Trash-Mex Tapes 4: Vengeance! But on a budget…
- Armando Hernandez
- 16 hours ago
- 4 min read
In the 4th edition of Trash-Mex Tapes, I chose 4 action-revenge titles because they’re from the glorious 1990’s & all 4 were videohomes of course. Videohomes are a type of film that you have to be open-minded of because often they were made on the fly & with little to no money. However, plenty of them were made with a lot of effort and it usually shows by actually being a great film or at least decent.
I can also say that several videohomes were pieces of shit with no effort in them & often dirty money invested in them. Why did that happen? Well, it’s a thing called money laundering and with that you don’t have to make a good film, just make it & if possible, make plenty of them all at once.
Impacto De Muerte (1993) Producciones Alejandro Alcondez
Once upon a time, a guy named Alejandro Alcondez became an actor and his career took off with the help of legendary Mexican actor Mario Almada whom landed him a role in the epic El Corrido De Los Perez: Tierra De Sangre (1992). After Corrido De Los Perez, Alejandro decided he wanted to make films all on his own and sure enough he got to it the following year with Impacto De Muerte.
Impacto De Muerte is a throwback to the old black & white vigilante flicks that once graced the big screens in the late 1950’s & early 1960’s, these films consisted of a vigilante protagonist that wears a scarf over their faces & fight off the bad guys that they know personally.
Alejandro Alcondez plays Jose Santana, a local cop who finds out that his real parents were murdered when he was a toddler at the hands of a greedy land owner that remains in power of the small town they all live in. Jose Santana then decides to rid of everyone responsible for the murder of his parents & he does it at night while wearing an all-black outfit & covering his face with a scarf that he can barely keep on.
Impacto De Muerte was made fairly well with an obvious low-budget and it’s pretty clear Alejandro Alcondez had full-control of the production since he’s credited with practically everything within the film and that even includes the corrido being sung by Alejandro himself. And did Alejandro seek distribution from the many Mexican home video companies that were around at the time? Nah. Alejandro just simply did it himself under the name “Producciones Alejandro Alcondez”. The logo consists of an Oscar award statue and the company’s video bumper uses the opening instrumentals of “Always on my Mind” by the Pet Shop Boys.
Alejandro Alcondez takes his work pretty serious and so much that he makes damn sure you know who he is by plastering his name & image everywhere he is. It’s not about self-love or having a huge ego, he just knows he’s a really good actor is all. And is he? I would say yes.
La Furia De Un Vengador (1992) Cine-Mex
From the people who brought us Sembradores Del Crimen, comes another crudely-made action-revenge film with plenty of entertainment value & an anti-drug message!
Well, more like an anti-marijuana message since it’s portrayed as a highly-addictive & dangerous drug that’ll ruin your life forever. Fentanyl? Out of the question.
Jorge Reynoso plays Juan Romero, a policeman who’s after all the drug pushers in town—big & small. We then meet the local drug organization in town and they’re pretty damn nifty since they’re always on top of everything & will fight hard against anyone trying to stop them. Father & son actors Polo Ortin & Jorge Ortin play the leading antagonists & Socorro Albarrán plays the pot-smoking addict who’s singing career at a dingy nightclub is on the edge.
I liked this one just fine. It may lack the over the top tone of Sembradores Del Crimen, but it delivers plenty of gun-firing action & several uses of dynamite sticks as well. Juan Romero even has his own corrido.
Y Se Hizo Justicia (1992) VideoCine Entertainment
Filmed mostly in the city of Gómez Palacio, Durango, Fernando Almada plays a vengeful man who goes after the group of young men whom killed his family during their vacation. A enigmatic cop that wears an eye-patch (played by Carlos Cardan, a Durango native) follows our vengeful lead & quietly assists him as well.
Y Se Hizo Justicia is a slow-burner, but it has a really good plot & the Fernando Almada/Carlos Cardan team-up is excellent. I was also fond of the Durango setting as well since we see the true beauty of the state as a whole.
Y Se Hizo Justicia was released on video in 1992 and during the late 1990’s-early 2000’s got a DVD release within the so-called “Siete En La Mira” series. But of course, there is no Siete En La Mira “series”, just 2 films & peculiar re-releases of other films using the re-title to sell.
La Venganza De La Vibora (1995) MDVC (Million Dollar Video Corporation)
Here’s a forgotten one with like maybe 2 search results online and even then it’s not much. La Venganza De La Vibora came out on video during a time when Million Dollar Video Corporation was flooding video stores with all kinds of titles, many good & many bad. Where does La Venganza De La Vibora stand in that? It’s “meh”.
La Venganza De La Vibora is a crime-revenge tale with a female protagonist named “Rosaura” (played by Perlita Buendia, daughter of Mexican singing duo “Dueto Frontera” Rafael Buendia & Maria Elena Jasso) who seeks revenge for the death of her parents & even teams up with 3 other women to take over the big drug trafficking ring that threatens them all.
The action scenes are good, but the rest of the film feels congested with its music scenes & long talk scenes. There’s also a rather unusual twist at the end that made me feel uncomfortable. Yikes.
