Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: September 24th, 2024.
Director: Rubén Galindo III
Cast: Pedro Fernández, Edith González, Toño Mauri, Charly Valentino, Marisol Santacruz, Adriana Vega
Year: 1989
Purchase From Vinegar Syndrome
Hell’s Trap – Movie Review:
One of many horror films made in Mexico by one of the many Galindo’s that made a name for their family by cranking out genre efforts south of the border, 1989’s Hell’s Trap introduces us to two friends, the man with the amazing mullet named Nacho (Pedro Fernández, who starred in Vacation Of Terror and Vacation Of Terror II, made for Pedro Galindo III!) and the less cool Mauricio (Toño Mauri). Despite the fact that these two guys have known one another for years, they’re very competitive with each other and this can often times lead to tension between the two pals.
When Nacho beats Mauricio in their latest challenge, Mauricio comes up with a seriously stupid idea for their next bout. See, in the woods not too far from where they live, people have been turning up dead, victims of a bear attack according to the local newspaper. Mauricio suggests that the two of them travel to those very same woods and hunt down the bear, with whoever can kill the beast first crowned the manliest of all men.
Soon enough, they gather up their girlfriends Alejandra (Edith González) and Carlota (Marisol Santacruz) and their chubby comic relief friend Chary (Charly Valentino), along with a guy named Javier (Armando Galvan) and his girlfriend Viviana (Adriana Vega) who are also along for the ride for no real reason. From there, they head out into the woods in hopes of tracking down and killing the bear, only to learn the hard way that there’s a killer running around with a fright glove and a hunting bow – will the fat guy in the loud shirt survive? Maybe, if the hero with the mullet finds an UZI.
If you’ve enjoyed movies like Rituals and Just Before Dawn but lamented the fact that they weren’t made in Mexico and didn’t feature a guy with a Freddy Kruger glove, Hell’s Trap will solve a lot of problems for you. It doesn’t offer up a lot of originality and it’s clearly influenced by a lot of slasher films that came before it, but it hits the right notes at the right moments, and it moves at a pretty quick pace. As such, it’s never boring and even when it’s awkwardly trying to mix in strangely inappropriate bits of comedy amongst attempts at tension and gory horror, it makes for an easy, breezy watch. Throw in some decent special effects work, a cool looking killer that’s part Freddy and part Ted Nugent, a wonky score from composer Pedro Plascencia and some genuinely solid location work and cinematography and Hell’s Trap winds up a fun watch.
The cast are fine. Pedro Fernández is the best actor of the bunch and despite his remarkably bouffant hair, manages to handle himself just fine in the action scenes. There isn’t a lot of dramatic lifting for he or anyone else in the cast to do, but when the opportunity presents itself briefly here and there, he rises to the occasion. Toño Mauri is decent enough as his foil while Charly Valentino is as goofy as he’s supposed to be. The female cast members aren’t given as much to do, but they look good doing it.
Hell’s Trap – Blu-ray Review:
Hell’s Trap arrives on Blu-ray in an AVC encoded 1080p high-definition transfer framed at 1.85.1 widescreen and taking up 20.6GBs of space on the 25GB disc. Presented “newly scanned & restored in 4k from 35mm archival positives,” the picture quality here is very strong and the transfer offers excellent depth and detail, but expect some print damage here and there as well as some fairly heavy, albeit very natural, looking film grain. Much of the film takes place at night, often in dimly lit conditions, but shadow detail remains quite strong. The transfer remains very filmic throughout, never showing any evidence of any noise reduction or edge enhancement.
The 24-bit DTS-HD Spanish language track on the sounds fine. Optional subtitles are provided in English only. No real problems here, both tracks sound quite good. The levels are balanced properly and there are no issues with any hiss or distortion to complain about.
The Making Of Hell’s Trap is an eight-minute interview with producer Eduardo Galindo who talks about the film's background (noting at one point that it came before Friday The 13th, which is factually incorrect!), why his family produced so many horror movies in Mexico, working inside and outside of his native country, locations that were needed for Hell's Trap, what it was like on set, working with the cast and crew and the film's premiere.
In the six-minute Mexican Special Effects, SFX artist Jorge Farfán who talks about what it was like on set, working on a few other (higher profile) productions, memories of creating specific set pieces for Hell's Trap and what goes into creating a good horror film.
Last up is the twelve-minute From Super Blonde To Movie Villain, which is an interview with actress Marisol Santacruz where she talks about how she got her part in the film, being fairly green when she took the part, what per personal life was like during this period, having to balance her acting work with her work for a beer company, what it was like working with Rubén Galindo III, getting along with her co-stars very well and some unusual memories from the film's premiere.
Vinegar Syndrome provides a very cool embossed slipcover designed by Robert Sammelin and limited to 4,000 units with this release as well as some slick reversible cover sleeve art.
Hell’s Trap – The Final Word:
Hell’s Trap isn’t especially original, but it is a lot of fun, particularly if you’re a fan of backwoods slasher films. It’s paced well and features a few solid murder set pieces and, if it wears its modest budget on its sleeve, it doesn’t really matter much when the end result entertains as effectively as this movie does. The presentation is solid, and the extras are interesting – a nice release for an enjoyable slasher.