Week 8 (Aug 9 – 15) – Trash-Mex picks
Hey, Mario Almada was in over 300 movies, someone’s gotta help us find the good ones! Since 2010 Armando Hernandez has been one of the only people discussing Mexican genre pictures through his website trashmex dot com and the Trash-Mex podcast with co-host Joey Diaz. There’s ORO AUTÉNTICO on this list!
Humberto Martínez Mijares’s Bestia Nocturna takes place in a small town that’s being terrorized by a sadistic, imposing psycho disguised in military gear like The Prowler and sporting a heavy motorcycle helmet straight out of Night School or Strip Nude for Your Killer. No matter where this killing machine gets its inspiration, it loves to stalk and murder women with chilling, methodical grace. With the body count rising, it falls to the local police captain and his girlfriend—who courageously has to step up and act as a decoy—to lay a trap and put an end to the madness.
It’s a schizophrenic mix: one part heavy-breathing killer, one part action-packed car chase, one part family drama, and a surprisingly heavy dose of mariachi music! While the police procedural and dramatic subplots slow the momentum, whenever the film leans into its slasher roots, it absolutely shines. What the film lacks in traditional gore, it makes up for in pure, adrenaline-fueled pursuit. We get incredible set-pieces: an opening chase down a long white brick tunnel illuminated by flashing lights; a tense escape from a muddy road into an isolated shed; and a masterclass in cat-and-mouse where a woman flees a nightclub bathroom, escapes in her car, only to have the killer pull up beside her on a motorcycle, veer off-road, crash and hunt her down through a sprawling field!
It’s also packed with big hair, what feels like hundreds of cars that blow up real good and a gym workout scene scored with synth and elevated by a male aerobics class. It feels so close to being perfect. It’s almost there; it just had to give in to the urge to show gore. It doesn’t, and for that, it might have been.
