El Gigante

‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ meets ‘Nacho Libre’ in the short adaptation to Shane McKenzie’s ‘Muerto Con Carne’.

 

When an attempt to cross the Mexican border leaves him short on cash, one man leaves his family to walk the border and meet them on the other side. A lengthy trek that leads him to meet a family much meaner than the local border patrol.

 

Kidnapped and taken to a small shack, he meets a family of misfits that make the Firefly family look like the care bears. With a luchador mask sewn to his head, he awakes in the midst of a wrestling ring and soon to be introduced to El Gigante, the muscle in the family who will wrestle him to the bitter end.

 

With more blood and guts than most feature length horror films, ‘El Gigante’ is not for the weak minded and the closing scenes will have you reaching for the sick bag as Gigi Saul Guerrero takes us on a journey into Mexican horror that will beg you to challenge what filling you choose in your taco’s.

 

A gripping realism in effects that are only made more disturbing by the hideous family that urge the wrestler on. A pregnant woman, a bizarre old lady, an ape like child and the normal guy who may look handsome but his sinister motives to bring the bread to the table show similarity to some of our more beloved families in the genre. There is a high budget sheen across the film that not only pays homage to the likes of ‘Hostel’ and other mainstream schlock horror but simply shows that within 13 minutes, there is so much passion for the genre, it would be difficult to see this as the end for ‘El Gigante’

 

The only criticism here is that ‘El Gigante’ feels like a snippet of something that you have missed the first ten minutes of and while it’s short running time tries to cram in a story, it feels as though there needs to be more. Not so much a criticism of the film makers but of releasing something of such high quality in such a small gift. An issue we hope is expanded on very soon as Guerrero has shown us how great she is behind the camera and a need for blood and guts in such vile and disgusting fashion is something the genre seems a little low on at the moment. We’ll be grabbing front row seats to round two when, not if, it arrives.