Ladronas de Almas

If you like that kind of trashy horror, a lot of blood, simple acting, modest effects, short budget, beat script, dark locations (I love a Mexican country house, I already want to), well, if you like all that, here's a full square, no it scared even my 8-year-old goddaughter, we watched it together, she thought it was boring... Lol, I loved it...

I was literally angry at the lower rated reviews that I made an IMDB account just to give my own review. Really frustrating when people who clearly lying give very biased opinions and then discourage possible viewers from watching a film they might like. Why review something when you knew you utterly disliked the whole time while watching? I feel like the genre or style wasn't for them, and a poor review seems out of spite. So. No, I do not feel like I wasted my time watching. The actors made believable characters. The historical setting and costumes looked genuine. The amount of gore seemed realistic. With the basic plot of the story obvious, the movie is great. As trigger warnings, not really spoilers, there's murder, rape, body mutilation, rotten corpses, familiar death, imprisonment, probably some more. So, that's all stuff you're fine with in a movie, and you're expecting to watch a movie with zombies and witchcraft and ultimately a satisfying ending for the innocent characters, you'd probably like this movie.

Me and Mexican cinema have not had the best history together, the best film I've seen entirely made by a Mexican studio was The Similars (2015) and that managed an astounding 3/10.

I don't know what it is, I don't come across many and when I do I tend to miss the point altogether.

Ladronas de Almas which translates to Soul Thieves tells the story of a group of outlaws disguised as rebels during the Mexican civil war. They descend upon the home of a man, his 3 daughters and man servant in search of lost royalist gold. During their search however they find more than they bargained for and the horror begins.

A stylish horror I appreciate everything they were trying to do here and much of it works. Sadly too much of it doesn't and it just doesn't come across very engaging. It's violent, it's gory and it looks great, sadly it just fails to be as interesting as you'd imagine.

Everyone involved in front of the camera does a decent enough job and I like the idea, I think they just dropped the ball more than a tad. On the flipside however this is at least now the best Mexican movie I've ever seen.

The Good:

Some nice ideas

Looks the part

The Bad:

Frustratingly unengaging

Wasted potential

This is really, really, really good. Not much information is available about the movie to non-Spanish speakers. It should be. Watch this. Period piece horror done right with crisp film stock, good sound, and professional-level acting.

The only English language reference to the film mentions it comes sixty years after the first Mexican Zombie film. And what zombies these are.

Hearkening back to the original form of the zombie, and thus to the earliest zombie films, it's a refreshing change from the zombie hordes we've come to know and devour. While staying true to its period, it's a deliciously modern version of the ur-zombie oeuvre.

And watching how the three daughters, about as far from fragile, shrinking violets as one can get, turn the tables on their would-be assailants is a still all-too-rare pleasure in contemporary film, despite all the current attempts at lip service.

Watch this.

Thoroughly enjoyed this very atmospheric creature feature. The sisters definitely protected their father's estate admirably. The one thing that really stood out were the sets and the excellent use of lighting and color.

This isn't a Friday the 13th horror film for the inexperienced... it slowly builds in intensity, almost to the point where you start feeling bad for the interlopers. Well done!