Bell From Hell

APRIL 24, 2007

GENRE: HERO KILLER, WEIRD
SOURCE: DVD (BUDGET PACK!!!)

I haven’t the slightest clue as to what the hell was going on through about 90% of Bell From Hell. Part of the problem is the muffled audio (which was an English dub of a Spanish track to begin with), which consistently sounded like the movie was coming from another room.

I can tell this much though: just like yesterday’s movie, this one had some incest. Main dude fools around with TWO of his cousins (even making out with one in front of their mother; his aunt). I guess such things are acceptable when you’re a… whatever the hell these people were. They have a castle though.

I THINK that the movie was about a guy who was attempting to get revenge on his aunt and her daughters, and also a guy played by the creamily named Alfredo Mayo. Why he needed revenge, I do not know, but I do know his plans are way too elaborate. Why does he put himself in a full body cast and make a guy help him urinate? Why does he make some woman think he raped her? Can’t the guy just kill them? I half expected him to put a fake fire hydrant near one of their cars so they would get a ticket.

It’s certainly a moody, atmospheric film, the acting is fine, and other than the audio (which is likely the fault of the budget pack company, Mill Creek, than the production of the film/track itself), it’s technically professional. But my inability to follow a lot of it left me feeling bored, sad, and a bit hungry (he works in a slaughterhouse for a while, foreshadowing that he has “learned enough” - an ominous threat that only mildly pays off).

Sadly, the director jumped (or just fell) off the eponymous bell during the last day of filming, and the film was finished by someone else. I can think of many directors who I wish would follow suit, but alas.

What say you?

2 comments:

  1. I agree that a better audio track might have helped this one. I wanted to like it, but had no clue what was going on.

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  2. Oh dear, this comment comes a bit late, so to whomever may care... I always liked this film's sense of atmosphere and some dark desiny overhanging the hero/killer/ (but very easy-on-the-eyes) psycho dude. The actor is Renaud Varly, I think. Alfredo Mayo is the creep who earlier tries to rape a local girl with his hunter buddies and is ultimately murdered by an "unknown" avenger at the end. (The urination scene is to humiliate him). The Netflix disc came with a pretty good commentary that puts the film in the context of Franco's Spain and the killler is avenging the hypocrisies of a complacent bougeousie as well as trying to get revenge for his mother's suicide and his own frame up by his aunt and eldest cousin. The fact that he also seems to be dangerously loony-tunes is a detail we can sidestep as his social conscience is in more or less the right place. It's also a macabre thing about the director and his questionable death. The real-life mystery adds to it's odd mystique, for me anyway.

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