El Terror de México: THE INFERNAL RAPIST (1988)

I’ve only seen a handful of 1980s Mexican horror films, but everything I’ve seen I have enjoyed.  Titles like CEMETERY OF TERROR, DON’T PANIC, and GRAVE ROBBERS have provided enough cheap thrills and gore that they could easily pass for the cheap-o Italian horror from that era.  Even the action flicks from Valentin Trujillo that I’ve been checking out tend to go overboard in the violence department (check out the drug dealers chopped up and fed to dogs in OCCUPATIONAL KILLER).  Our friends south of the border had no problem trashing things up.  Nothing, however, could prepare me for the pure amount of sleaze that is packed within the 82 minutes that are THE INFERNAL RAPIST.

The plot of this flick – if you can even call it that – is fairly simple.  Super criminal “El Gato” Carlos (Noe Murayama) is experiencing his final moments in an electric chair on death row.  At the precise moment he is dead from the juice, Satan appears to him in the form of, well, a woman seemingly dressed for Carnival.  She offers Carlos the chance to return to a life of wanton sin in exchange for a few souls here and there.  Si Senorita!  The catch is he has to rape and murder his satanic sacrifices and must never, ever forget to carve 666 onto their bodies.  She zaps Carlos in the eyes with some laser beams and – BAM – dude is suddenly living the high life as a drug dealer.  Nice job placement there, Satan.

For his first offering, Carlos opts to kill a man.  Now, this is where director Damián Acosta Esparza throws down the sleaze gauntlet.  Carlos is a man of his word as he not only murders the guy, but proceeds to rape his corpse and then carve 666 in the guy’s buttocks post-orgasm.  Oh, did I forget to mention this is after both men shot up heroin while wearing silk robes? This freakin’ scene happens 10 minutes into the flick!  It is in such bad taste and so sleazy that I immediately thought “I have to put this up on Youtube” the first time I saw it.  For educational purposes, of course.

Needless to say, a clip titled “worst gay rape ever” has gotten a lot of hits.  The punch line of the scene is the gay guy’s lover coming in and finding his corpse and letting out a girly shriek. Subtlety, thy name is not Mexploitation cinema.

The rest of the film is just rinse-and-repeat as Carlos seduces four different women from a beauty salon he frequents (?). He then proceeds to rape them and kill them.  He even uses his satanic powers to off a couple of nosy cops during his second attack.  For some odd reason he decides to get real creative during his final kill and makes the topless and bloody victim fly around her apartment.  Really!  All this showing off, however, results in his demise as the cops arrive before he can carve 666 onto her body.  Carlos flees from the cops to the roof, but his master appears and she is pissed that he didn’t perform his duty.  So after the cops shoot him a couple of times, she launches his body off the building.  El final magnífico!

Man, where do I start?  Well, first we have the title, THE INFERNAL RAPIST (EL VIOLADOR INFERNAL).  Sounds so much better in Spanish, doesn’t it?  This is the kind of film title you feel embarrassed writing on an order form (I know I sure did).  The kind of title you fear your not-so-understanding friends would see laying about. You are so scared they will judge you by seeing it that you cover it with porn flicks.  A title the staunchest exploitation film defender (me) has a tough time defending.  “Well, at least it ain’t…uh…I got nothing,” I say.  Even worse, this is one of those exploitation films that actually live up to their titles.  Jeez Louise, look at all this sleaze!  There is a rapist and he is indeed infernal. There is plenty of nekkid female flesh on display, but it is uncomortable to watch at times due to the rape implications (and Murayama’s “O” face as evidenced in the clip above).  The fourth murder that takes place in a hotel room is particularly unnerving. Had director Esparza made every attack unfold like the over-the-top final one with the topless woman spinning around in the air, it might have been more enjoyable. There are a few bits of unintentionally entertaining bits here and there.  For example, the cops figure out the satanic angle and figure they can catch the killer by stopping him before he can carve 666 into his victims to complete his ritual.  Uh, catching him before he kills them might be a better game plan. Even though I haven’t seen that many, I think I am safe in claiming this is one of the sleaziest Mexican exploitation films ever.