11/02/06 All Souls Day: Dia De Los Muertos

All Souls Day: Dia De Los Muertos (2005), directed by Jeremy Kasten

watched solo; DVD rental (Netflix) @ home

It is in fact that most macabre and spiritual-sensitive of holidays, Dia De Los Muertos, or Day of the Dead to those English speaking folks. It is that Mexican (dating back to the Aztecs) traditional holiday that gives celebration in honor of loved ones who have died and moved on to a higher level of consciousness. A powerful and moving tradition, yet it most likely today has connotations of evil, death and the afterlife in a commercialized sense. On a complete side note, today is also my friend Amy's birthday...and unrelated she has always been a movie fan as well, and encouraged the Challenge, so I know she would appreciate the loyalty to a holiday tradition also on this particular day...plus she's been to Burning Man, which in its own right has some misconceptions by outsiders in a vast celebratory sense. Both of them are exciting and intriguing, so let's delve into one (probably very skewed) approach to the Day of the Dead. Leaning more on the macabre side of the telling of death, this film is a bit of a low-budget horror that actually pulls you in and despite all its shortcomings makes for a decent scary flick. It's the basic premise of the obnoxious American students, away on an exotic vacation who get lost in a dusty old town with no connection to the outside world, and must spend the night before they can get back on the road to home. A few kinks get thrown in the plan, when the car breaks down, a funeral procession is interrupted by a living woman with her tongue cut out trying to get help escapes, creepy town citizens who won't give you the time of day, old women with secrets hidden, an abandoned hotel with weird inn-keepers, and a corrupt sheriff who's up to no good. So, what do the co-eds on vacation decide to do when things go bad...get their drink on, casual sex it up, and call their other friends into the same godforsaken town to enjoy the creepiness with them! Sounds like fun, Spring Break Cancun here we come! So what did the unsuspecting Americans stumble upon when they try to get help...oh just some ancient secret of Dia De Los Muertos celebration where the town has a dark secret in its past, and zombies have returned to Earth to reclaim their past unless a human sacrifice will appease them. Uhhh, hopefully the kids don't try and fight them off on their own...that can't end well. Well, whatdya know?! They try it anyway. It's campy, it's somewhat creepy, it's classically bad in all the right ways, and it's "Hostel" meets "Night Of The Living Dead." Will our youth never learn? A nothing film that turned out to have some bite. I'm also intrigued after looking director Kasten up in his new cadaverous tale called "The Wizard Of Gore." Could be so bad its good.

3 out of 5 stars