Dance with the Devil

Ian West5.0

SuperNatural Born Killers.I first saw Perdita Durango via bootleg in the late 90’s courtesy of my older cousin Richard, he’s the relative who showed me Lucio Fulci movies and Cannibal Holocaust at a young age and planted the seeds for my love of transgressive filth. Anyways, we watched Natural Born Killers and From Dusk Till Dawn a lot in those days, and he copped an edited boot of Perdita Durango from one of his scuzzy friends that looked like a slightly older version of John Connor’s friend in Terminator 2... had a name like Biff or something. You know the type of guy I’m talking about.He told us if we like FDTD and NBK that we would dig this... and it does feel like less polished/rawer Tarantino/Rodriguez thrown into a Wild at Heart/Devil’s Rejects Álex de la Iglesia blender and I LOVE that. I like this more than any of the films (all which I’d take to the grave with me) I just mentioned and my ass wasn’t ready for drug/fetus smuggling, Santeria, human sacrificing, cannibalistic Coke snorts, rape, knife to the temple, DEA agent James Gandolfini giving his best performance that isn’t Tony Soprano, violent sex, weirdo Stockholm syndrome love triangles, and people getting hit with cars constantly. We loved it and watched it at least ten times that summer. I sure as hell wasn’t ready for how great Rosie Perez (and her Tura Satana look) and Javier Bardem (and whatever the fuck that look that is) were in this either—sheer magnetism and my favorite performances from both of them by a thousand landslides.I’ve been waiting for this to come out for YEARS and thankfully my homies at Severin delivered again. I’m beyond happy that Álex de la Iglesia‘s stuff is slowly becoming more readily available, he’s one of my favorite filmmakers out there and his new HBO show was awesome. Anyways, this movie plows hard and could fit its way into my top 4 at any time—a dark humor sun soaked macabre nut job movie for weirdos and people who tend to root for the bad guys. A primal experience and the definition of Cult, lots will hate it, but those who love it will probably cherish it more than most things.

Josh Lewis4.0

The comparisons to Rodriguez and Wild at Heart don't do justice to just how feverish and psychotic this actually is. So simultaneously unpleasant and pleased with itself it dares you to hate it (the whole thing is almost an extended dead baby joke) but if you can get on its insane voodoo horror outlaw western wavelength there are things in here you won't see anywhere else. Couldn't believe what I was watching when that dude gets run over by the transport truck for the 2nd time, or when Bardem fantasizes about being in a Gary Cooper movie. "Looks like another planet." [35mm]

Rafael "Mister Movie" Jovine3.0

137th Review for The Collab Weekly Movie WatchMy second Alex de la Iglesia film, and while nowhere near as great and memorable as Day of the Beast, it's still a pretty good film bolstered by a magnetic, steamy, sexy, and feisty Rosie Perez and a mad Javier Bardem with an even worse haircut than in No Country for Old Man. There’s some neat horror imagery, a wild and cool premise, and a good amount of dark humor with a somewhat frenzy pacing that works both in favor and against the film.Unfortunately, for me at least, while the film starts very interesting and pretty fun, by the end it has a lot of gas and basically overstays its welcome. This should have been at least 20 minutes shorter. It quickly becomes very redundant, and by the end, I had simply already checked out. I also honestly didn’t care for much of anything regarding the gringos.All in all, while there’s some good things going for it and, for the most part, it entertains, by the end, it simply just lost me.TODAY SCHEDULEDance with the DevilA Quiet Place: Day OneSpongeBob SquarePants: The MovieTeam F**k Yeah!!!: World Police