According to the filmmakers, “Legendary 1970s Mexican horror film auteur Juan F. Moctezuma II reportedly influenced the work of mega-directors Guillermo del Toro, Robert Rodriguez, Sam Raimi and more. But the last film Moctezuma made and his first in Hollywood, produced by Roger Corman, 1000 Paths of Death, was surrounded in mystery because it was shot in complete secrecy. And then he disappeared with the footage. Did his nemesis, the famous luchador Scorpion, sabotage his work yet again? Discover the truth in this fun film that delves into every level of the Mexican exploitation industry as it unfolds its obsessive tale.”

Obviously, Juan F. Moctezuma II doesn’t exist, even if someone went and made an IMDB page, adding credits for his films Una mujer sin precio 1961, Las fieras 1969, Demonoid 1971 and 1000 Paths of Death, films that he shares directing credits with the director of this film, Alaric S. Rocha. I appreciate this ruse, as they added him as a key grip on The Black Gestapo and Scream Bloody Murder, as well as an assistant art director credit for Sisters of Death.

There’s also a Fandom page, which goes into the story beats of the life of the director, such as his found footage — well, more to the point taking footage from other movies — film Tiempo de morir, which reads a lot like the plot of Cinema Paradiso, as well as working on a Cantinflas movie, losing the love of his life to luchador El Escorpión, working with Alejandro Jodorowsky on Fando y Lis, trying to win Lisa back on the set of Demonoid — not that Mexican Demonoid — and how his script for The Legend of Hell House (the movie claims Horror Express) was stolen by the real filmmakers. And hey — a Geocities-looking fansite, too!

It’s a cute idea, to be honest, in how it takes the world of Mexican cinema and American exploitation film through the years and weaves in this Zelig-like director, except that for all it gets right, there’s plenty that seems off. The movies that we’re shown pieces of appear to be modern-looking low-budget streaming cinema efforts, which ruins the illusion that the movie works so hard to craft that this is an actual documentary. And for all it gets right, claiming that Lloyd Kaufman, Yoram Globus or Roger Corman wanted to make Moctezuma’s last film, 1000 Paths of Death in 1977 rings hollow. Kaufman hadn’t even started to produce that much, Globus — with his cousin Menahem Golan — was still making films for AVCO-Embassy, and the two wouldn’t purchase Cannon until 197,8, and this movie claims that Corman was American-International Pictures when, in truth, he left AIP with his brother Gene to form New World Pictures in 1970. And as for AIP ripping off The Legend of Hell House, that was made by James H. Nicholson working out of 20th Century Fox as Academy Pictures Corporation. By 1977, AIP wasn’t even making the kind of movies that a Mexican horror director would come to the U.S. to make. Instead, they were putting out bigger budget films like C.H.O.M.P.S., Meteor, The Amityville Horror and Cooley High. As for Mexican horror cinema, movies as diverse as Tintorera, The Bees, The Bermuda Triangle, Mary Mary Bloody Mary, The Mansion of Madness (under the name Dr. Tarr’s Horror Dungeon) and Cyclone all played American grindhouses and drive-ins (and some multiplexes). Strange Mexican cinema could get played here.

I hate taking a movie to task like this — as well as showing off what a huge nerd I am — but I am the audience for this. If I can see through these moments, it makes me reconsider how much I like it. And that’s before the film explains to us that when El Escorpión and Moctezuma had their mascara contra mascara in Arena Mexico — in a year where Fishman, Mil Mascaras, Alfonso Dantes, Perro Aguayo, and El Faraón were the headliners — Moctezuma refused to shake hands… and then they show them shaking hands.

Also, while I’m being a geek, they mention selling a film to K. Gordon Murray by including full frontal nudity. That wouldn’t have gotten played on mainstream screens in the mid-60s, and other than Shanty Tramp, Murray was known as the King of the Kiddee Matinee. As for the Mexican films he did buy, he’d chop them up into one film and ensure they were sold to creature feature TV horror hosts. Full frontal would not have worked for him.

Getting a movie made is a miracle, much less one that has so many moving pieces and has to look and feel authentic. And many will look past that at this film, which gets Brian Yuzna, Isaac Ezban, Arturo Ripstein, Álvaro Rodríguez, John Penney, Paul London and others to speak at length about a filmmaker and where he fits in. It’s also a film that can’t decide if it’s subject was a maverick filmmaker who would go in debt to the cartels and destroy politicians all in the name of love, yet appear to be a slovenly rudo in the wrestling match at the end, almost a comedic figure (who would have instantly been DQ’d in the first fall for that low blow and why is a mask vs. mask match just one fall?) and not the heroic ideal we’ve been told that he was?

The ideas behind this are laudable, as is much of the execution. I just wish that it had gone all the way, because good is the enemy of great. Maybe I’m just upset that this isn’t about Juan Lopez Moctezuma, who made The Mansion of Madness, Alucarda and Mary Mary Bloody Mary. He also worked with Jodorowsky on Fando y Lis and El Topo, just like the director in this.