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[Review] ‘The Cannibal Club’ Serves Up a Generous Helping of Sex and Blood with a Splash of Dark Humor

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Otavio and Gilda are a wealthy Brazilian couple who enjoy partying with friends and living a luxurious lifestyle. They look like any other upper-class people, but in reality, they belong to a social club for cannibalistic elites. When Gilda accidentally witnesses Borges, the head of the club, involved in some secret activity, she and Otavio must survive the threat of Borges and his hired guns.

If this sounds like a good time to you, then buckle up for writer/director Guto Parente’s The Cannibal Club. Parente’s film is 81 minutes of pure entertainment, serving up a generous helping of sex and blood with a splash of dark humor and tension.

The Cannibal Club is, above all, a good time. The film balances its more risqué material with hilarious dialogue and chemistry, thanks in large part to performances by Tavinho Teixeira as Otavio and Ana Luiza Rios as Gilda. The two play their parts perfectly, giving their characters a bit of complexity when they so easily could have been one-note. Teixeira portrays Otavio as a pompous jerk and raging lunatic, but also as a devoted and loving husband, however irritating he may be to his wife. Similarly, Rios plays Gilda as open-minded and compassionate, despite her penchant for seducing men to their deaths.

It’s important to note that The Cannibal Club makes surprisingly little use of its core concept. That is to say, there isn’t a ton of cannibalism to be seen. In fact, the main plot really has nothing to do with the titular Cannibal Club or its happenings at all. The same story could have taken place within a book club, a country club, or any other invitation-only group. This may come as a let-down to those who go into the film expecting Cannibal Holocaust levels of mayhem, and who won’t settle for anything less.

Similarly, The Cannibal Club utilizes its satire sparingly. Though decidedly tongue-in-cheek, the social commentary is never quite as searing as it could have, or perhaps should have, been. It’s clear that The Cannibal Club believes the class divide in Brazil is absurd (that assessment is a bit too on-the-nose, with the rich quite literally eating the poor), but doesn’t say much on the subject beyond that. This causes the thesis to get cloudy after a while. However, the obviousness and soft bite of the film’s overall sendup don’t take away from its smaller moments of humor, and The Cannibal Club does a fine job of poking fun at its characters when it takes the time to do so.

Despite a lack of human-on-human snacking, The Cannibal Club manages to live up to its own hype of being a wild ride. There is plenty of nudity, blood-letting, and gunfire to satiate the needs of any action enthusiast. Although not exactly scary, you can rest easy knowing there is enough suspense, particularly in the final minutes of the film, to merit its inclusion in the horror genre.

The Cannibal Club is good, gross fun. There’s something here for almost every type of horror fan. The film is political, but accessible to those who don’t mix film and politics. It’s bloody, but leaves behind over-the-top gore. There’s humor, but won’t put off those who dislike horror comedy (the film never crosses that genre line). Whatever your niche, you’re likely to come out of your experience with The Cannibal Club very pleased.

Dog dad, film lover, horror fan, and bookworm. Used to be 5% more punk than he is now. Please follow @DaxEbaben on twitter

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‘Herencia Diabólica’ – 1993’s “Mexican Child’s Play” Finally Has a Blu-ray Release [Review]

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Did you know that there is a Child’s Play-inspired film from Mexico? If you didn’t, you can thank Vinegar Syndrome’s new label Degausser Video for making 1993’s Herencia Diabólica available for the masses to watch. Or at least for the VS hardcore fanbase, Chucky completists and anyone else who needs something like this in their lives.

Director Alfredo Salazar, known for his writing connection to the 70s Santo film series, also serves as the writer here to bring us a film seemingly inspired from the Child’s Play franchise. While it has been recently labeled as the “Mexican Child’s Play” (there’s a special feature on the disc with that very title), the killer doll concept is where the comparison should start and end. Despite having some seeds planted by that franchise, Salazar delivers a story that blossoms into something unique.

Tony (Roberto Guinar) receives a letter informing him that his aunt has died, and he has inherited her estate in Mexico. He quits his job and uproots his life in New York with his wife Annie (Holda Ramírez) to relocate south of the border and move into his new crib. Now I know what you’re thinking, what person just quits their job and drags their wife to another country without having reliable monetary income? Tony does, everyone, Tony does.

