Wrestlemaniac (2006)

How many horror movies begin with a group of friends in a van on their way to do something illicit? Well, add Wrestlemaniac to that tally.

So yeah, these six companions are headed through Mexico in a van on their way to make a movie, of sorts. If you know what I mean. They get lost along the way and wind up in La Sangre de Dios, an infamous ghost town where legendary luchador El Mascarado was sent after he killed some opponents in the ring.

The story goes that El Mascarado was created from body parts of Mexico's best wrestlers so he could win Olympic gold for Mexico... or something. The backstory is a little fuzzy. After his disastrous career in the ring, the government took him to La Sangre de Dios to "fix" him via multiple lobotomies.

It didn't work. 

And so the amateur filmmakers, such as they are, run afoul of the legendary masked maniac and are slaughtered one by one by his killer moves. In keeping with the traditions of Mexican wrestling, when El Mascarado wins a fight he unmasks his opponent - even if they aren't wearing a mask. Yowch.

By the rules of Mexican wrestling, once a wrestler's mask is removed and his face is revealed to the public, he must retire in disgrace. Can our protagonists take off El Mascarado's mask before he takes off theirs? Or will their faces all end up pinned to his trophy wall?

Wrestlemaniac (which has to be one of the greatest titles in horror history) clocks in at a brisk 75 minutes. It's barely a feature-length film, and yet it still feels like it should have been trimmed of about 10-15 minutes of padding in the beginning.

Still, once El Mascarado shows up and starts slamming bodies and peeling faces, the movie really picks up steam. Despite loathing most of the characters, I found myself getting into the slasher/wrestling action. There's even a sense of humor behind the horror at times, and I'm not talking about the terribly written and acted early scenes that utterly fail at being funny. Once the carnage begins it's entertaining, and that's all you need to see.

Really, fast forward until you see the drunk girl wander out away from town and just watch from there. You know you're at the right part by the bug you can see crawling across the camera lens. Olé!