Maldicion Maya (1987)
If you’re going in expecting some great 1980’s SOV slasher/murder/thriller/suspenseful/cheesy goodness with Maldicion Maya (Muerte En El Caribe), well you’re going to be fairly disappointed because it’s none of that at all. Try to gaslight yourself that it’s a good movie? Don’t even try it. I know that tends to happen, but yeah don’t do that. Please.
Maldicion Maya begins with a researcher & a lanchero (boat rider) heading out into the deep seas of Cancun in search of Mayan goodies and sure enough, a Mayan artifact is found and it is quite golden & mysterious looking. Totally not something from a gift shop at all. This then leads the researcher & the lanchero dying at the hands of an unseen/wetsuited figure with a harpoon gun. We then meet a group of girls whom one of them is to meet her boyfriend—the researcher. The girls enjoy the vacation stay at a luxurious hotel & plenty of boat rides with dudes they meet there. This of course leads to more kills by the harpoon gun killer and perhaps it’s all because of that damn Mayan artifact? Apparently so, because it could very well be connected to an ancient eerie legend that’s known by the locals there.
I will say, Maldicion Maya was filmed pretty good with a video camera. Plenty of nice shots of Cancun in 1987—lots of beach scenery, luxury hotel shots, and lots of boat riding. Nice shot there for sure, but everything else in the movie was not so fun to watch. Maldicion Maya has a plot that sounds good, but it ends up being a bore & with dull characters you want to see die. Am I being too harsh? Nah. Are those harpoon kills any good at least? Nah. The killer’s identity is hardly a secret either since we can already tell who’s wearing the wetsuit & who has the worst attitude of all the characters.
A production by Victor Herrera Zenil & Ismael Rodriguez’s son Tonatiu Rodriguez, this entry in the first year of Victor’s production company Diafragma Films is unfortunately not so great. I wanted to like it and justify its mistakes, but why should I? At least Victor made way better movies after this & with much success.
Maldicion Maya harpooned my expectations down big time and more than likely will do the same to you.
