Thats what Mexican wrestlers do when they win a fight Starring Rey Mysterios uncle, Miguel ngel López Díaz, better known in lucha libre as Rey Misterio Snr, this slasher movie from writer/director Jesse Baget sees a group of kids, planning on putting together a low budget porn movie, get lost in Mexico and arrive in a sinister ghost town, La Sangre De Dios (literally, The Blood Of The Gods). They find out about a scary urban legend that whispers of a homicidal luchador, El Mascarado, a legend of the business who went insane and began murdering his opponents a legend which, of course, is absolutely true, and the bright young things begin to get offed by the unstoppable rudo. Wrestlemaniac, also released under the title El Mascarado Massacre, is a good-to-great slasher movie with a rather delicious twist to the high concept, if youre a wrestling fan: the crazed El Mascarado believes himself to be still taking part in a Lucha de Apuesta, Máscara contra Máscara. If youre not a lucha libre fan, that means a match with a mask versus mask stipulation: a highly culturally significant match type whereby the winner would get to remove the losers mask. Thats right El Mascarado is ripping off the faces of his victims. Theres no world in which a crazed luchador played by a genuine lucha libre legend doesnt get the number one spot on a list like this: and if there is, I dont want to live in that world. Luckily, Wrestlemaniac is worth the spot - its a quality stalk and slash with a truly memorable monster doing the stalking and the slashing.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
