Mexico Barbaro

Upon hearing that there is now a Mexico Barbaro 2, I thought it might be a good idea if I finally got around to seeing the first one, which has been sitting at the top of my to-watch queue for a while. Like most anthologies, this one turned out to be a mixed bag, but I was overall impressed with the grotesque beauty of many of the segments.

Tzompantli

Laurette Flores

At first I thought that this opening segment might be some sort of wrap around, mostly due to the vagueness of its plot. And due to an aimlessness of the early part of this story, I still feel it might not have been the best choice for the opening segment of the film. Still, it's far from the weakest entry, and it's brutal, gory ending is an effectively abrupt and visceral sucker punch in the gut.

Jaral de Berrio

Edgar Into

The second segment of Mexico Barbaro is easily one of the most beautifully shot, and I was captivated by it's surreal, fairytale feel and dreamlike atmosphere. The story centers on two bandits hiding in a beautiful, but derelict, abandoned building that may be haunted by something with evil intentions. While Jaral de Berrio has an intriguing concept and is absolutely lovely to look at, it is also light on plot, and therefore may not be everyone's cup of tea.

Drana

Andrew Soto

Drana tells the admittedly bizarre tale of a teenage girl who is haunted by creepy, otherworldly presences after smoking a blunt she found on a decomposing corpse near her home. These creepy creatures threaten her with a gruesome fate unless she steal some blood from her sister's vagina (!) for them. While the plot of this segment is truly weird, the adept use of practical effects to create the low budget, but legitimately skin crawling creature effects make Drano more chilling than cheesy.

La Cosa Mas Preciada

Isaac Ezban

That Precious Thing features two teenagers who sneak away to a cabin in the woods to have sex. This segment is clearly influenced by exploitation films from the 1970s/80s, and the plot is every bit as ridiculous as could thus be expected. However, this segment also features the graphic rape of a young girl by weird goblin creatures, which made my stomach turn (and not in the way the director probably intended). I can occasionally watch a well done rape/revenge film (and even enjoy the revenge end of it) when the victim is treated as a human being and given agency and ultimately empowerment. That does not occur in That Precious Thing, where the victim is simply treated as an object for lust and pity. She is never even able to exact retribution on her attacker, and this segment left me ultimately disgusted. If I rewatch the film, I will be skipping over this one.

Lo que Importa es lo Adentro

Lex Ortega

The fifth segment, What's Important is Inside, is easily one of the most disturbing. It centers around a young girl who lives with her mother and older brother. The mother dotes on her son, but alternately shouts at or ignores her daughter. This neglect ultimately proves fatal when no one heeds the little girl's warnings about their apartment building's strange superintendent.

Warning: This segment is particularly gruesome and actually left my boyfriend retching over the side of the couch.

Munecas

Jorge Michel Graul

On an island decorated in hanging dolls (based on the very real, infamous Mexican Isla de las Munecas), a woman attempts to escape from a rampaging killer. Munecas has a great setting and an interesting opening act. It also feels like an homage to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre films, so I was initially very excited to see where the story would go. Unfortunately, the ending winds up coming too swiftly and abruptly. Ultimately, I felt like this segment would have benefited being longer and just having more substance to it.

Siete veces Siete

Ulises Guzman

Siete veces Siete was probably the weakest segment. Although it did contain some instances of truly beautiful, haunting imagery, including a spider woman and a silhouetted horse and rider in flames, the plot was almost nonexistent. While not necessarily bad, this segment was not particularly compelling either.

Dia de los Muertos

Gigi Saul Guerrero

The final segment was also my absolute favorite. Dia de los Muertos features strippers whose performance on the Mexican Day of the Dead proves fatal to their brutish, aggressive customers. The one is beautiful and exciting, and ultimately my only complaint was that I wish it could have been longer. I could have watched a feature length movie about these women taking revenge on their abusive customers, and I'm very excited to see what Guerrero comes out with in the future.