive. The professor replies to this by shooting Nostradamus Jr. six times center mass and the vampire laughs and flies away as a bat.
Still, the professor refuses to let the world know that vampires are real,, other than telling Antonio, his daughter’s fiancee. Nostradamus, besides having a wonderful top hat and reminding me of Coffin Joe, has a hunchback assistant, which is how you know you’ve made it in the supermonster business.
A James M. Cain-menagerie of spiritually flawed characters learn that reaching for the stars and realizing one’s dreams can have Faustian consequences in this twisty, paranoid crime-noir spiced with supernatural overtones.
Harry Frick, a nebbish, hypochondriac homicide detective right out of the ’70s giallo playbook (Danny Donnelly, reminding one of “’80s” Jeffrey Combs in terms of looks and jittery-acting style) is mismatched with Jessica Alvarez (Jennifer M. Kay), an eager, newly-promoted detective, to the case of a stockbroker who plunged to her death at the stroke of midnight—clutching a mysterious photograph. In the photo: the owner of an adult film studio, who later turns up dead—at midnight. Why would such a successful woman and a porn bottom feeder be photographed together? And was it murder or suicide? Has a serial killer with a “midnight” modus operandi from several years before returned for a new batch of six victims?
The sinister force behind the evil emulsion is The Pitchman (our favorite journeyman actor, Eric Roberts), a self-help shaman who offers the Garden of Eden to the greedy and the weak. As the photograph morphs to include new faces and the bodies pile up, the already emotionally fragile Frick begins to unravel once he realizes the woman of his dreams (the physically and emotional scarred Melissa) may soon become the next person to fall victim to The Pitchman.
The Arrangement is a family affair-inspired labor of love: a film that proves reaching for the stars and realizing one’s dreams doesn’t need a pitchman offering devilish contracts to achieve the desired result.
It began in 1983 when writer-producer-actor Andrew Hunsicker was accepted into the American Academy of the Dramatic Arts summer program (which is a nothing-to-sneeze-at accomplishment). He didn’t go and came to regret the decision; he returned to acting in 2013 and logged over a hundred projects in indie films, web series, and shorts, as well as writing several scripts.
It’s Hunsicker’s commitment to the “dream” that makes The Arrangement—like our recently reviewed, under-the-radar thriller indies of Prince Bagdasarian’s Abducted, Nick Leisure’s A Clear Shot, and Don Okolo’s Lone Star Deception (also starring Eric Roberts)—the debut film by the first-time father and son filmmaking team of writer-producer-actor Andrew Hunsicker (here as Captain Murray) and writer-director Jake Hunsicker worthy of hitting that big red streaming button.
Andrew wrote the script in 2000 when the project’s destined director, his son Jake, was only six years old. During the script’s twenty-year journey, Andrew experienced the frustration of selling the screenplay—only to see the option run out, twice: once with director Joel Zwick (My Big Fat Greek Wedding), then once again with Steve Bing (Stallone’s Get Carter). The script received a third chance courtesy of Jake, who grew into an award-winning filmmaker in his own right with Nod, a 2017 indie-short that received industry allocades across twenty film festivals.
In addition to Andrew stepping in front of the lens for The Arrangement, his daughters, Jessica and Melissa, and his other son, Nick, also have roles in a film that serves as Jake’s feature film debut (he’s directed four other shorts). Principal photography began in January 2019 and wrapped in three months—shooting over the weekends during the course of seventeen days in and around Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. If shot as a major studio film with an eight-figure budget and A-List actors, one would be left with the vibe of David Fincher’s noir-influenced horror-thriller Se7en crossed with Taylor Hackford’s Faustian-influenced The Devil’s Advocate. A little bit more blood, mixed with graphic sex and more elaborate kills, and you’d have an Americanized, neo-giallo*.
In the world of low-budget indie film, casting is the key. And as is the case with most of his films of late in his ever-expanding 570-plus resume, Roberts’s role is a small, albeit, pivotal role. Keen eyes will also recognize the always welcomed presence of Brian Anthony Wilson (Detective Vernon Holley on HBO’s The Wire) as a corrupt senator with his own set of noirish skeletons to hide. The affable supporting cast of adult film and social media star Britney Amber, Deborah Twiss (Kick-Ass, TV’s Blue Bloods), noted sports journalist and Philadelphia radio personality (WIP 610) Glen Macnow, Mike McFadden (TV’s Bull, Blindspot, Gotham), and Aaralyn Anderson (Netflix’s Maniac)—especially standout Dax Richardson, as a morally-corrupt detective (get this guy on a Blue Bloods or Law & Order, stat)—more than make up for the slight screen time of Roberts and Wilson.
