Seven Cemeteries

Cheap Mexican modern western that makes little sense, but it's kind of fun. Imagine Danny Trejo coming out of prison, where he spent 28 years with 5 minutes off for good behavior, in order to be the hero a Mexican woman needs to save her farm from the local gang barons and corrupt cops. And he does it with a bunch of ineffectual undead former associates. At 80. How is that not fun?

If you want actual action, special effects that are more expensive than 15$, a meaningful story or acting of any sort, this is not the film for you. But if you want to see a very low budget Mexican The Magnificent Seven with a few lines that make you chuckle, you may enjoy this.

I like Danny Trejo. I think he's an awesome guy and a badass. But his movies are almost universally awful. This does not mean I don't own more than one of them.

So I didn't expect much from this one, and at the time I'm writing this the rating is 4.3 so that didn't bode well. However, I was surprised-pleased, actually-that it wasn't near as terrible as I'd prepared myself for. Yes, it's low budget and the sfx are poor. The plot is pretty thin but consistent. Trejo is Trejo and the other actors earn their meager paychecks. There's some humor and its short runtime keeps you from getting bored or overthinking. Seriously, I don't get the hate. It's not so bad if you have a sense of humor and like Ramirez movies.

And I must be the only one who recognizes that this is a zombie takeoff on "The Magnificent Seven." It gets an extra point just for that.

When it comes to a Trejo movie, one always knows that it can go either way, can be a great treat like Desperado or Bad Ass, or it can be some terrible , basically unwatchable garbage.

Seven Cemeteries is somewhere between the two, but closer to the latter. The few raving reviews out there are clearly fake, calling this magnificent and wonderful is ridiculous.

It is still watchable, if only barely. It's incredibly amateurish, as if a bunch of high school kids banded together with a phone as a camera and grabbed a few random guys from the local diner to goof around and call it a movie. There is hardly any story, the acting is basically non existent, dialogues and the script in general are extremely simplistic. The pacing is totally off, at least half of the very short runtime is spent with a slow build, with very little payoff in the end. Let's not even mention the "special effects"... Still, it has a little bit of charm, a few small chuckles. All I can say is that it's not entirely terrible.

After being released from prison, a man finds himself crossing a vicious drug lord in the area and makes a deal with a local witch to resurrect a posse of undead thug friends of his to help save the farm of a woman who's also crossed the same drug dealer and protect the land.

This was a fairly fun and enjoyable enough genre effort. The majority of the positives for this one rely on the strength of the supernatural tinges featured here that give it a somewhat wild time. The various factors in play putting the squeeze on the property where the house stands and the need for bringing in the different figures from the guy's past which comes about nicely giving this a decent enough storyline to work with. That we get the motivation for the resurrection and the different antics of how he's supposed to go about bringing his friends back to life gives everything a great time with a simple, straightforward story. That gives way to a slew of fun Action-style setpieces involving the war between the two sides starting to unfold. The initial confrontations with the zombified friends offering to help out give this some immensely fun setpieces featuring the inability to harm the undead minions which is only aided by a quirky sense of humor at the ineffectual nature of everything taking it to a wholly silly and cheesy tone. The final scenes making the sides pull out all the stops with plenty of strong setups in the race to get the house prepared, the battle outside where the overwhelming numbers force them underground, and the battle in the escape tunnels work nicely at bringing about some solid gore, heartwarming moments, and a fun resolution for a solid enough time here. There are some big issues here within this one. The main drawback with this one is the generally underwhelming sense of structure present that keeps this one meandering around instead of dealing with the main issue at the house. Featuring the journey to resurrect the zombified friends and bring them back which gives this some comedic features but also just drags along without much reason which manages to feel quite scattershot with how it plays out. It plays into the other factors for this one where the focus on comedy or Action in the middle section leaves such a lighthearted tone that nothing really feels dangerous or threatening so it's somewhat of an issue to get over with this one.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

Seven Cemeteries is a really fun shoot 'em up flick with a hispanic theme. If you're serious about film, don't bother. This isn't for you. If you like silly, fun, action movies that don't take themselves seriously then this is right up your alley. This is a movie to enjoy with friends and chill out.

Danny Trejo pretty much plays Danny Trejo. Just got out of jail. Comes across a woman in distress and reluctantly comes to her aid. His new (old) posse are a hoot. I won't say much more because I don't want to spoil anything. The blood and gore might be a bit much for people who don't see that stuff very often, but we all thought that it added humor (intentionally).

It was much better than I expected. .