The Curse of el Charro (2006)

DVD

For the last few months I have indulged myself in straight-to-DVD horror films. Despite the negative reviews that I assign most of these titles, I enjoy watching them for their naked plunge into excessive territory. Putting camp aside, it is very rare that I assign a positive review to these films. Most of them do not come close to successfully combining a tight screenplay with skillful direction to create an effective horror masterpiece. However, some titles do strive for such perfection and fail miserably. One recent example is The Curse of El Charro.

Originally aired on Showtime, El Charro is the story of Maria (Mia Hoyos). Still traumatized after the suicide of her sister, Maria sets out on a road trip into the desert with three girlfriends. While her companions desire nothing more than to get wasted and have promiscuous sex with any guy they can find, Maria cannot get her sister's fate out of her head.

Once arriving at their destination, the stage it set for weirdness. Characters that appear David Lynchian in nature crawl out of the woodwork. As if these creeps are not enough to scare these girls into running for the hills, a mysterious, dark figure is spotted wandering around the outskirts of the resort. Before long, the girls and their boy toys are plucked off one by one by this man who calls himself El Charro. Who is El Charro? Perhaps the film reveals this with a clever twist. Then again, perhaps it reveals nothing and instead compensates for this gap with scene-upon-scene of gratuitous blood and gore.

El Charro is a film that actually attempts to be something different. Various techniques are used by director Rich Ragsdale to evoke old school conventions of the horror genre. This includes the occasional 1970's graininess and sequences complete with intertitles that pay homage to silent horror. Generally I would consider such techniques to be smashingly brilliant. Unfortunately, the filmmakers somehow manage to concoct a poor mixture of high style and low-grade content. Following a silent film reenactment that takes El Charro into art house territory, numerous hormonally charged young people are still picked off without a drop of creativity.

As for the cast, the main characters are played by unknowns. This does not include adult film star Tabitha Stevens. However, many may recognize Andrew Bryniarski as El Charro. After breaking through as Leatherface in the Texas Chainsaw remake, Bryniarski refuses to remove the prosthetics, and refuses to state cohesive dialogue as the menacing El Charro. In fact, his dialogue is done by thuggish character actor Danny Trejo. Either El Charro is so complex that he requires two actors, or Mr. Bryniarski does not have the best line delivery.

The Making of The Curse of El Charro
Clocking in at about 20 minutes, this so-so documentary takes viewers behind the scenes. Since this film does contain a lot of blood, much of the gory effects are showcased. However, the filmmakers still sit down to explain the conception of the film and the production process.

Into Something Rich and Strange
This is a very short film from director Rich Ragsdale that runs barely over a minute. Ragsdale clearly has a creepy experimental streak running through him. I think with his filmmaking talent, he could master a terrific horror film given the proper content.

The Curse of El Charro deserves credit for trying, but it still produces stale results. Despite workable ideas in the style department, the plot still manages to produce high body counts and hollow characters. This film is not particularly terrifying, and I cannot recommend renting it. However, do keep an eye out for director Rich Ragsdale. The man has a vision, and he will hopefully land the right script after this.

Questions? Comments? Just want to talk movies? Drop me a line at dodd@movieweb.com