Le cimetière de la terreur

Some movies require more of our suspension of disbelief than others, and this is surely one of them. Lines of dialogue that don't quite comport with the scenario; small inclusions that either abruptly introduce an entirely new narrative element, or are maybe just so poorly considered that we have to either presume the same or go mad; characters written with so little intelligence or so much obliviousness as to be contrivances of pure Movie Magic; and so on. In fairness, despite any flourishes to present, at its core this is still a slasher - just one mixed with some supernatural aspects - and in no way is it a film that was intended to be approached with any but the most superficial and unbothered of eyes. It's a big ask to wholly dispense with any critical thought to watch a picture. I suppose if one is able to do so, however, this is passably enjoyable? Look, 'Cemetery of terror' just definitely is no height of horror storytelling or film-making, that's for sure. But it's entertaining enough.

The blood and gore look good. I like the production design and art direction. It's well made from a technical standpoint, and while the story in its broad strokes is nothing special, it's still suitable grisly fun. It's in the details that the feature falls apart. I've seen too many poorly made movies to count, and while I wouldn't say that this is one of them, no comparison readily comes to mind to have so enthusiastically encouraged willful myopia of the viewer such that we can't pick apart every minutiae therein. 'Cemetery of terror' demands that we turn off our brain to engage with it, or else we're confronted with an endless stream of flummoxed, skeptical reactions of "What?! ... okay, sure."

It's a pity that the writing weren't more cohesive, coherent, and complete, because if it were by even just a small measure, the feature would have greatly benefited. There are some swell ideas in here, and between the orchestration generally of some scenes, and the addition of Chucho Zarzosa's excellent score to cement the tension and atmosphere, some moments are especially well done. At its best - or at least in its best potential - this is pretty much just as solid as any like horror flick might be. At its worst, one can only respond with "you're kidding me, right?"

Against all odds I think the last third of the picture is sufficiently well done as to pick up the considerable slack that it had dropped earlier. I think the cast generally perform well with what they're given. More so than not this is pretty okay! I just really wish the narrative and scene writing had been tightened, for that would have made a huge difference. Don't go out of your way to watch this, and by no means is it a must-see, but if you have the chance to check out 'Cemetery of terror' and can abide the most severe inelegance it may boast, this is a moderately worthwhile way to spend ninety minutes.

Hugo Stiglitz, probably best known to horror fans as the hero of Italian zombie flick Nightmare City, battles the undead once again in Cemetery of Terror, a low-budget Mexican mish-mash that borrows heavily from several successful US horror hits.

The film opens in Halloween mode, with lumbering serial killer Devlon gunned down by the police after a bloodthirsty rampage. The Evil Dead is the obvious inspiration for the introduction of a Satanic book that is discovered by a group of partying youths, whose idea of fun is to steal a body from the local morgue (no prizes for guessing whose corpse they make off with), and then perform a life-giving ritual during a rainstorm in a creepy cemetery.

With Devlon resurrected (I said there were no prizes!), the film enters Friday the 13th territory, with the dumb kids bumped off one by one by the undead killer. Last but not least, the film becomes a Night of the Living Dead-style fight for survival in a creepy run-down mansion, as a group of young trick or treaters are terrorised by zombies, brought back to life by Devlon's supernatural Satanic powers. Stiglitz plays the occult expert who holds the key to permanently putting Devlon to rest.

Cemetery of Terror is extremely dumb and utterly chaotic nonsense from start to finish, with not a lick of logic and unremarkable performances all round, but energetic direction from Rubén Galindo Jr. (who was also responsible for US-style slasher Don't Panic), lots of bargain basement zombies, and quite a fair bit of crude gore (a torn out throat, guts pulled out, an axe in the head) mean that there's still some fun to be derived from this random slice of South American schlock.

Fans of cheesy '80s horror will also enjoy the frequent appearances of the boom mic or its shadow, some nasty fashion (including a shiny, multi-coloured jacket with a skier printed on the back), an impressively staged zombie resurrection scene 'enhanced' by an excess of smoke and coloured lights, and one of those 'WTF?' final shots that were so prevalent among cheap horror films of the era.

