Wrestlemaniac

Insane Mexican wrestler brutalizes people before ripping their faces off with his bare hands. Really, nobody watching this expects Tolstoy. But for what it is, a lowbudget slasher flick, it's top stuff.

First of all, the premise. Part homage to the ridiculous luchadore movies of Santo, Blue Demon et al, it's hilarious on paper. Yet in choosing Rey Misterio Sr. for the role, they've made an inspired choice. He's not a 7' monster who towers unbelievably over the protagonists, but a short, squat guy who looks like he really could snap your spine with his bare hands. Clever lighting make his mask highly creepy on top of that, leading to a genuinely menacing presence.

Gorewise, this is a movie about faces being torn off. It's the movie's tagline, it's even on the front of the DVD case and the promo posters. You're teased with it, and when you finally see it, man it's nasty. Double thumbs up to the effects team, peeled faces haven't looked this good since Texas Chainsaw, though at a couple of specific points the blood seemed a little too light in tone and too opaque. It's highlighted further by the contrast with the rest of the movie, when it's that wonderous slick dark blood you expect from a horror these days. El Mascarado himself is pretty much permanently covered in great-looking gore. I'm surprised this movie walked away with only a 15 rating in the UK.

The sets are really something else. Much of the time they're really bordering on the kind of quality expected from a bigbudget Hollywood horror. They get re-used with some consistency, but then considering the setting is a small Mexican town, that's somewhat forgivable.

Acting, there's not much to say except that it's great. The characters start out as stereotypes, but they're really brought to life by a surprisingly solid cast. Unusual for the genre, but certainly not unwelcome. Troma this ain't.

The quality of the directing is a touch inconsistent. Sometimes it feels like a homage to other B-grade slashers, with cheesy PoV shots, camera blur, and other fun clichés, but at other times there's proof that these guys are capable of taking it to another level of quality, with some great twists and unexpected, original scenes. Oh, and some gratuitous softcore thrown in too, and played entirely for laughs, which actually works. If they'd stuck with one direction or the other, this would have turned out a cult classic. A little too scary to be funny, a little too funny to be truly scary.

Sound is the real department where issues arise. The music is fantastic, with authentic Mexican tunes on the DVD menu and across the opening credits, and the general score is mood-enhancing without being intrusive. But this is some atrocious dubbing. A constant re-use of El Mascarado growling, regular tinny sound effects, and people sounding far off and distant when they're supposed to be 3 feet offscreen, it's a bit of a shame, the sound lacks the kind of punch the action deserves.

Still, this is definitely one of the better slashers I've seen in the past few years. It's silly fun in parts, crafts some great chilling moments and has more than it's fair share of gorebuckets thrown in. And really, who can resist seeing Rey Misterio Sr. as a murderous psychopath? If you like slashers, see this movie. I give it 8/10.

The "wrestlemaniac" is another slashers movie, the story is about a group of young people who want to go to a town in Mexico, but instead they get two a place with a local legend about crazy wrestler from the 60s. The acting was amateurish, there was no deep script but all of these are not the real problem of this movie, the real problem is the fact that we have already seen movies like this before, a group of teenagers/young people that get lost and mistakenly find themselves running away from a local maniac, this movie just gives you the feeling that you know what is going to happened next. The "wrestlemaniac" does not bring a story we have not heard before. In summary, I did no like "wrestlemaniac", this movie is expected, and the worst thing is that the movie does not frightening as good horror movie should. for another reviewes: http://imdb.com/user/ur44998795/comments

I saw this for the first time recently.

Been on my radar for a long time.

Check 1) Ther ain't any good display of sex or nudity in spite of the characters being porn stars.

Check 2) One of the character wants to puke n rather than puking in some corner, she aimlessly wanders n goes far off.

Check 3) The first two kills r offscreen n the face of the dead person doesn't look like peeled off. Jus blood smeared on the face. Very bad effects.

Check 4) While one of the victim is fighting with the maniac, v cud hear only the noise from outside the door n to top it all, another victim who has ample time to run during this commotion but she jus crawls n later gets caught by her legs.

Check 5) Our last character has nearly taken down the maniac, by thrusting a plank filled with nails n piercing a rod in the belly of the maniac. Now rather than making sure that the maniac is fully dead or killing him,...

Check 6) When the maniac is still alive after so much beatings, our last victim sits down sobbing rather than running away.

The only saving part is some good cinematography. The abandoned town n the desert looked truly creepy. Also the third kill is gruesome, straight from American History X.

I caught this the other night on a random movie app I downloaded. Being a fan of wrestling, naturally, I had to check this one out. First off, I knew the premise for a movie like this would be ridiculous But I was hoping for funny, at best. I wasn't wrong. Quickly summarized, it makes Mexico seem unlawful and egocentric. Actually.... Thats not that far from the truth. We still love Mexico though. A chemically and structurally engineered wrestler turns supernaturally powerful as he destroys his opponents to win Mexico a gold medal in the Olympics. Normally this would be a cool sci fi plot, but this is a horror movie. B horror at that. The title alone should establish that. His psyche and his prowess quickly turns him into a killer and is then retired to obscurity where he disappears along with everyone who lived in the town of Sangre de Dios. Again, it really does sound like a cool X Files episode but it's grindhouse fodder. Enter the stoner group of friends that decide to travel across the nation to film a crappy porno with its director also pulling the main actor job. The dialogue is not expected to win any awards And neither are the actors. They legitimately seem to be having fun with their roles. I actually liked that and gave the movie points for this. It has some funny lines, most notably by Adam Huss who delivers quite a hilarious performance, even as he is.....well you'll see. The rest were OK and I have to give it up to the filmmakers for giving the hero role to the unusual character. Also gave the movie points for it. Rey Misterio Sr makes the appearance as the baddie here. He shouldn't be of importance to you unless you're a hardcore lucha fan. He was actually menacing and gave a few good scares in the film. My last few points are given here. The plot unravels a not that interesting turn of events and the payoff is incredibly misleading as well as weak. The ending may have you believe that the baddie is released out into the world to start a new life or resume his spree. Not really something you want to do unless you plan to make a sequel and considering it is 2016, this movie came out 10 years ago. No sequel seems to be in the works but then again it shouldn't be. 2006 was a big year for gorefests such as Hatchet, Hostel and Saw. This would be the TV version of those. For what it is and what it offers, it is not that bad. (2003's S.I.C.K is still KING of the crappy B movie horror wait... D movie horror) If you wanna watch some horror movie at 2am and be amused like I was, watch this but be ready to have some good humor about it because if you don't.... It's gonna hurt to watch. Literally.

A group of teens go on a trip to film a porn film in Mexico, on the way they encounter a 'your doomed' style gas attendant who tells them the story of El Diablo Negro and warns them not to pull up till they get to the next gas station. Don't you know the pesky teens stop to shoot in a run down bar only to be hacked down by a psychopath in a wrestling mask.

Nobody watches films like this for plot which thankfully is a good job cause there's not one. Feels more Full Moon than Troma which isn't saying much. But that said its fun and well paced with nicely done action scenes, gore and the odd flashed top rack. All in all better than average 6/10 from me.