"The Curse of El Charro" is an above-average if still decent slasher.
**SPOILERS**
Following her sister's suicide, Maria, (Drew Mia) and her friends Christina, (Heidi Androl) Rosemary, (KellyDawn Malloy) and Tanya, (Kathryn Taylor) decide to take a trip to Arizona to get her mind off it. As they make their way along, she keeps experiencing weird visions and dreams that the others grow tired of. When they arrive in town, they meet with Levi, (Andres Lopez) King, (Matthew Prater) and James, (Phillip Boyd) as well as friend Elvira, (Tabitha Stevens) and soon return back to a party house once the visions occur again. Once they get back, they realize that they are being stalked by a local legend named El Charro that also has ties to how her sister ended up. Getting notice of the killer, they try to get away before it gets what it wants.
The Good News: Every now and then, this one gets pretty interesting. There's some fun to be had from the really unique angle of the film. There's some really great stuff inside about how unusual the killer is, and that makes for some fun. The inclusion of all the Mexican heritage, which is hardly used and really makes it seem like a mystery as this one is given something rather new. The killer is pretty well-done in here, since there's never a good clear shot until the end, and those are overall pretty good. With the face covered by a large hat, demonic eyes, a hulking figure and a blood-stained poncho, this one has a pretty nice killer to it that works for what is there. What really makes the film, though, is the final act, which is all-around great. This is where most of the kills occur, almost all of the suspense and a lot of great action. The kills here are pretty brutal, with several nice decapitations, a gory slit throat, a knife impaled in the eye, a couple dismemberments and several others who are simply hacked up repeatedly with a machete. The aftermath here is all bloody, making them look even better. There's some really good suspense scenes that come from the stalking scenes, which are all lumped together in the one part and it's non-stop for the remainder of the film. The last really good part is two pretty sleazy scenes. The big one is a lesbian shower sequence that starts off with a great seduction scene that really goes overboard nicely. The other one is a scene during the flashback, showing how one discovers her sister's dead body. For reasons not made clear, the sister disrobed before she offed herself, and when she rushes over to the bed in a state of shock, she briefly cops a feel before realizing what she's doing and quickly jerking her hand away. These here make the film interesting.
The Bad News: This one does have a couple of big flaws. This one does manage to get by with a pretty confusing back-story. This one does have some problems spitting it out, as it starts to explain it before cutting to something else, then takes awhile to come back and repeats the process. This makes the back-story a little jumbled and hard to follow, which is quite hard. There's a large section of the film that is awfully dull and boring. Since most of the good parts are at the end, that leaves the beginning of the film with hardly anything worthwhile. Most of that is taken up with incredibly boring conversations with the girls over what they're going to do on the trip with the occasional freak-out. This is really hard to get through, as there's nothing going on, the talking comprises the bulk of what is going on and it isn't that interesting since it all comes back to the same things over and over again. This doesn't inspire anything but boredom and never really does much to improve upon that. The last flaw is that there's a really lame sequence that nearly ruins the film. It's the sequence in the bar where the heavy metal band plays. This stops dead in the film's tracks to portray a really lame song that has nothing to do with the film and really has no place in the film. These all lower the film down somewhat.
The Final Verdict: With a pretty much equal amount of flaws and positives, this one can only come out about even. This is really only for those who are really entertained by the type of film or in the mood for harmless entertainment, while those who aren't into these types won't find a whole lot with it.
Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Nudity and drug use
**SPOILERS**
Following her sister's suicide, Maria, (Drew Mia) and her friends Christina, (Heidi Androl) Rosemary, (KellyDawn Malloy) and Tanya, (Kathryn Taylor) decide to take a trip to Arizona to get her mind off it. As they make their way along, she keeps experiencing weird visions and dreams that the others grow tired of. When they arrive in town, they meet with Levi, (Andres Lopez) King, (Matthew Prater) and James, (Phillip Boyd) as well as friend Elvira, (Tabitha Stevens) and soon return back to a party house once the visions occur again. Once they get back, they realize that they are being stalked by a local legend named El Charro that also has ties to how her sister ended up. Getting notice of the killer, they try to get away before it gets what it wants.
The Good News: Every now and then, this one gets pretty interesting. There's some fun to be had from the really unique angle of the film. There's some really great stuff inside about how unusual the killer is, and that makes for some fun. The inclusion of all the Mexican heritage, which is hardly used and really makes it seem like a mystery as this one is given something rather new. The killer is pretty well-done in here, since there's never a good clear shot until the end, and those are overall pretty good. With the face covered by a large hat, demonic eyes, a hulking figure and a blood-stained poncho, this one has a pretty nice killer to it that works for what is there. What really makes the film, though, is the final act, which is all-around great. This is where most of the kills occur, almost all of the suspense and a lot of great action. The kills here are pretty brutal, with several nice decapitations, a gory slit throat, a knife impaled in the eye, a couple dismemberments and several others who are simply hacked up repeatedly with a machete. The aftermath here is all bloody, making them look even better. There's some really good suspense scenes that come from the stalking scenes, which are all lumped together in the one part and it's non-stop for the remainder of the film. The last really good part is two pretty sleazy scenes. The big one is a lesbian shower sequence that starts off with a great seduction scene that really goes overboard nicely. The other one is a scene during the flashback, showing how one discovers her sister's dead body. For reasons not made clear, the sister disrobed before she offed herself, and when she rushes over to the bed in a state of shock, she briefly cops a feel before realizing what she's doing and quickly jerking her hand away. These here make the film interesting.
The Bad News: This one does have a couple of big flaws. This one does manage to get by with a pretty confusing back-story. This one does have some problems spitting it out, as it starts to explain it before cutting to something else, then takes awhile to come back and repeats the process. This makes the back-story a little jumbled and hard to follow, which is quite hard. There's a large section of the film that is awfully dull and boring. Since most of the good parts are at the end, that leaves the beginning of the film with hardly anything worthwhile. Most of that is taken up with incredibly boring conversations with the girls over what they're going to do on the trip with the occasional freak-out. This is really hard to get through, as there's nothing going on, the talking comprises the bulk of what is going on and it isn't that interesting since it all comes back to the same things over and over again. This doesn't inspire anything but boredom and never really does much to improve upon that. The last flaw is that there's a really lame sequence that nearly ruins the film. It's the sequence in the bar where the heavy metal band plays. This stops dead in the film's tracks to portray a really lame song that has nothing to do with the film and really has no place in the film. These all lower the film down somewhat.
The Final Verdict: With a pretty much equal amount of flaws and positives, this one can only come out about even. This is really only for those who are really entertained by the type of film or in the mood for harmless entertainment, while those who aren't into these types won't find a whole lot with it.
Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Nudity and drug use