Cinema Crazed

2006

Rated: R for strong sexual content, graphic language, and gore.

Genre: Horror Comedy Thriller

Directed By: Jesse Baget

Running Time: 1:10

Review by: William Garcia

Review Date: 4/3/08

Special Features:
Audio Commentary
Behind the Scenes

WRESTLEMANIAC

Madmen come in all shapes and sizes and apparently from every vocation under the sun. Decades after El Santo fought his first monster comes the Wrestlemaniac, and he is not a happy man. Sounding like one of the lamest ideas ever conceived, Wrestlemaniac is surprisingly enjoyable. It is an incredibly inane and silly movie, but it has such a sense of fun and an anything goes mentality that I found that I could not dislike a movie where a portly masked Mexican wrestler performs fatal wrestling moves on his victims. The movie has some very atmospheric and well staged shots which actually gives the low budget production more of a professional sheen.

Basically a contemporary DIY exploitation movie, Wrestlemaniac takes a chance by not showing its antagonist El Mascarado, played by Rey Misterio Snr. uncle of current WWE wrestler Rey Misterio Jr., until the grand finale. In Mexico masked wrestlers are both respected and lauded as celebrities. The ultimate defeat of a Luchador is when he loses his mask to an opponent, with “Mask vs. Mask” matches filling arenas and making mucho dinero.

El Mascarado rips his victims’’ faces off in a grim parody of the cultural phenomenon associated with masked wrestlers. It’s an innovative twist and gives the movie some of its best moments. The characters rise above the usual slasher movie fodder, actually coming across as believable and real even if the mostly uneven dialogue does them no favors. The characters do come across as incredibly clichéd at times, but the actors give their characters more than the usual sleepwalking performance mostly associated with this type of genre. This is a movie that wears its colors on its sleeve; it is a gory movie for a person who like action, breasts, and gore and it is unapologetic in its execution. This movie probably won’t make anyone’s Top Ten lists but it sure doesn’t aspire to or even care.

By no means perfect, Wrestlemaniac is a high energy unique take on the slasher genre. The filmmakers set out to make a wacky movie and definitely succeeded. Sometimes a bit clunky and awkward, once the action starts the outlandish situation grabs you and is oddly entertaining and compelling. More noticeable than it should be, Wrestlemaniac is good mindless fun.

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