La Suburban Del Diablo (1997)

After being gunned down by the police, drug trafficker Avelino Valencia (Juan Manuel Azcona) drives away to an abandoned monastery where he summons The Devil for help. The Devil agrees to spare him from death in exchange for him to do all his bidding! He also grants him supernatural powers! The demonic drug trafficker now wrecks havoc around town getting rid of those who betrayed him! The cops who killed Avelino firmly believe their drug-trafficking man isn’t quite dead and so they go after him!

La Suburban Del Diablo lives up to its title for sure. Directed by Juan Carlos Martin; La Suburban Del Diablo is a little hoot of a narco-horror movie. I want to say it’s the first of its kind as well since this type of narco movie (shot super cheaply in small regional areas, always featuring big trucks, tejanas, etc) started in 1996-1997 and this is the only one from those particular years that has a horror/supernatural plot. Anything else similar appeared in the 2000’s and beyond. So I suppose we can consider La Suburban Del Diablo the first narco-horror movie.

La Suburban Del Diablo has some mildly amusing scenes of supernatural shit going on, but mainly it’s just Avelino in all-black shooting a bunch of people while he’s supernaturally bulletproof. There’s also assistance from the church to put a stop to the demonic Avelino. It's not exactly like The Omen or The Exorcist, but you get the idea.

Eva Garbo stars in the movie as Avelino’s girlfriend who may or may not be a prostitute. She has blonde hair in the movie and I totally, totally adore it. There’s a scene where she walks to an agua stand in a very tight blue dress and her little strut is very, very admiring. Eva Garbo is always a pleasure to see. And of course it wouldn’t be a narco movie without starring Bernabé Melendez who literally has starred in almost every single narco movie from the mid 90’s to now. He of course plays a cop that’s not going to let anyone or anything stop him from taking down his target. Bernabé is an interesting actor and I always like seeing him in these movies because no matter what kind of role he has, he puts a lot of work into it. He becomes the character basically. Not just plays one.

If you’re looking for a mildy-amusing narco movie with some satanic supernatural shit and with plenty of gun-firing action, then La Suburban Del Diablo is worth a watch for a lazy afternoon.