El Trono Del Infierno (1994)

During an archaeological dig, an evil ancient fragment is uncovered and ends up possessing Jose (Roberto Ballesteros), one of the diggers. Jose at first seems to be okay, but quickly ends up going after everyone crossing his path and slowly but surely becoming a demonic creature readying itself for world domination—or some shit. Luckily though, the Vatican has gotten word of this and their mysterious ancient savior “El Angel” (Sergio Goyri) awakens from his slumber, hops on a plane with his powerful sword, and ready to save the world from this evil entity. 

When I was about 10 or 11 years old, I went on a trip with my family to Rosarito Mexico where we met with other family members which included my paternal grandpa. My parents brought a television to give to my grandpa and by coincidence the motel room we stayed at didn’t have a tv at all and thus we used the one we brought along, and can you guess what was playing when we turned it on? El Trono Del Infierno (translated as "Throne of Hell"). 

Looking back on that now and it’s one of the coolest memories ever because I remember enjoying the hell out of Trono back then and those feelings remain the same every single time I revisit the movie. Trono features a wildly intriguing horror-fantasy story with eye-catching visuals that do not look cheap at all. If I had to guess, El Trono Del Infierno was made with a pretty damn good budget and actually felt like an actual theatrically-made film and definitely not a videohome at all (just to note: El Trono Del Infierno was a theatrically released film with a home video release a few years later). The special-fx in the movie are fairly well-done and the demonic imagery & the good vs. evil finale is top-notch. 

El Trono Del Infierno was definitely a movie made to be good and actor/director Sergio Goyri understood this assignment for sure. If they’re gonna make something big, then they gotta make sure they’re doing it well. Next to Goyri, Roberto Ballesteros played his role so well here and he’s always a believable antagonist and in this case he’s playing a demonic-possessed man running amok. Agustin Bernal then takes over as the demon monster in battle and it is an excellent performance just as the one in Ladrones De Tumbas. 

While many like myself still remember & admire El Trono Del Infierno, it still hasn’t exactly caught on to the attention of the anglo-horror crowd nor the international crowd as a whole. I’d could only hope this exquisite horror-fantasy title from Mexico gets more recognition from a far.