I caught this the other night on a random movie app I downloaded. Being a fan of wrestling, naturally, I had to check this one out. First off, I knew the premise for a movie like this would be ridiculous But I was hoping for funny, at best. I wasn't wrong. Quickly summarized, it makes Mexico seem unlawful and egocentric. Actually.... Thats not that far from the truth. We still love Mexico though. A chemically and structurally engineered wrestler turns supernaturally powerful as he destroys his opponents to win Mexico a gold medal in the Olympics. Normally this would be a cool sci fi plot, but this is a horror movie. B horror at that. The title alone should establish that. His psyche and his prowess quickly turns him into a killer and is then retired to obscurity where he disappears along with everyone who lived in the town of Sangre de Dios. Again, it really does sound like a cool X Files episode but it's grindhouse fodder. Enter the stoner group of friends that decide to travel across the nation to film a crappy porno with its director also pulling the main actor job. The dialogue is not expected to win any awards And neither are the actors. They legitimately seem to be having fun with their roles. I actually liked that and gave the movie points for this. It has some funny lines, most notably by Adam Huss who delivers quite a hilarious performance, even as he is.....well you'll see. The rest were OK and I have to give it up to the filmmakers for giving the hero role to the unusual character. Also gave the movie points for it. Rey Misterio Sr makes the appearance as the baddie here. He shouldn't be of importance to you unless you're a hardcore lucha fan. He was actually menacing and gave a few good scares in the film. My last few points are given here. The plot unravels a not that interesting turn of events and the payoff is incredibly misleading as well as weak. The ending may have you believe that the baddie is released out into the world to start a new life or resume his spree. Not really something you want to do unless you plan to make a sequel and considering it is 2016, this movie came out 10 years ago. No sequel seems to be in the works but then again it shouldn't be. 2006 was a big year for gorefests such as Hatchet, Hostel and Saw. This would be the TV version of those. For what it is and what it offers, it is not that bad. (2003's S.I.C.K is still KING of the crappy B movie horror wait... D movie horror) If you wanna watch some horror movie at 2am and be amused like I was, watch this but be ready to have some good humor about it because if you don't.... It's gonna hurt to watch. Literally.

Lets be fair this is not 12 Angry Men or Citizen Kane or Apocalypse Now. You aren't going to learn anything watching this film or gain very much but you are going to have a good time. This falls firmly into B movie category and there's nothing wrong with B movies. Its virtually a grindhouse movie. It feels like a Tarantino movie, i'm fairly surprised his sticky fingers aren't involved with it in some way. Its rattles along at a cracking pace vomiting (in a good way) out horror movie clichés as it goes and some of them are so well done but so stupid they are laugh out loud charming. Its a sweet little movie. Adorable in what its trying to do. Because its not trying to do anything. Its not post modern with annoying teens dissecting horror movies working out how to cheat the system. Although one of the characters knows an awful lot about Mexican wrestling and the killer would be improbably old.It is what it is, a cheap, cobbled together horror film full of plot holes that, so long as you turn your brain off and your expectations down, you'll have a good time watching.

My biggest regret about WRESTLEMANIAC (as the U.S. DVD release is titled) is that the "50-times lobotomized" mass and serial killer (after offing a series of opponents in 1967-1968, authorities apparently allowed him to wipe out the population of a Mexican village, and then an implausible 38 years later he has a van-load of very stupid and highly-drugged American youths for dessert in the desert), is that he didn't pop up in NACHO LIBRE to rip off Jack Black's face--or at least rip 22 minutes from NL's running time (which was a bloated 92 minutes). One of the saving graces of WRESTLEMANIAC is that the closing credits begin after a mere 69 minutes. Another is that none of half dozen folks in the van (who may act as immaturely as some teenagers, but certainly do not LOOK like teens, and are never referred to as such) are at all likable, so the gene pool is better off without them. Regarding the Olympic origins of "El Mascarado," the Mexicans were said to be almost as desperate to win gold medals in their "home" Mexico City Olympics of 1968 as the Chinese were to win with their 12-year-old gymnasts last year. Not thinking to forge birth certificates, the Mexican sport authority (after stealing the Games from Detroit, Michigan) is said in the movie to have killed the country's top three grapplers and combined their body parts to create one super-wrestler. Given how things turned out in real life, this plan would have been more sensible than it sounds. (Japan won the most wrestling gold medals in the 1968 Games--4--while the Soviet Union won the most overall--8--and the U.S. just won 2 silvers. The combined medal count for all sports was U.S. 107 (including 45 golds), U.S.S.R. 91 (29 golds) and Japan 25 (11 golds). Host Mexico won only nine medals (three golds)--none in wrestling. The main flaw in the movie's premise is that even if "El Mascarado" wrestled BOTH Freestyle and Greco Roman, he could have won a maximum of two gold medals. On the other hand, if the country had sacrificed its top three swimmer\divers, the resulting aquatic Frankenstein could gone for the gold--and won--at least a dozen times!

A group of teens go on a trip to film a porn film in Mexico, on the way they encounter a 'your doomed' style gas attendant who tells them the story of El Diablo Negro and warns them not to pull up till they get to the next gas station. Don't you know the pesky teens stop to shoot in a run down bar only to be hacked down by a psychopath in a wrestling mask.Nobody watches films like this for plot which thankfully is a good job cause there's not one. Feels more Full Moon than Troma which isn't saying much. But that said its fun and well paced with nicely done action scenes, gore and the odd flashed top rack. All in all better than average 6/10 from me.