BELZEBUTH (2020) (Acorn Media International Blu-ray Review)

BELZEBUTH (2020) 

Label: Acorn Media International
Region Code: Region-Free

Rating: Cert. 15 

Duration: 113 Minutes 

Audio: Spanish and English DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1) 

Director:  Emilio Portes

Cast: Tobin Bell, Joaquín Cosio, Tate Ellington, Jose Sefami

In the Shudder original Belzebuth (2020) Special Agent Emmanuel Ritter (Joaquin Cosio, The Strain) lives in a Mexican border town where he and his wife have just welcomed their first baby, a son. That joy abruptly turns to horror when a nurse goes psycho and stabs all the newborns in the hospital nursery to death with a scalpel, before slicing open her own throat. A year later we catch up with the Ritter, his wife anguished by grief has committed suicide at some point, and he has just been called in to lead an investigation into a mass shooting committed at a local elementary school, where an armed student opened fire on a classroom full of four year-olds, the same age Ritter's son would have been, before shooting himself. While investigating the gruesome case Ritter is teamed-up with a "gringo"  paranormal investigator from the Vatican named Ivan Franco (Tate Ellington, The Endless), who says there are religious element to the murders, and it's not long before he starts confiding in Ritter about demonic entities and the second (third, actually according to the movie) coming of Christ, and somehow a mysterious religious zealot Vasilio Canetti (Tobin Bell, Saw) is tangled up in this child murdering mess. 

What begins as a horrific police procedural with Ritter and his cop-mate Demetrio (Jose Sefami, Amores Perros) investigating a disturbing series of mass child murders turns into a wild possession/exorcism horror thriller, complete with reincarnated messiahs, crucifixion, demon-possessed porcelain statues of Jesus antagonizing the Ritter and Ivan, and more murders including a mass-electrocution at a recreation center pool filled with screaming kiddos. 

It's a well-crafted Mexican horror flick with a great cast and some unsettling violence; I mean right off the bat we have dead infants, then dead toddlers, and adolescents... I am hard pressed to think of another movie that kills off this many kids as this one right here, and thankfully it's not super-graphic, but just the idea and implication is a real stomach-turner, so hats off to co-writer/director Emilio Portes for having the cajones to pull that off. The few small drawbacks for me are some not-up-to-snuff CGI effects that look pretty iffy and that the possession/exorcism stuff, though well-executed is more or less the usual application we've seen before, but I guess the execution of Catholic exorcism has a set playbook, though there is a cool Narcos/Black Magic bent to it here. 

The main cast are all great, particularly Joaquin Cosio whose character is put through the emotional, physical and spiritual wringer in this one, as the cop tasked with ensuring that the second coming of Christ on Earth is not stopped by demonic diabolical forces. The flick opens strong with the shocker opening and the police procedural stuff with Ritter, the second half flies of the hinges into a wild demonic possession ride with an exorcism performed in a Narcos drug tunnel that looks great and has some creepy atmosphere and pick-axe eye-gore, but I have to admit that exorcism movies are one of my least favorite sub-genres right now. I thought once they got away from the investigation of the shocking child murders and got into the third coming of Christ stuff it was decidedly less interesting for me. That said, it's a well done movie and I still enjoyed it, thanks in large part to the performance of Cosio and some skilled direction. 

Audio/Video: Belzebuth (2017) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Acorn Media International in 1080p HD framed in 2.35:1 widescreen. The digital shot film looks' solid in HD with strong black levels, good contrast and shadow detail, and with some excellent detail detail in the close-ups. Audio comes by way of an uncompressed DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround track that mixes both English and Spanish throughout. Dialogue sounds great and the 5.1 delivers some creepy action in the surround during the paranormal and demonic scenes, optional English and Spanish subtitles are provided. Sadly, no extras on this one, which is a shame, it's a cool police procedural/exorcism/possession flick and I would have enjoyed some behind-the-scene featurettes or a commentary. 

Special Features:
- None

Belzebuth (2017) is a strong flick, it's not perfection, but it is a gruesome, shocking and well-crafted religious horror entry. If you're an exorcism/possession movie fan and dig stuff like the Álex de la Iglesia (Perdita Durango) directed 30 Monedas (30 Coins) I think this is gonna be a solid watch, maybe even a great one; but if you're put off by the murder of children you might have issues with it. The big take away for me is that Joaquín Cosio is always great in everything I have seen him in, and director Emilio Portes is an up and coming new talent to keep an eye on. 

Screenshots from the Acorn Media Blu-ray: 

MEXICO BARBARO (2015)

MEXICO BARBARO (2015) 

Label: Dark sky Films
Region Code: 1
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 115 Minutes
Audio: Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 with Optional English subtitles
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1) 
Directors: Isaac Ezban, Laurette Flores Bornn, Jorge Michel Grau, Ulises Guzman, Edgar Nito, Lex Ortega, Gigi Saul Guerrero, Aaron Soto
Cast: Dulce Alexa, Sara Camacho, Lorena Gonzalez

I do love a good horror anthologies and I was particularly excited for Mexico Barbaro from Dark sky Films, showcasing eight horror-filled storied from eight Mexican directors. Of the eight I only recognized the name of Jorge Michel Grau who brought us We Are What We Are (2010). The eight tales seem to be based on Mexican folktales and legends, which give the proceedings an interesting slant. I live in Arizona and I have an appreciation for the varied folktales coming out of Mexico, a rich culture with a storied history marked by violence, sounds like a fertile place for up and coming horror directors. 