While there is the occasional awkward moment that comes with an ambitions-over-budget indie production, and the proceedings could have benefited with a shorter, more palpable running time, neither point is a distraction. Considering its budgetary and scheduling restraints, the Hunsicker’s feature film debut is professionally consistent across all the disciplines; a well-shot film that knows its suspense-noir cues to hold one’s interest.
I particular enjoyed the subplot concerned with the concepts of reincarnation (that I interpreted). When one dies and is reborn, they forget their past life, only to remember all of their previous lives when they reach the afterlife; once reborn, all is forgotten once again. And The Pitchman preys upon that spiritual memory loss, only to relish man repeating his sins once again: for he is Hell’s Geppetto and knows what a man sees in the world is what he carries in his heart.
You’ll be able watch The Arrangement, which already won its first set of leaves as an “Official Selection” at the 2020 Golden State Film Festival, via Gravitas Ventures on VOD, DVD, and Blu-ray on July 7. You can keep abreast of the film’s developments on their official Facebook page.
* Be sure to join us for our recent “Exploring Giallo” featurette wrap-up of our weeklong, June 14 to June 20 blowout featuring classic gialli from the ’70s and the newer crop of neo-giallo films of today. We love our giallo and noir around this neck of the Allegheny County wilds, so there’s lots of links to our film reviews (along with streaming links to films) to enjoy.
You need more Pennsylvania-shot film? Then check out our recent review of Jon YonKondy and Mike Rutkoski’s Baby Frankenstein, shot in Wilkes-Barre.
Disclaimer: We were provided a screener by the film’s PR company. That has no bearing on our review.
About the Author: You can learn more about the writings of R.D Francis on Facebook. He also writes for B&S About Movies.
One read of the title. One look at the poster featuring the baby with a plexiglass skull cap. One watch of the trailer. . . .
I’m spider-sensing pure exploitation attitude of the ’80s home video variety: here comes the neon-wireframed VHS tape spinning on another Prism Video production (You Tube). I’ve just got Doc Brown’d to the wacked out worlds of Stuart Gordon’s Re-Animator, the Shapiro-Glickenhaus universe with the twist-fest thats are Ed Hunt’s The Brain and Frank Henenlotter’s Brain Damage and Frankenhooker (the final release from SG), and Fangoria Magazine’s “big studio move” with Severed Ties.
But wait . . . this is a Spielbergian family-friendly comedy-drama monster romp that reminds of Fred Dekker’s 1987 cult classic The Monster Squad (and Fred gave us the “required viewing” wack-fest that is Night of the Creeps) . . . and you know how we love the Dek around these B&S parts in the wilds of Allegheny County, PA.
Bottom line: Baby Frankenstein is pure ’80s VHS nostalgia. So let’s load that tape, the VCR won’t load itself.
Lance, a scruffy teen, develops an unlikely friendship with a pint-sized automated “robot monster” hiding in the attic of his family’s new duplex home. Helping Lance protect “Little Dude” from bounty hunters—including his mom’s sleazy boyfriend clamoring for that $50,000 reward—and Dauvin Lundquist, the evil scientist who created Lil’ Frank, is John (a fine job by screenwriter Mike Rutkoski), his socially awkward landlord and neighbor—who has a crush on Lance’s mom, Kim—and the sassy girl next door, Truth. It all leads to a final showdown where Lance must decide between the safety of his family and friends and the freedom of Baby Frankenstein.
While Baby Frankenstein brings on the analog-memories, this is a film born in the digital world: In the summer of 2015, actor-screenwriter Mike Rutkoski was searching for a director to bring his retro-unconventional script to the big screen (well, in today’s digital epoch: streaming platforms). So he reached out to director Jon YonKondy (the family-adventure Don Quixote and the Pennsylvania-shot Susquehanna) via Facebook. Fourteen months later, the duo finished a film that blazed through its principal photography in seven days in the Wyoming Valley area of Northeastern, Pennsylvania, around the cities of Wilkes-Barre and West Pittston (YonKondy is a West Pittston native; Rutkoski hails from Plains Township; actress Cora Savage is a native of Shickshinny).
Actor Rance Nix as Baby Frankenstein on set at Boscov’s Department Store in Wilkes-Barre, courtesy of Clark Van Orden/Times Leader Wilkes-Barre.