Forget all the commentaries trashing this movie. This here is a Mexican horror classic. Ask yourself this, how many terrible American horror movies are out there? Gimme a break. Mexican films usually have low budgets, don't go big time on the silver screen or gain huge notoriety around the world. Especially not in the horror genre. Name a Mexican horror film. Just one. Exactly. Horror films aren't meant to win Oscars unless it's intelligent like Rosemary's Baby. This is just a fun film to watch. C'mon, it's 80s horror! That means tight blue jeans, white sneakers, horny teens getting killed, silly hairdos and wardrobe! Sleepaway Camp is one of the champs in this area.

The plot is 3 college females are asked by their boyfriends to attend a flashy high profile party and they are tricked into going to an abandoned house on a cemetery on Halloween night. They find a book and decide to steal a corpse which happens to be of a demonic murderer who happens to be the owner of the book. They reanimate the corpse through a spell and all hell breaks loose.

This film has elements from Halloween:The demonic killer was attended to by the doctor which is after him and is rebellious towards cops and never fails to talk about how the killer is the devil and must be stopped. Very Mexican Halloween. It doesn't hurt that the movie is on Halloween as well. The only problem here is that Hugo Stiglitz should've been the demonic killer. Ha ha. I love Hugo Stiglitz, he's one of my favorites and has a hell of a voice and presence, but he's known to play villains not heroes. It has an Evil Dead element in that they find a book of dead just like the Necronomicon and wakes the demons in the cemetery. These are the 2 movies that the movie combines into a great formula.

The cast like any horror movie in any country isn't all that great.The teens cast in the movie are weak and may spoil some of the fun but Stiglitz is awesome as usual and whether it's a horror or comedy that he's in, he never fails to take his roles seriously. You should see Stiglitz doing comedy movie villains, his level of seriousness is rock solid and he takes this role just as serious. The killer isn't very scary, but the soundtrack is just sweet. It has one of the creepiest piano tunes in all of horror and I remember this movie by that eerie piano tune.

Check this movie out and watch it at night. It's only $7 at Best Buy and it comes with Ladrones de Tumbas (Graverobbers) as a two pack for a cheap price. You might or might not like it, but if you appreciate how the producer wants to entertain you with what he has to work with you won't be disappointed. The movie doesn't rip you off.

The Sexy Erika Buenfil, Edna Bolkan and Jackie Castro along with their boyfriends go to a house in the middle of a cemetery, where one of them finds a book that says how to bring the dead back to life, so soon the boyfriends convince the girls to steal a body from the morgue (they are medicine students) but the dead guy turns out to be the one of a psycho killer, eventually the perform a ceremony and before you can slit someone's throat the psycho is alive, and of course he starts killing the students one by bloody one, also because it is Halloween a group of kids (i mean kids) also visit the same cemetery where they are terrorized by the same psycho. plus the living dead who have risen from their graves. This Mexican Zombies on the loose/Psycho killer flick is cool, there's lots of gore, graphic murders, atractive cast, large body count, is well acted and fast paced. I recommend it highly. Other Mexican Horror flicks that you shouldn't miss are "Ladrones de Tumbas" (grave robbers) and "Trampa Infernal" (infernal trap).

This fairly unknown Mexican zombie movie may not be the most original horror film ever to be released, and clearly takes a lot of influence from many successful American movies in the same vein; but in it's own right, this is an extremely fun little romp that I'm sure wont be a disappointment to most people with an inclination to track it down. The plot is halfway between a zombie movie and a psycho slasher flick and focuses on a killer who a professor believes may have come back from the grave. Enter a bunch of kids who decide that it would be a good idea to read from a strange old book and resurrect the dead (to impress some girls, naturally). It's not long before the killer has come back as a zombie - bringing the rest of the cemetery with him and the dead have eating the kids' flesh on their minds. If you've seen more than a handful of zombie flicks, you'll have seen everything included in this film many times before. But that's not to say that Cemetery of Terror is not worth a look. Director Rubén Galindo Jr does an excellent job of creating a thoroughly fetid atmosphere to surround the cemetery at the centre of the film and there's a fair bit of gore included too, most of which is well done. Naturally the acting is nothing to write home about, but everyone approaches their roles with gusto and the film remains entertaining for the duration. Overall, this is not brilliant; but it's a more than worthy Mexican horror entry and I would say that it's worth seeing.