THE CURSE OF EL CHARRO

 2005/18/88m

“True evil can never die.”

Director/Writer: Rich Ragsdale / Writers: Ryan R. Johnson & Kevin Ragsdale / Cast: Andrew Bryniarski, Andrew Mia, Heidi Androl, Kathryn Taylor, Kellydawn Malloy, Philip Boyd, Andres Lopez, Matt Prater, Tabitha Stevens, Lyndsay Martin, Eric Unbauer, Danny Trejo (voice).

Body Count: 10

Dire-logue: “You said it, sweet cunt, now get the hell out of here before I get bitchy.”

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A so-so, well-pieced together horror flick, which sees a young woman (Mia) – traumatised by nightmares after the suicide of her sister – off on a college road trip to Arizona with three other girls, two of whom are particularly nasty.

They encounter horny freeway cops, creepy locals in a dead end bar, and pick up guys at a club to take back to the secluded villa they’re staying in. Their private party is soon crashed by a blade-wielding, poncho-clad ghost of a murderer, who, it transpires in one of the oddest flashbacks seen in this type of film, has cursed the heroine’s entire bloodline and will merrily kill anyone around her.

There’s an interesting angle adopted in this one and it’s also adorned with an arty credits sequence and better performances than expected, especially considering the one-note characterisation the central cast members are stuck with: There’s the drug-dealing lesbian goth chick and the trash talking ‘token’ black girl (who ends most utterances with ‘bitch’ or ‘girrrrl’), while their friends are much more pleasant. The former, of course, engages in a completely superfluous and sleazy girl-on-girl encounter, which are sadly becoming more and more prevalent in the genre.

Some messy kills – including a neat hand-chop followed by a beheading – and gallons of claret to lap up, but the ineffective climax looks rushed, lacks clarity and is just a bit dumb.

Blurbs-of-interest: Bryniarski – playing the maniac – was Leatherface in both of the Texas Chainsaw re-tools; Trejo – who voiced him – was in Rob Zombie’s Halloween.