As with the recently reviewed “mature actor” comedy Nana’s Secret Recipe penned by first-time screenwriter Yolanda Avery, Baby Frankenstein is a stellar writing debut for Mike Rutkoski who, like Yolanda Avery, is buoyed by an excellent, under-the-radar cast—headed by Ian Barling (Lance) and Cora Savage (Truth), along with Patrick McCartney (Ken, the boyfriend), Eileen Rosen (Kim, the mom), and Rance Nix, who brings compassion and depth on equal with cinema’s original “big green dude,” Boris Karloff—in a stellar showcase for their talents. And it’s great to see child-teen actor Andre Gower—Sean from The Monster Squad (!)—return to the screen (he left in the late ’80s; returned in 2006) showing his adult thespin’ chops as the evil Dauvin Lundquist. (Channel Surfing Alert: Wading by Antenna TV for “Catch a Falling Star,” a 1984 episode of NBC-TV’s Highway to Heaven . . . there was a pre-Monster Squad Gower as tempermental child actor Tom Barney. Very cool.)
On top of being an enjoyable horror-comedy, Baby Frankenstein—like the new indie-horror favs we’ve recently reviewed, Evil River and The Invisible Mother, and the introspective-drama The In-Between—exposes us to a great alt-rock soundtrack by Family Animals (Facebook) and Death Valley Dreams (Facebook). And being ol’ band and radio dogs here at B&S, we’re always up for discovering new tuneage. I don’t know about you, but the Animals’ “Metal in the Microwave” and DVD’s “Turn out Those Eyes” are as good as any tunes airing on today’s alternative rock stations.
Making the festival rounds and racking up over a dozen awards, the fine folks at Wild Eye Releasing have made this Summer Hill Entertainment and Tomcat Films co-production available on all the usual VOD streaming platforms starting June 30. You can “pick your platform” by visiting the official Baby Frankenstein website and learn more about the film at their official Instragram, You Tube, and Facebook pages.
You need more Pennsylvania-shot film? Check out our recent review of Jake and Andrew Hunsicker’s The Arrangement, shot outside of Philadelphia.
Disclaimer: We were provided a screener by the film’s PR company. That has no bearing on our review.
About the Author: You can learn more about the writings of R.D Francis on Facebook. He also writes for B&S About Movies.
Supposedly a remake of a 1940 film, this shot on video oddity is all about, well, a mad monk who claims to be Satan but is closer to the Crypt Keeper. He introduces us to two tales, one of which is about a priest who falls in love with an attractive women in his congregation and ends up knocking her out a window, leading to his crucifix being cursed. Then there’s the story of a couple who uses a magical object and all of the wishes go wrong, as if they were in, oh let’s say The Monkey’s Paw.
All of this effort came from Julio Aldama, who not only directed and starred in this movie, but got his whole family to be part of it. You may think that time with the family is valuable and worthwhile, but did your dad ever ask you to be part of a movie where a horny priest accidentally murders someone he was trying to sexually assault? Nope. I don’t think your dad ever did that.
Obviously, I will watch any movie ever, but man. Once I saw the goofy eye of the Cripta-esque teller of these two tales, I almost checked out. However, I am a brave man and consider you, the reader of this site, special. So I toughed it out for you.
Actually, I did some more research, feeling that this wasn’t enough, and learned that The Mad Monk was a radio series in the 1930’s that started with the monk saying the words, “No one knows, no one knew, the truth about the terrifying case of…”
There were comics of The Mad Monk as well and from the looks of things, they feel very EC Comics inspired, but of course taken to the typical Mexican extreme.
El Monje Loco also appears in a series of memes, too. Who knew?
Known as Vuelven in Mexico, a title that translates as Return, this movie may have introduced many in the rest of the world to Issa Lopez, whose schedule is now packed with future films, including a werewolf Western produced by Guillermo del Toro and a supernatural revenge movie for Legendary Pictures.
This movie depicts the harrowing lives of children in the midst of the war on drugs in Mexico. It is not for the faint of heart, as any rules of how children are treated in film are thrown out the window.
While her teacher is discussing fairy tales, gunfire explodes outside the classroom. Estrella’s teacher hands her three pieces of chalk, telling her that they will give her three wishes.
With her mother missing, Estrella falls in with a group of orphans led by Shine, who has already stolen a gun and phone from one of the most powerful gang leaders. This sets into motion a series of confrontations where the contents on the phone will prove where Estrella’s mother is and doom nearly every member of the young gang of children.
Are wishes real? Is magic real? Can Estrella escape the very real and possibly imagined horrors that she must deal with? These questions are all answered and you may not like where they lead.
