Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Uriah43 "Pilar Franco" (Adriana Catano) is a film maker who desperately wants an opportunity to showcase her abilities. So one day she sees a mystic on television named "Roque" (Roberto Montesinos) purporting to be able to cure people through spiritual means and she decides to film a documentary on him. Even though he is clearly a phony he figures he could use a little publicity so he agrees. Yet as it so happens the first patient that comes in named "Ana Marie" (Monika Munoz) has a serious problem which eventually leads both Pilar and Roque to a Brazilian high priestess who is very skillful in the black art of voodoo—and unlike Roque she is the real McCoy. Now rather than reveal any more of this film and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that I honestly didn't expect too much from this movie. But after the first 10 minutes or so I realized that it was much better than I expected it to be as it combined touches of humor with a rather decent zombie plot. Additionally, the fact that both Monika Munoz and Adriana Catano were rather attractive certainly didn't hurt either. In any case, I liked this movie and therefore rate it as slightly above average.

Woodyanders Scared young Ana Maria (a sound and sympathetic performance by Monika Munoz) hires evil and powerful voodoo priestess Mana Luna (robustly played with wicked gusto by Nadia Rowinsky) to whip up a special potion to transform her abusive husband Antonio (a perfectly hateful Khotan) into a better man. Unfortunately, said potion transforms Antonio into a zombie instead. Ana Maria enlists the assistance of spunky aspiring reporter Pilar Franco (a nicely spirited turn by Adriana Catano) and amiable charlatan spiritual guide Roque (a marvelously jolly and charismatic performance by Roberto Montesinos) to resolve the situation. Writer/director Ricardo Islas relates the entertaining story at a brisk pace, stages the zombie attack scenes with flair, delivers plenty of amusing moments of good-natured humor (the constant banter between Pilar and Roque is quite snappy and often hilarious), and generates a good deal of tension and spooky atmosphere in the nightmarish last third. Moreover, it's acted with zest by a capable and engaging cast; the warm, funny, and lively chemistry between Catano and Montesinos in particular keeps the picture humming throughout. Mariana De Silva supplies a little extra spice as Roque's brash secretary. The Latino cultural aspect gives the movie its own neat distinctive flavor while the pertinent social commentary on such hot button issues as domestic violence and exploiting illegal immigrants as cheap slave labor provides an additional substantial dramatic punch. Both Christian Herrera's sharp cinematography and Aritz Villodas' melodic score are up to par. A fun and offbeat fright flick.

TdSmth5 A Latina documentary movie maker who can't sell her projects because they lack Latin flavor, in desperation decides to make a documentary on a corrupt Latin faith healer. Turns out he has a heart of gold and a real concern for his people. He can give great speeches on the hypocrisy of Latins who always aim for the white standard of beauty: blonde hair blue eyes. You get a sense where this is going...One of his customers is a woman who gets constantly beaten by her possessive husband. He can't and won't help her. She goes to another of these faith healers, a woman who practices Macumba. She gives her a potion to give to her husband. He drinks it and becomes a zombie. The reporter and the reformed charlatan who is now her sidekick in the investigation track down this voodoo priestess only to end up getting in trouble themselves. It all ends up in a violent showdown, Hollywood style.This movie is slow, performances are uneven, equipment used is not the best, lighting and camera-work are rather poor. The story though has a lot of potential and shows signs of intelligence, but also plenty of your standard college intro level minority politicking. I can't really recommend this movie unless you are the intended target audience for these sort of films that use some genre (zombie horror) to deliver a tired sociopolitical message. And the zombie horror doesn't really take up a lot of time either.

zmoviefan I hadn't heard much about this flick before watching it, all I knew was what it said on the back cover of the DVD.I only recognized one of the actresses, but my mom recognized a bunch of them from soap operas or something. Which probably explains some of the overacting. I can forgive overacting if the actors are likable and the plot doesn't bore me, unfortunately, the beginning of this low budgeter I found very slowwww.And yes, this starts off like a drama. Reporter is doing a piece on domestic violence and somehow finds herself in a warlock's office! There she meets an abused woman and soon the "action" starts.I won't lie, I fast forwarded a lot of this movie, probably the first 45 minutes, and I kept looking at the clock on my wall. Eventually mentioned reporter and warlock get trapped and we finally get to see some zombies. Thankfully, the ending was pure horror. In the tradition of a group of people (in this case 3) trying to escape from the attacking undead and the woman who controls them.We get a few fighting scenes, some zombies eating people, a couple of scenes of a woman trapped in house with her dead husband and then the movie ends.I've seen worse. Not a bad movie, I felt I was watching a Lifetime movie of the week, except for the final 20 or so minutes when it switches from drama to supernatural horror.Do I recommend it? Nope, unless you have nothing else to watch.