Barrio Tales

I had high hopes of seeing a movie along the lines of "Tales from the Hood".

However, all I saw was a very low budget combined with mediocre acting.

All in all, it feels as if this is nothing more than an anti-American/pro-illegal immigration film dressed up as a horror anthology.

Worse, it doesn't even have anything worthwhile to say about immigration other than "Gringos" are evil and shouldn't "mess" with Mexicans.

Not recommended.

I literally didn't know what I was getting into here, as I sat down in 2021 to watch the 2012 movie "Barrio Tales". I had never heard about it, but still I sat down to watch it, as it was a horror movie that I hadn't already seen.

Now, it should be said that "Barrio Tales" is a horror anthology, for better or worse. Normally I am not overly keen on anthologies, as the majority tends to be dubious ones. But still, I gave "Barrio Tales" a chance. And it was actually a rather nice surprise of an entertaining anthology.

"Barrio Tales" consists of three tales and a narrative story that binds the three stories together. I am not going to go into details about each individual segment, as I believe it is something that should be seen and experienced on the screen.

The first segment is titled "Maria" and it is actually a rather good segment, with an enjoyable storyline and an interesting approach to curses.

"Maria" is followed by the second tale titled "Uncle Tio's Taco Truck", which I actually also thoroughly enjoyed, as much as I enjoyed the first tale titled "Maria". This was definitely a tasty treat in the anthology.

That leads us to the third segment titled "El Munstro", which was the runt of the litter. This tale was just a bit too tame for me, it didn't really have much of any horror worth to it, as it was more of a redneck hillbilly family thing.

And then there is the narrative that binds the three tales together. While it wasn't really much more than a guy telling the tales, it was actually interesting, because of the atmosphere and the way that storyteller behaved. So it was a nice means of tying the stories together.

I was genuinely entertained by "Barrio Tales" and found it to be a very pleasant surprise of an anthology. It is one that I can recommend you sit down to watch, should you have the chance. Never mind the laughable cover for the movie, it was something that was sort of discouraging me from actually sitting down to watch "Barrio Tales", but I am glad that I looked past that cover.

My rating of "Barrio Tales" lands on a six out of ten stars.

Arriving in Mexico to score drugs, two teens are told several stories about the locals in their small border town.

The Good Stor(ies)-Maria: After arriving back home from school, a man finds the new Mexican housekeeper running the house while his parents are away. After his friends arrive, a night of drinking results in her accidental death, though it soon becomes apparent that her grandmother, a vengeful witch, has cursed the carefree college students who caused it. This story works only because it's set-up as the classic jerks that cause the accidental death while the lone sympathizer among the group is punished as well as the guilty party. This is undone in a simple five minute revenge sequence that has no build-up, no gradual revelation of the curse working on the friends, it just comes in and soon turns into the next segment. The curses are enormously chilling and creepy, but the fact that it has to stay light in humor not only means it doesn't get a chance to become more fully developed but comes off as a mere afterthought.

The Bad Stor(ies)-Uncle Tio's Taco Truck: As a series of child disappearances start to hit close to home, a group of friends take solace in a friendly neighbor's booming taco truck service. When one of them gets involved in the disappearances, it dawns on the remaining friends that the local kids may be the cause for the chef's incredibly popular confections. The second is decent enough with a pretty lame mystery surrounding the truck worker but is mishandled with an immediately-recognizable set-up that really swerves no one, is spotted a mile away despite the best efforts to make this plot-point a surprising, suspenseful issue and gets by only with a fine stalking sequence at the end to save it as they engage in a fairly lengthy sequence throughout the house and out into the garage bordering the establishment, providing a few decent if weak gore scenes in the process but is still undone by the rather clichéd approach that runs throughout this.

El Munstro: Following along their daily routine, a group of border-hopper tormentors find a new batch of immigrants sneaking into the US and take them back to their ranch house. Settling in on their torture tactics, they realize too late the error of kidnapping this special group when they begin to fight back against their oppressors. Quite simply, this is quite a lame and rather weak effort with a lot wrong here and very few positive qualities. The segment is utterly atrocious and really doesn't have any value at all, being more of a ploy against illegal border-hopping than anything. It's more of a gang-land style retribution angle than anything to do with horror and really has very little of interest about it. The payback works because they take over for being illegally rounded-up, but it's still not good enough to save this wretched mess of an effort.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, drug use and children-in-peril.

Personally, I REALLY liked this film. I liked it because not only am I from a large, Hispanic community in California, but also negates I love horror anthologies. Put those two factors together, you've got a somewhat relatable, interesting horror anthology that doesn't apologize for anything and just presents its content as is. Now, the content more specifically are three individual segments that vary from supernatural horror to realistic thriller-type horror, and each of then really feels like they understand the style of Mexican horror, in such ways as tone, visual presentation, writing, etc.

That all said, there's nothing but negative reviews on here, and I respect and understand that. Here's the thing though: don't go into this movie with preconceived notions, instead, go into this film with a blank and open mind, ahd as much interest as one can muster. As I said before, this film doesn't apologize and just presents it's content as is, and that's the most important point to understand prior to watching this film, just so that one feel the need to pre-compare, or otherwise formulate what they themselves wants the film to be better even watching it, as opposed to taking it as is, and that's the whole point I'm trying to make to you the viewer: watch this film with a blank and open mind from start to finish, and take the film all in as it is, and just as it is, then formulate your informed opinion.