And what’s the first thing they do once they arrive in Mexico and check out the estate? They hit the bedroom, naturally. We are treated to a sex scene with an erotica song that feels like a knockoff of “Sadness” by Enigma (remember them?). Sounds fun and all, but the scene takes place completely in the dark and we see absolutely nothing. Maybe that’s why the sexy-time tune was pumping, so we could know what was exactly going down.

While Tony goes on a job interview, Annie explores the estate’s grounds in a tedious chore to experience, going room by room, plodding along. But it does lead us to her discovery of our antagonist—the evil clown doll, Payasito! Of all the things in the house, she decides to bring this monstrosity down to show Tony when he gets home. What an exciting way to celebrate (sic)! Then out of nowhere, she spouts off some exposition about rumors that Tony’s aunt dabbled in the dark arts and now we know where our title Diabolical Inheritance (the English translation for Herencia Diabólica) originates. For those of you who keep score for things like that.

Before proceeding with this review, you really need to visualize what Payasito looks like to truly embrace the rest of the film’s shenanigans. While Chucky resembles a cute ginger child, Payasito resembles a small clown that is much larger in stature than Chucky. That’s because Payasito is performed by an actor (Margarito Esparaza) in clown cosplay whenever he’s on the move (like Mannequin 2), and makes some really horrible facial expressions. Chucky dresses in “Good Guys” overalls and a striped shirt, but Payasito wears a new wave Santa hat while sporting a Sgt. Pepper jacket and Peter Pan tights. As you can now tell, he is quite beautiful.

Back to our story, Payasito begins to spook Annie cerebrally until she becomes unnerved to the point of having a complete mental break down, making her easy prey to eliminate. She dies but the unborn child survives, with Tony believing that her death was caused by her mental instability. Fast forward some years later and the couple’s surviving spawn has grown into child Roy (Alan Fernando), who at this point has already bonded with Payasito to help him over the loss of his mother. Dun-dun-duuunnn!

Meanwhile wealthy Tony remains single, still grieving his late wife, until his blonde assistant Doris encourages him to move on with his life and start seeing other people. And by other people, she naturally means herself. As the old Kanye West song lyric goes, “I ain’t saying she’s a gold digger…”, and it seems that she might be until we learn more about her character. Doris is played by the stunning Lorena Hererra who has an extremely extensive resume in Mexico, and she carries most of the film quite well during the feature’s second half. The singer and former Playboy centerfold for their Mexico edition is by far the most recognizable face in the cast.

Doris and Tony do indeed hookup and she moves into La casa de Herencia, where she does her best to impress Roy and lessen his obsession with the doll. There is a scene where they go to a nearby park without Payasito that is filled with famous fairytale figures, such as Pinocchio, Cinderella and King Kong! What, you didn’t know King Kong is a fairytale? Me neither. But Roy continues to be obsessed with Payasito after their trip, much to Doris’ chagrin.

Her actions to separate him from Roy gets Payasito angry, setting up the film’s most memorable scene. We already know that Payasito is a devil doll like Chucky, but now we learn he also has the power to invade people’s dreams like Freddy Krueger! Does Payasito enter the dream world and concoct a creative way to kill Doris in her sleep? No, he harnesses his power to sexually assault her instead. Yes that actually happens. After she awakens, Doris grabs the doll and tosses him into a lake, only to find him waiting for her by the time she gets back to the house. So now we know he also maintains the ability to “transport” like Jason Voorhees too. This doll is the total package!

More insanity happens before we close out the film with the longest victim chase sequence ever. It makes the previously mentioned painful house search scene seem like an eyeblink. It feels like it’s the film’s entire third act, filled with so much padding that you could soundproof an entire three-story house.

So how’s the transfer? Considering it was created using a mix of VHS and film source elements from 1993, they did one heck of a job! The work they put into it is especially noticeable in the dream invasion sequence, with the pulsing multi-colored psychedelic visuals. Super trippy stuff. Even the film’s score provides a pretty chill vibe, during the times when Payasito isn’t on the prowl.

If anything you read has piqued your interest in the very least, you should give it a shot. But if not, it is best to leave this doll on the shelf.

Herencia Diabólica is now available to purchase at VinegarSyndrome.com.

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