The best horror anthologies are more than just haphazard collections of short films mashed together to reach feature length. Movies with a unifying theme or filmmaking style are more successful at holding the audience's interest, and the Latino-driven anthology Satanic Hispanics makes its unique focus clear. There are still some slightly jarring tonal shifts between the individual segments, which range from heavy and intense to lighthearted and silly, and the framing story doesn't hold them together as well as it should, but, as an entertaining showcase for a group of underappreciated Latino horror filmmakers, Satanic Hispanics accomplishes its goal.
Most of the filmmakers involved with Satanic Hispanics are veterans of other horror anthologies, including Tales of Halloween and the V/H/S and ABCs of Death movies, and they clearly understand how to deliver a compact horror tale that fits within a larger framework. The framing story is often the weakest part of these anthologies, but director Mike Mendez makes his segment "The Traveler" into a complete, mostly satisfying story. It meanders in the middle as the title character (Napoleon Dynamite's Efren Ramirez) tells the tales that make up the other segments, but it finishes strong to end Satanic Hispanics on a high note.
Satanic Hispanics opens with police raiding a warehouse filled with dead bodies in a set-up similar to some of the V/H/S anthologies. They discover only one survivor, a man who calls himself the Traveler and claims that a dangerous supernatural force is chasing him. A pair of detectives (Greg Grunberg and Sonya Eddy) attempt to interrogate the Traveler, who offers vague insinuations and outright lies about his background, all while warning them that this evil entity will come for them if they don't let him go within 90 minutes. Part of his self-mythologizing involves telling tales about supposed supernatural encounters he's had throughout his life, although he doesn't appear onscreen in any of the other segments.
The dead bodies in the warehouse are pointedly identified as undocumented immigrants, and part of the reason the two American, English-speaking detectives won't let the Traveler go is because he can't produce proper documentation. Overall, though, Satanic Hispanics isn't focused on social commentary, instead drawing from Latin American culture in service of horror. Two of the segments take place outside the U.S., starting with Argentinian writer-director Demian Rugna's "Tambien Lo Vi," set in the filmmaker's native country.
The creepiest segment in Satanic Hispanics, "También Lo Vi" stars Demián Salomón as Gustavo, a reclusive math prodigy who lives alone in his late grandmother's house, honing his Rubik's Cubes-solving skills. His sister encourages him to move out of the musty family home and join her in the U.S. She wants him to participate in a Rubik's Cube tournament in Japan to make some money. Instead, he's come up with an algorithm that involves shining a light in a specific pattern into a room in his house that will seemingly open up a doorway to the afterlife. Rugna creates an unsettling atmosphere as Gustavo starts experiencing inexplicable phenomena, leading to an ambiguous but striking end.
Director Gigi Saul Guerrero (Bingo Hell) also attempts to get by on atmosphere with her segment "Nahuales," set in Mexico, but it's more confusing than disturbing. A frantic man hides out in a remote house, apparently from cartel enforcers who are coming for him after he informed on their operations to the CIA. It's not entirely clear what his position was or what information he revealed, and he's eventually kidnapped by men who seem to actually be servants of some native spirit. Rather than connecting the supernatural horrors to real-life horrors in Mexico, Guerrero produces a muddled series of ominous chants and gory special effects.
Satanic Hispanics surrounds the self-serious "Nahuales" with two comedic segments, starting with "El Vampiro" from The Blair Witch Project co-director Eduardo Sanchez. Hemky Madera is amusing as an exasperated ancient vampire attempting to enjoy himself on Halloween while his slightly less ancient partner Maribel (Patricia Velasquez) warns him about getting home before sunrise. The goofy sitcom tone recalls What We Do in the Shadows, but even if nothing about "El Vampiro" is particularly original, it's still an entertaining and fast-paced take on familiar vampire elements.
Alejandro Brugués' equally silly "The Hammer of Zanzibar" meanders a bit, even containing a framing story of its own as it follows the hapless Malcolm (Mystery Science Theater 3000's Jonah Ray Rodrigues) attempting to break a curse that he and his friends received on a trip to Cuba. The unnecessary length of the flashback to Malcolm acquiring the titular mystical weapon is part of the humor, and the wind-up is worth it by the time he deploys the alarmingly sexual artifact in a battle against an ancient demon. Rodrigues even performs a catchy pop-punk song about his character's quest to vanquish evil.
Satanic Hispanics ends with the Traveler back on the road, presumably to spread more stories about his supernatural encounters. Like all anthologies, Satanic Hispanics is uneven, but there's no reason why this enjoyable tribute to an unheralded horror filmmaking community couldn't become as long-running a franchise as V/H/S or its various other predecessors.
Satanic Hispanics opens Thursday, September 14, in theaters.