Rating: C+
Dir: John Gulager
Star: Danny Trejo, Sal Lopez, Samantha Ashley, Lew Temple
It’s nice to see a film where Trejo’s role matches his presence in the advertising material, and I have no complaints on that basis here. He plays Bravo, a con who has just got out of prison after decades inside. Hey, I never said it wasn’t typecasting. He shows up at a ranch looking for work, only to find the owner, Carmela (Ashley) isn’t exactly hiring at the moment. This is because cartel boss Abuelo (Lopez) wants her property, and just shot dead Carmela’s husband after he declined Abuelo’s offer. Courtesy of a corrupt cop in league with the bad guys, it’s not long before Bravo has been gunned down and left for dead in a field.
Key words: left for. Because a local bruja brings him back, and sends him out to carry out their mutual vengeance – for Abuelo had previously killed Bravo’s wife (in the flashbacks, the young Bravo is played by Trejo’s son, Gilbert). Our heavily tattooed hero isn’t left to do this on his own. Also courtesy of Senorita Sorceress, he now gets to bring back a slew of other criminal types from the grave, such as an undead luchador, by bleeding on their burial sites. Hence the title. Bravo promises them that, if they help in his mission, the bruja will make this temporary resurrection a permanent one. The process makes them really hard to kill, which is handy, because Abuelo soon returns to take over Carmela’s ranch.
Today is Danny Trejo’s eighty-first birthday. Damn, cabrón. I was stunned when I realized this, figuring he was maybe early sixties? I hope to be anything like as spry and energetic as him at that age. Which is now… well, if not exactly imminent, I can see it on the horizon with a telescope. This film is okay. I’d have hoped for better from the director of Feast and the writer of Piranha 3DD. Actually, Gulager directed that one too. Here, we may be overloaded with irrelevant quirkiness. For example, the luchador sings. Or Abuelo pulls out an accordion when he is interrogating people. None of this serves any significant purpose, such as building their characters into better ones.
They may have been better off reducing the number of players too, instead of trying to recreate The Magnificent Seven with zombies (albeit closer to the old-school variety, rather than the Romero kind). Few make much impression, save the bruja’s sidekick, Miguel (Efren Ramirez). It’s not exactly Aliens. The effects are s similarly mixed bag, with some nicely practical moments let down by lazy use of CGI. However, I was adequately amused, and there’s no denying, it’s a good role for Trejo – to the point it feels like this was written specifically for him. He has certainly been in much worse, and if this is no Machete, at least it’s no Dead in Tombstone. May his tacos forever be carne asada with extra guac.