As for the wishes, the first is that Estrella gets her mother back. She does, but only as a ghost that never stops following her. The second is for the gang leader to already be dead so that she doesn’t have to shoot him. He is, but the wish may not have been the cause. Finally, she gives her last wish to Shine, who wants his burned face to go away. That wish is the most tragic of all.
None of the children in this film had any acting experience. They did, however, practice in some improvisational workshops with an acting coach before the movie started filming. Interestingly, it was shot in chronological order and the actors were never shown the script, so that the emotional responses felt more genuine.
Rafael Baledon also made La Maldicion de La Llorona, yet today I want to discuss this werewolf film, which blows my mind.
Clarisa Fernandez is well-to-do, but is dealing with a curse, which is that she’s a werewolf. Luckily, or perhaps not so much for the humans they encounter, her doctor is a werewolf as well. They fall in love, which seems to be pretty much a happy ending, but not for anyone that knows them.
This is a movie that starts with no dialogue for ten minutes and ends with a werewolf hunting dog saving the say. Honestly, that sounds like the best review I can give this movie, which I adore.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This originally ran as part of our Bastard Sons of Jaws week on December 22, 2018. Seeing as how it is a Mexican shark film, how could we not bring it back for leftovers?
When I was a kid in the 1970’s, I was sitting in a B. Dalton’s reading — parents routinely dropped kids off places to read without any fear of kidnapping back then — and discovered a copy of Alex Comfort’s The Joy of Sex on a shelf. I had no idea what it was at the time, but the drawings (by Chris Foss, who would go on to work on Alien, Flash Gordon and Jodorowsky’s Dune) were upsetting to me. Hairy soft focused seventies post-hippies getting it on didn’t jibe well with my single digit mind.
I forgot what that feeling was like. And then I watched Tintorera…Tiger Shark.
This movie is based on the novel of the same name by oceanographer Ramón Bravo, an undersea explorer who studied the 19-foot-long species of shark known as “tintorera” and also discovered the sleeping sharks of Isla Mujeres. You may know him better for his role as the underwater zombie in Lucio Fulci’s Zombi 2.
Here’s the thing — this is a shark movie, but it’s also pretty much a softcore adult movie about the three-way relationship between the heroes. As such, this is the only shark movie I’ve watched all week with full frontal male nudity, which is something of an accomplishment.
Hugo Stiglitz from Nightmare City plays Steven, born in the US but a Mexican businessman here in Cancun for vacation. He falls for Patricia (Fiona Lewis, Dr. Phibes Rises Again) but breaks up with her when he can’t decide whether or not he’s in love with her. Ah, the 1970’s.
Jealousy ensues when she starts hooking up with Miguel (Andrés García, a real-life former diving instructor who is also in Bermuda: Cave of the Sharks), the swimming instructor at the resort. After those two dance the devil’s dance and Steven gets all misty-eyed, she goes skinny dipping and ends up being eaten by a tiger shark that seems to have breathing problems, judging by the soundtrack.
The two fight over what happened to Patricia, but neither ever learn that she was devoured by a shark. That night, the two hook up with Kelly and Cynthia Madison, two American college students looking for fun, and swim to Steven’s yacht as the heavy breathing shark follows them. They swap beds all night long before heading back to the resort and the shark decides to leave them alone. Kelly is played by Jennifer Ashley, who was also in Phantom of the Paradise, Chained Heatand Guyana: Cult of the Damned, while Cynthia is Laura Lyons, which is her real name and not a stage name inspired by the Sherlock Holmes story The Hound of the Baskervilles. She was the Playboy Playmate of the Month for February 1976 and actually led a strike amongst the club bunnies that led to better wages and rights for them. Other than an appearance on TV’s Love, American Style, this is the only other acting role in her career.
Steven and Miguel decide to partner up both in a shark hunting business and in being womanizers. They start shooting all manner of sharks, but Miguel warns Steven that if they ever meet a tiger shark that they must immediately get out of the water.
The guys meet Gabriella (Susan George, Die Screaming, Marianne) and take her shark hunting. She hates it, but falls for both men. They decide to form a triad relationship where they can’t be with any other woman or fall in love with her. Remember those The Joy of Sex drawings I mentioned earlier? Get ready to watch them play out as the three make love, make omelets and sightsee the Mayan ruins.
Sadly, the next time they go shark hunting, the tiger shark reappears — surprise! — and bites Miguel in half. Gabriella is so upset that she leaves, never to return. Steven vows revenge on the shark and beats up every shark he can find, upsetting even the most hardened fishermen. Surely, they tell him, he has killed the tiger shark by now.
