México Bárbaro

No pun intended - this is a collection of short movies. And one that is ... well fantastical. Much of this is not really on the realistic side of things. Still it has themes that some people may feel a connection too. Or even some cliches (drugs and prostitution to name but two). As you can tell already, you can not be squeamish or sensitive. Well you can of course, but you can't be that and watch this and hope for the best or whatever.

The quality of the shorts is all over the place, as is the quality of the picture. Though technically speaking (also no pun intended) it is meant to look certain ways ... for certain short movies. Or segments, since this is one after the other ... with no apparent connection ... but that should not matter ... not seen the "sequel" yet, but I assume they had a bit more money ... will watch when I find it on a streaming service ... sooner or later ... the cover/poster is amazing too.

Here are seven horror shorts that lack horror, premise, dialogue, even sound at times. The whole collection is completely uninspired, the stories are poorly developed and executed.

While photography may rescue part of some of these shorts, some just come short of everything, just like high school projects. Harsh? Maybe. True? Completely. Take for instance "La Cosa Más Preciada (The Most Precious Thing), the acting is bad, the dialogues are hands down some of the worst I've ever heard in cinema history, the whole thing was given an instagram-like "vintage" filter. This one in particular is preposterous.

The rest of the shorts, whilst more professional, are still pretty bad and absurd, there is no heart to be found. If the project was done by amateur kids, then fine, I'd give it 4 stars, but these are - self?- deemed- directors.

Also, the only Mexican thing on this are the assets (directors, actors, writers, producers, settings), there are no real legends or myths in here, just perhaps loosely 'inspired from'.

My conclusion is that a couple of Mexican rejects from 'ABC's of Death' decided to take matters in their own hands... disaster ensued of course.

I must say I was very excited to watch this since I first heard of the project back in early 2014. I was looking forward to what 'indie' Mexican directors had up their sleeve since we practically have no recognized mainstream horror directors, but no, I cannot vouch for any of them.

Normally, this type of movie would be just up my street but Mexico Barbaro is terrible. It starts off promising but the stories are short, violent, and ultimately either uninteresting or stupid. Such a wasted opportunity.

There are 2 decent stories but the rest are unrealized and foolish. I wish they had fleshed out some of the stories and cut the rest!

I loved all the films, and each offers something a little different than the last. I'm looking forward to researching the directors involved and finding more of their works.

Mexican origin horror film, the first of which was produced in 2014 and consists of 8 short stories. Eight different directors were told to choose Mexican legends and they shot these legends from their own perspectives. Wild scenes and sexuality abound in the movies. Even though I watched the movie with a lot of prejudice, there were parts that I liked. In places, make-up and costumes were very amateurish. Names and directors of the short stories:

1- Tzompantli, Laurette Flores 2- Jaral de Berrios, Edgar Nito 3- Drena, Aaron Soto 4- La cosa mas preciada, Isaac Ezban 5- Lo que importa es lo de adentro, Lex Ortega 6- Muñecas, Jorge Michel Grau 7- Siete veces siete, Ulises Gùzman 8- Dia de los Muertos, GiGi Saul Guerrero

The second part of the movie was released in 2017.