We begin minus any intro/wrap-around story, straight into Laurette Flores Bornn’s 'Tzompantli' which combines modern Narco terror with ancient Aztec blood sacrifice as a reporter interviews a narco about the deaths of youths in the area. While it does a decent job combining Mexico's past and present it doesn't make for the most compelling watch as a short, but it does serve as an appropriate introduction to the anthology, ending with the phrase "Mexico... Terror is here... Now."

Edgar Nito's 'Jeral de Berrios' is a haunting tale of a pair of bank robbers on horseback with bricks of gold, one is mortally wounded with a bullet to the gut. The duo take refuge in an abandoned mansion, and as the partner of the wounded man explores the mansion he experiences some damn spooky stuff, including the horny spirit of a woman. Some great camerawork and eerie atmosphere make this an early contender for the best of the bunch on the anthology.  This one also goes for the throat with an erotic scene that turn disgusting, which is not something exclusive to this story in particular, a few of these stories might induce some nausea among the more sensitive viewers, which I was not expecting. There are also some nice nods to Sam Raimi's Evil Dead movies, which I certainly appreciated. 

Aaron Soto’s 'Drena' (Drain), a another creepy one that finds a young woman walking home through the desert, she finds the corpse of a man in a ditch,  still clutching a cigarette in his hand. For reasons I cannot make sense of she takes the cigarette and returns home, only to smoke it in her room. When doing so she is visited by a strange spectre that says she must perform a strange vaginal bloodletting ritual on her sister or it will return to suck her soul from her anus. This is a strange one, it comes and goes quickly, and the final scenes is a strange shocker you won't soon forget, a solid entry. 

Next comes Isaac Ezban’s 'La Cosa Mas Preciada' (That Precious Thing) concerning a young virgin couple who travel to a remote cabin in the woods to consummate their young love, only to have it ruined by some rapey demonic goblins who live in the forest. This one was probably the most vile and over-the-top of the stores. It won me over with a mix of some cool creature effects, goblin cock,  and loads creamy yellow stuff. I didn;t love that this entry had that artificial grindhouse veneer added to it but I still loved the movie, a fun watch that is part Sam Raimi's Evil Dead and part Walerian Borowczyk's 'The Beast'. 

Lex Ortega’s 'Lo Que Importa Es Lo De Adentro' (What Matters Is On The Inside) is a bogeyman story of sorts, concerning a troubled adolescent girl who stares out from her upper floor apartment window and cries about the bogeyman, a homeless man who lives in the nearby alleyway. This bogeyman story combines the fear of children with some child kidnapping and organ harvesting, pretty gritty stuff with some gruesome gore effects, and a hint of necrophilia.

Jorge Michel Grau's 'Muñecas' (Dolls) has a great setting, the Island of Dolls in Mexico, shot it attractive black and white, it captures the dark beauty of the black waters of the swamp and the broad leafed plant life, but there's very little story, this on relies on visuals and atmospherics. A woman is chest deep in the black water on the run from a murderer, with very little dialogue the story seems to be about what lurks just beneath the surface of the popular tourist destination, but like  Laurette Flores Bornn’s 'Tzompantli' it is tonally very cool but left me wanting more than a good short story should have.

Ulises Guzman's 'Siete Veces Siete' (Seven Times Seven) again brings us to modern day Mexican narco violence with a phantasmagorical twist of revenge and the occult. This one was mighty creepy with some seriously atmospheric cinematography that set a strange tone, it was quite an eerie watch.  Some cool special effects bring the nightmare imagery to life. The story itself is a tragic tale of revenge, as a man disfigured by fire sets out to avenge the death of wife and kids, again and again. Of all the tales I think this one did the best job of marrying the real-life violence with an voodoo-type of mysticism, my hat if off to Guzman, hope to see a feature length from this guy at some point. 

Gigi Saul Guerrero’s 'Dia de Los Muertos' (Day of the Dead) finishes up the Mexican horror anthology with a fun stripper-revenger, which more or less feels like a riff on Robert Rodriguez's From Dusk Till Dawn,  with strippers in Day of the Dead make-up in the absence of vampires. Not that original but that's just fine by me, it's always nice to go out on a fun note, and this certainly does just that with a mix of campy eroticism and gruesome revenge. 

Special Features: 
- Behind The scenes (31 Mins) 
- Trailer (2 Mins) 

Mexico Barbaro was a solid horror anthology, I didn't love every segment but that's almost never the case with any horror anthology in my experience. Of the eight stories I would say 'Jeral de Berrios',  'La Cosa Mas Preciada' and 'Siete Veces Siete' take the top honors with a stylish blend of creepy storytelling and atmosphere, though 'La Cosa Mas Preciada' is just disgustingly fun throwback. The other stories are decent and well-crafted, nothing ruined it for me, they were just below par. An anthology on par with the V/H/S movies, more consistent than the ABCs of Death, and absolutely worth a watch, this is recommended. 3/5