Satanic Hispanics

As others have pointed out, this is a very mixed bag, a loose collection of horror tales of varying tone, ranging from one seriously creepy offering from Damien Rugna, who previously gave us the ultra-creepy Terrified, to a handful of more or less comedic stories.

Production values are topnotch. The efx are excellent in design and execution, from the Goya-esque monstrosity in Rugna's segment to various demons in the others. Casting, acting, direction, cinematography and costumes are equally good. The production designers and art directors made some interesting uses of color.

The script is a collection of unconnected one or two act shorts strung together by a storyteller wraparound. Rugna's "Tambien Lo V" stands out as the only truly scary one in the bunch, but the rest are entertaining in their own way. Think "Tales of the Darkside" with elevated production values - lightweight genre fare typical of Epic's ouevre.

Overall this is a great showcase for the directors, actors and crew. But to be honest, most of my rating is due to Rugna's contribution, because he's one of the rare directors today delivering genuine horror.

What is the problem with distributors? It's now 2025 and this film was released in 2022 yet it's still not available to watch in the UK on any streaming platform. You can't even buy it on dvd. I'm a great fan of Latino horror and especially Demian Rugna. Terrified was original and terrific. When Evil Lurks is probably one of the greatest unsung horror movies of the last 20 years. I'm sorry that I can't give a review but I wanted to highlight the ridiculous situation with the limited availability of some films. Some idiot needs to pull their finger out. I've even posted on the faq's here asking if anyone knows when it might be available in the UK. No response!

I honestly enjoyed it. This is quite an entertaining comedy with horror elements that should not be taken too seriously. The 'Traveler' is a guy caught by the police after being the only survivor of a massacre. During interrogation, 'The Traveler' tells a series of strange supernatural stories that we then get to follow. Of course, the detectives don't believe him until it's too late. Sometimes the stories get a bit far-fetched and are all over the place, but overall, this is an entertaining horror-comedy that gets quite violent at times. The film is distantly reminiscent of the 'V/H/S' series of short episodes, so if you like 'V/H/S,' chances are you will like this movie too.

The best way to describe this one is a Latino Creepshow with one of the original directors of 1999's Blair Witch Project. Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite is narrating horror stories as a wrap around character and each features a mostly Latino cast. While it's bad, it's also not very good or scary but more of wannabe Creepshow or even Trick of Treat 2006. There's a guy who can see some weird stuff with some kind of spell, a middle aged vampire married couple, a sucubus demon lady, and Pedro from napoleon dynamite.

This is something that you can wait for streaming or cable. The horror movie season is upon us and there hopefully will be better films coming soon.

"Mixed bag" is the perfect term for this admirable but flawed anthology. SATANIC HISPANICS follows in the long tradition of presenting horror stories in the form of an anthology, usually with some very loose device to tie the stories together. Here, the El Paso police have captured a mysterious man who identifies himself as "The Wanderer" and as they question him about the extremely unlikely scenario of having survived a massacre unscathed without actually being one of the bad guys, he has the opportunity to share with the cops some very interesting stories about other "supernatural" characters he has known.

He tells 4 stories, two of them "serious" and two humorous. I'll say right here that the more humorous stories, particularly one about a vampire on a deadline, are by far the best. The two more serious efforts are marred by some pretty bad acting and sloppy resolutions. One should not have to scratch ones head and wonder "what was that ending?" The comedies (which I would argue the wraparound story is as well) are just a little tighter.

Each story is directed by a different Hispanic director, and that's a fantastic idea as well. Not every director comes off equally well, as I mentioned, but it's still a great chance to let these folks show off some of their chops. The budget is VERY low indeed, and it shows in every story. But if you can appreciate that this low budget is forcing some creative work around special effects, sets, costumes, etc...that might add to your appreciation.

In total, I think I appreciated the effort, but found the results to be spotty. 2 funny stories, 1 serious but interesting scenario and 1 complete failure (the politically charged middle piece just doesn't work as commentary, horror or even on the level of using editing to keep the viewer understanding the action) and an amusing wraparound story. In total, I'm exactly on the middle of the fence. If you're a BIG horror fan, in all its iterations, you might embrace this more than I did. As a horror fan, but not an obsessive completist, it's a "meh" for me.