Maya

This Italian horror film delivers a typically stylish atmosphere and thrilling scenes to make it a pleasant experience for every friend of Italian horror films. Director Avallone tells a chilling story about an old Maya curse that breaks loose. Several hapless characters fall victim to it in quite nasty ways. But Avallone focuses more on the uncanny aspects of the plot than on the gore - which doesn't mean that there's no blood flowing here.

Recommended for all horror fans and in my opinion more thrilling than Avallone's better known first horror film "Spettri" (Specters). Rating: 7/10.

More late eighties Italian horror from the director of Spectres! This time, absolute jerk Peter is some American ex-pat slob working in a bar, sleeping with a local gas station attendant, and gambling his money away on some strange finger wrestling matches (where one guy gets his finger torn off!) when his mate Solomon (600 year old William Berger) gets mysteriously murdered at some Mayan temple. Solomon's daughter turns up looking for answers and Peter gives it about five minutes for her to mourn before he starts hitting on her, the douchebag.

Just in case you don't think he's an a**hole, Peter also hits on his bosses wife (the stunning Mirrela D'Angelo) who's having an affair with some guy, and goes deep sea diving while wearing headphones and chewing gum. Two redneck muppets turn up to get drunk and try and rape Peter's girlfriend, which results in some supernatural force turning up and killing both of them in typical twilight era Italian horror film style.

Solomon's daughter's a bit curious as to why these two guys have the same wounds as her Dad, but the local doctor's giving her the brush off. Around this time she finds out the local legend of some spirit who tried to wipe out the local tribe with the help of the God of death, but got thwarted and vowed to come back. Has this demon returned? Peter's girlfriend catches Peter (the fud) getting lovey-dubby with Solomon's daughter and goes a bit mental, trashing Peter's apartment but then getting herself killed rather graphically in her bath. The local police don't seem to be too bothered though as Peter isn't even a suspect and just goes about his daily business. Oh – I forgot to mention the creepy kid that turns up to frighten the crap out of people, and that looking in a mirror in this film means death. And that guy that pukes up snakes.

It takes about an hour of the film before anybody starts trying to unravel the mystery, but you won't be bored as the demon works it's way through the cast, where people are pierced through the mouth with steel poles, have their faces torn to shreds, have their nose split open (eww), get lifted of the ground by hooks and generally meet fates that anyone appearing in a late eighties Italian film generally meet. There's also plenty of female flesh on display, but I could have done without the two attempted rapes, thanks.

So, yet another late eighties gore/boobs film that's pretty good. Nice, non-sensical ending too, as per the norm for this kind of film.

I recently watched the Italian film 🇮🇹 Maya (1989) on Tubi. The story follows an American living in Mexico whose best friend dies in a Mayan temple. As bodies begin to pile up around the temple, he decides to take a break from his womanizing ways to investigate the mystery behind the deaths.

Directed by Marcello Avallone (Spectres), the film stars Peter Phelps (Point Break), Mirella D'Angelo (Tenebrae), Antonella Antinori (Facing Windows), and Antonello Fassari (Valentina).

I enjoyed this movie more than I expected. While the plot is straightforward and nothing extraordinary, the settings are well chosen, featuring numerous gorgeous ladies and plenty of nudity. The horror effects are top-notch and blew my mind with their intense gore. There's a particularly memorable finger scene and some hook imagery reminiscent of Hellraiser. The kills are astonishing. Unfortunately, the ending felt a bit like a copout, reminiscent of Poltergeist, but it didn't detract from the excellent journey to get there.

In conclusion, Maya is a worthwhile watch for horror fans who appreciate the gory, non-cannibal Italian horror films of that era. I'd score it 6.5/10.

Italian horror has never especially depended on coherence. Fulci and others made up for it for it with the horror of their visions, Argento and his like made up for it with the intensity of their art. I don't fault Maya for lack of coherence, but lack of conviction, it has the right moves for the most part but comes off insipid in the end. It has an interesting mythological basis, the resurgence of an evil Mayan king (the awesomely named Ze Bul Bai) who has conquered death and wants revenge, prompting horror, but while it isn't lacking in engaging incident it has little anchor. The story sees one Lisa Slivak coming to a Venezuelan town on the death of her father and becoming entwined in the weirdness he was researching, indeed became part of himself, with inexplicable death all around building to a climax of sorts. Director Marcello Avallone is adept in creating a sense of unusual place, a certain heady atmosphere that goes a long way towards carrying the film, he also has a real knack for tension, through filters and lighting the ability to summon menace in quiet images, disturbance in the calm before the storm. He also has a knack for sharp and shocking violence, though the film is never all that gruesome (don't worry, there is a bit of cool gore such as some fish-hook fun) the nasty bits do tend to pack quite a nifty punch. Where the film falls is its lack of a notable hero or villain. Mariella Valentini is perfectly pleasant as Lisa, but hardly memorable, while Peter Phelps does his best as the male lead Peter, but regrettably is written as sort of a dick. There isn't anyone else to pin interest on either, other characters are mostly either forgettable or dick-heads that deserve demise. As for villainy you can forget about it, this is supernatural territory but the what behind the grisliness on show never puts in an appearance and is never really concrete. And this isn't a subtle show either, just one where things don't really add up. Still, for the most part this is a good watch, only really coming apart in the final block. There's some cool bloodshed, nudity, a Hong Kong style puke scene and some decent atmosphere, its all pretty entertaining. Worth a look for connoisseurs I think, don't expect too is the best way to get the best of its charms say I.

In the 8th century, an evil king attempts to extinguish a Mayan Indian tribe but is unsuccessful. He vows revenge and, being a wizard who can move freely between the world of life and death, slips into the netherworld. According to Mayan legend, the king will return when a man who knows of the bridge between the two worlds is killed at a pyramid-like temple. So says a character at the beginning of MAYA, which for at least ten minutes is entirely gripping, as we watch archaeologist Solomon Slivak (William Berger) play out the role of instigator who goes to the temple and gets murdered so the king may return to Earth.

Upon Berger's exit, MAYA director Marcello Avallone, and his co-writers Andrea Purgattori and Maurizio Tedesco, seem unable to expand much on the concept of the "night as the fracture between two worlds," as a pre-credit title card notes. At regular intervals, Avallone drifts away from the supernatural, inserting routine stalk-and-slash gore sequences that smack of artistic compromise.

The "night fracture" theme plays out, though, as Slivak's daughter (Mariella Valentini) arrives in a poverty-ridden Mexican community, asking a lot of questions and falling for a down-and-out adventurer and gambler (Australian actor Peter Phelps). Soon, both of them are snared in the legend of the returning king, and people around them get murdered in horrible ways.

For example, two punk dudes down from Texas to raise hell run afoul of the evil spirit, which crushes both of them with their own truck. A death by fish hook scene is similarly contrived and ridiculous. The best suspense scene shows Phelps' girlfriend tossed about a bath tub, an invisible force repeatedly smashing her face against metal pipes.

Phelps confronts an old friend of Slivak's, who is the only one who can stop the evil spirit from sacrificing a small child atop the temple, during the Celebration of the Dead. The doctor yells some mumbo-jumbo, stuff flies off the walls in POLTERGEIST fashion, and the spirit is supposedly sent back to its netherworld. After the dust has cleared, there is one last cinematic jolt, a throwaway ending sequence set in an airport that is almost as creepy as the opening set-piece.

MAYA never strays very far from playing its horror very straight, with knifings and beatings and other earthly killings. When it investigates the underpinnings of the supernatural, however, it becomes for fleeting moments a really fun movie.

This Italian production was filmed in Isla de Margarita (Venezuela).