Trash-Mex Tapes 2: Some Espooky Sh*t

I don’t ever say “espooky” because that’s really cringe & sounds so forced, but it also a “trendy” thing to say now and why not catch on to that for this “horror” edition of Trash-Mex Tapes. I mean “Espooky” edition.

Pozo Del Diablo (1990) MDVC (Million Dollar Video Corporation)

 I’m just letting you know now that this is not a slasher movie & definitely not a horror movie either.

Do not let some LA gentrifier/VHS “dealer” with a terrible haircut gaslight you into thinking it is just because of the cover that features a guy holding a knife against a women’s neck and the title having the word “Diablo” on there. 

To All VHS Collectors/Sellers or “Dealers”:

Every Mexican film on VHS is not always going to be a horror film. Stop assuming that shit because of the cover.

Pozo Del Diablo is a drama-thriller about a man who’s framed for a murder that he didn’t commit and is left for dead in an old well that’s called “The Devil’s Well” because apparently a lot of bad things have happened around it. The man then recovers from his attempted murder & proceeds to try to get justice on his own. Then there’s also typical small-town drama going on which at least intertwines with everything else going on. 

So why did I even add this to this “espooky” Trash-Mex Tapes line-up? I mean it’s pretty horrific (or espooky) that people have paid a lot of money for this tape before. Fooled into thinking this is a horror/slasher title..

 Pesadilla Mortal (1980) Video Production Cardenal

We sometimes get premonitions. For example, the other day I had a premonition that my girlfriend was going to bring Arry’s Burgers over to my place, and you know what happened last night? She came over with Arry’s Burgers! Crazy, huh? And that is the case with Raul Ramirez’s thriller film Pesadilla Mortal—minus the burgers. 

College student “Aura” (Rosa Gloria Chagoyan) has many premonitions that tend to actually happen and almost everyone around her just assume it’s coincidences or that she’s actually a “witch”. 

The most disturbing premonition Aura has is of her mother “Rita” (Ana Luisa Peluffo) being killed by an unseen man. Rita is engaged to a rich man named “Alejandro Alvarado” whose problems pile up when it comes his finances & greedy family members. After his accidental death, Rita is killed brutally (just like in the premonition) and this leads to more murder attempts against the Alvarado family and only Aura can find out who it is! 

I’m not gonna lie, I did have high expectations for Pesadilla Mortal and while the movie isn’t a complete bore, it is pretty dull at times and the ending is pretty wack. Will horror fans enjoy it? Probably not. Fans of mystery-thrillers? Maybe. VHS collectors? Nope. But they’ll at least dig the simplicity of the 1986 Cardenal video release. I think.. 

Asesino En La Oscuridad (1997) Tex-Mex Distribution (bootleg)

An obscure & cheap horror-thriller with typical police protocol. Gerardo Vigil stars as a criminal who gets possessed by an ancient & dark Mayan artifact that forces him to harm innocent people by pulling their hearts out. He can also walk through walls.

This one delivers enough bloody kills to keep you entertained and even the scenes with the cops investigating what’s going on are also pretty entertaining as well. As cheap as this movie is, the filmmakers really put a lot of effort in it. Why it’s so forgotten & obscure is beyond me. Nothing bad about it all.