Satanic Hispanics is an anthology directed by five latino directors with an amazing and twisted way of visually interpreting stories created by a trio of screenwriters.

Presented in the form of chapters, we have between five sequences of mystery, action, thriller and comedy that are interspersed from the strangest to the deadliest. It’s not unusual the way the stories have been arranged, with a comedy interlude between each creepy short story, as it seems to represent the breaks a viewer might take walking through the halls of a haunted maze– you have a threshold in which you can take a breath to continue on your way to continue testing your tolerance to fear. Also, the timing for each segment is ideal and enough to encapsulate their narrative arc.

Each story has its charm. For example, the second chapter has a questionable character, the type of character for which it may seem difficult to decide if you feel sorry or hate for them, that drives the speed at which the stories will unfold. While the third part comically personifies a vampire who loses track of time and forgets about daylight savings. In the fourth part, everything seems to take a different turn by presenting a story that wants to represent mostly how wonderful nature is with wide pictures, but how ruthless it can be when mistreating it.

The interesting thing about Satanic Hispanics, beyond bringing together a group of Latino directors to showcase their talents, is the wait for the outcome of the first chapter. All the stories pretend to be told by the same person, and this creates a certain desperation to know the end that the narrator will reach. It may throw the viewer off their senses for a while when it heads to its final minutes but, in the end, it’s a satisfactory way to reach a conclusion strongly built since its conception– or maybe there’s space for more eerie stories to be told.

Satanic Hispanics could probably use a better title for its work, but it doesn’t change the art it brings to an audience that may be left wanting more. At times it seems to forget to bring horror to the table– due to the balance found between the sequences, it can get lost by the way each director interprets their vision and idea of terror. But it remains present thanks to the surrealism implicit in each story. In my personal opinion, and there is no other way to say it than in Spanish: es el desmadre que añoraba con gusto ver en una película, y todo el equipo creativo son unos chin– well, you can figure out how that sentence ends.

10 OUT OF 10 RUBIK CUBES