Nope. It’s still out there, killing fishermen and lying in wait for Steven. At a beach party with Kelly, Cynthia and two new American girls (one of them is Priscilla Barnes from TV’s Three’s Company and The Devil’s Rejects), everyone skinny dips. As Steven and Cynthia make out nude in the water, the tiger shark comes back and tears the woman literally out of his embrace. Everyone is injured by the shark’s attack and Steven makes a promise to kill the shark himself.
You may be wondering: how will Steven go about killing this shark? If you guessed “he’s going to blow it up” then congratulations. You’ve been watching just as many shark movies as I have. Are explosives the shark’s natural predator?
Anyhow — Steven uses a devilfish to lure the shark close and then he hears its breathing, because that’s how sharks work. He succeeds in turning that shark into a million pieces, but loses his arm in the process. He wakes up in a hospital bed, minus an arm but filled with happy memories of the sexy times he shared with Miguel and Gabriella.
Keep in mind when you seek out this film that there are two versions. One is 85 minutes long and is more of a shark film. Then there’s the 126 minutes long cut that’s chock full of swinging Mexican resort sex. Also, a warning for those of you sensitive to these matters: many of the scenes of fish being caught and killed underwater are unsimulated. That should be no surprise to anyone who has seen a René Cardona Jr. directed film, as he threw live birds through windows in Beaks: The Movie and a cat over a wall in Night of a Thousand Cats. He’s also responsible for the borderline insane film Bermuda Triangle, as well as the scum-ridden cash-in Guyana: Crime of the Century.
Tintorera…Tiger Shark is one of the stranger films I’ve watched, not only in my shark obsessed week of trying to watch every single pre-Sharknado film of this genre, but really in all the films I’ve watched. I have no idea who it is truly for, yet appreciate its willingness to indulge in spectacle and scum, whether that be people hooking up or being eaten in front of your very eyes.
Update: Kino Lorber is re-issuing Tintorera on January 5, 2021 to Blu-ray. In addition to a new audio commentary track by film historians Troy Howarth and Rod Barnett, the Blu also features the original theatrical trailer and optional English subtitles packed in a limited-edition slipcase and reversible cover art. You can learn more about Kino Lorber’s complete roster of films at their official website and Facebook, and watch the related film trailers on You Tube.
A small Mexican village is dealing with not just the death of a man, but the fact that his body has disappeared too. Now, his brother and a cowboy detective friend (Gaston Santos, who played the same role of a cowboy against the unknown in The Living Coffin, Los Diablos del Terror, La Flecha Envenenada and El Potro Salvaje) head out to battle the gang that killed the man and now want his insurance money.
There’s one complication: a man-fish who is just swimming around town.
Seriously, I would have never watched this movie if it wasn’t for the look of this humanoid fishy man. He’s amazing and every moment he’s on screen elevates this movie from typical sagebrush adventure to the realm of absurdity.
Known up here as Swamp of Lost Souls, it was directed by Rafael Baledon, who also brought us Orlak, el Infierno de Frankenstein.
This film is a remake of Who Can Kill a Child, which was a shocking movie in 1976. Guess what? It still is now.
Beth (Vinessa Shaw, Hocus Pocus) and Francis are enjoying their last vacation before the birth of their child. But just like Lewis Fiander and Prunella Ransome before, they soon realize that the island they are is empty except for the children. And soon, those children will descend upon them as well.
Perhaps more interesting than the film itself is its director, who only goes by the name Makinov. A gigantic Russian who started his career as a focus puller, he refused to remove his mask — he had several — during the production of the film, choosing to direct from afar almost like Coppola did during One from the Heart.
He then went to Mexico to shoot two documentary films on shamanism and have a near-death experience, after which he became Makinov, stating that “by punishing the ego through anonymity, he can command the wisdom of being one with another.”
Before the movie played festivals, a manifesto from the director was played. He said, “We must remember we are made of blood. An old proverb says that it is better to murder during time of plague. I would say the same when we talk about cinema. People watching stupid heroes saving the world, when the world is surrounded by pain. What a joke. Cinema should teach us about pain. That’s why I make these precious sad stories. To remind us that life is limited and that we are gonna die. I believe in the mystery of the spirit.”
So is or was the masked director, who claimed that he would go on to direct pornography after this? Some thought he was Eli Roth and others believe that it was either REC director Paco Plaza, Gerardo Naranjo or one of the film’s producers, Diego Luna or Gael Garcia Bernal.
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