Bible-thumping hillbillies are such an easy target, aren’t they?
Here we have a family of farmers, high in a mountainous region of Mexico. Father, his daughter, probably 25 years old, and two younger women, one about 20, one about 16, both of whom aren’t related to the father and daughter nor to each other, but it’s a tight-knit family relationship, so they’re all sisters, more or less.
The father is a hysterical, maniacal religious zealot, much like Claude Akins in The Curse (1987, totally great one) or Dennis Lipscomb in Eyes of Fire (1983, equally great). He seems to have his shit together as far as the farm goes, but once he starts with the Jesus talk, he starts with the crazy eyes and he starts foaming at the mouth about the Devil and sinners and blah blah bah.
Then, when a boy wanders to the farm, or is ‘delivered by God’ according to the father, a Mexican boy with blonde hair and blue eyes, the father takes this as a sign or a fulfillment of some prophecy. He then rapes the boy’s mother and sends her off, as he intends to keep this boy locked up in a cage at the farm, whom he has named Jesus, for he thinks that this boy Jesus will bring prosperity to the farm.
There are plenty of subtleties that I didn’t cover- the hunky young male farmer next door catches the interest of the three nubile young women, the cassette player (which is another one of those things that’s supposed to be symbolic of something. Of what? I dunno. My brain doesn’t do very well with symbols.), apparently there had been multiple previous ‘Jesuses’ before this latest one…
I was really into this one until the last bit. The story went off the rails. What exactly was he trying to accomplish with the molotov cocktail? How exactly did the woman get pregnant? With all the fire and brimstone BS being slung about, was it supposed to be some kind of immaculate conception thing?
And here is yet another one where this is NOT a horror film. JUST BECAUSE SOMEBODY ENDS UP MURDERED IN GRUESOME FASHION, THAT DOESN’T AUTOMATICALLY QUALIFY IT AS A HORROR MOVIE.
This is a coming of age film. Acceptance of death as part of life. Something to do with nature being eternal and the highest power. More blah blah blah. See it or don’t.
B-movie Roundup 