2 out of 5

Directed by: Various

An anthology horror film; Spanish directors were tasked with adapting folklore or modern urban legends for the screen, and eight semi-known / unknown directors do so with admitted gusto.  The two hour result often drags, though, and shows an indulgent predilection for rape and taboo-baiting that seems childish and outdated for the year of its release.  Certainly I’m not in denial of American film’s fascination with sex and violence – or the horror genre in general – but the predilections in Bárbaro often scrape that bottom barrel horror stuff where creators think that their work is a lot more edgy or clever than it is.  Oddly, the film comes by it, er, honestly, so I’d tip-toe around supposing that this is embedded in the source material or the culture, but it was still off-putting; for every good idea and great visual – and there are some great visuals -the flick would trawl in uninteresting concepts.

The worst offender of that is ‘La Cosa Mas Preciada’, which, from an editing perspective was also a mismatch, being the only segment to go in for full genre – film scratches and music and shot angles aiming for grindhouse – but its slightly goofy sex-kills romp tries to up the ante with dong shots and a really unpleasant rape sequence and, again, it just seems short-sighted.

This is followed up by a couple shorts that just seem to toss random overkill in, and then you also have the hilariously cheap-looking CGI title sequences that are like a mortal kombat fan’s dream of “cool” gore shots.

But, elsewhere, some stuff hits above the belt: Jaral de Berrios is a good ghost story with some really creepy visuals, Dia de los Muertos is obvious and cheap, but mostly satisfying, and opener Tzompantii shows an appreciation for tension and a modicum of restraint that would’ve been nice to see effected elsewhere.

Conceptually, culturally-focused anthologies would be a great idea, but this ain’t the best realization of that idea.