Not quite a horror film, although it is certainly horrific, this Mexican feature is a Grand Guignol carnival of every conceivable grotesquerie. Awash with body fluids and sticky with perversion, this sexually graphic bad trip of a movie follows a brother and sister who stumble into the dominion of a crazed man who offers them shelter at a cost. He survives on malice and the grim-looking meat stews that he boils down into a highly flammable liquor. The acting style is almost as extreme as the subject matter – part performance, part seizure seems to be the rule of thumb. Plunge elbow deep into the vats of human flesh porridge and you might just find an allegory for Mexican society. Arresting as it is, however, there’s a sense of wasted potential and shock tactics deployed for no reason other than to gross out the audience.
