WRESTLEMANIAC

Directed & Written by Jesse Baget
Cinematography by Tabbert Filler
Music by Jim Lang
Cast: Rey Misterio Sr., Irwin Keyes, Adam Huss, Leyla Milani, Margaret Scarborough, Jeremy Radin, Catherine Wreford & Zack Bennett

2006/75 mins/Color/Dolby Surround 5.1
1.78:1 anamorphic/US/English/NTSC Region 1

Review from the Anchor Bay DVD

While on the road trying to find a place to shoot an amateur porn film, the cast and crew accidently loose themselves in a Mexican ghost town called La Sangre De Dios. Rumour has it that an insane Mexican luchador wrestler by the name of El Mascarado (a.k.a. The Masked Man who was created by the President of Mexico for the 1984 Olympics) is still alive and rips off the face of whoever enter his land. Nice!

Not surprisingly, the soon to be victims decide to stay in the town and actually use the creepy settings for their film. And soon enough, one by one they face the deranged killer and meet their brutal demise.

Made under its original title THE MEXICAN PORN MASSACRE, Jesse Baget delivered a surprisingly well made low budget horror film. While it certainly doesn't break new ground, WRESTLEMANIAC is actually one of the few "entertaining" direct-to-video horror film recently released. Gore, laffs, wrestling and nudity... what more could want? Good storytelling, maybe you should look somewhere else then. But if your willing to switch your brain off, you'll more then enjoy this one. According to the director, the movies of Russ Meyer and Dario Argento's DEEP RED inspired him for the film, right...

WRESTLEMANIAC grapples his way into DVD from Anchor Bay. The film is presented in its original 1.78:1 aspect ratio. Even if this is DTV material, the film looks fantastic with nice cinematography composition and great color saturation. There is no compression or artifacts with this transfer. You get the choice of either a English Dolby Surround 5.1 or Dolby Surround 2.0 tracks. Both are loud, crisp and clear. Optional Spanish subtitles are available.

As for the extras; 'Wrestling The Maniac: Behind-The-Scenes of WRESTLEMANIAC' is a 6 minutes featurette that feels throw in to have somekind of an extra on the disc. There is also the trailer and a very interesting commentary track with Jesse Baget, Director of Photography Tabbert Filler and actor Adam Huss. Bagget and Huss goes deep into all of the details on the making of the film while Filler talks more about the technical aspects. Its a surprisingly good track, something very unusual for these DTV films.

We also get trailers for HATCHET, SPIRAL, THE GIRL NEXT DOOR, BEHIND THE MASK THE RISE OF LESLIE VERNON. The film is separated in 12 chapters stop, features static menus with music, comes in a keep case with an inlay card. Its interesting to note that Rey Misterio Sr. is actually the uncle of World Wrestling Entertainment superstar Rey Mysterio Jr. And make no mistake about it, WRESTLEMANIAC has nothing to do with the classic SANTOS films.

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Review by Kim Dubuisson. All Right Reserved. 2008. ©