Rating: N
WRESTLEMANIAC (Anchor Bay, 2006) D: Jesse Baget, w/ Jeremy Radin, Leyla Milani. Rating: N DVD package: NN
I’d like to say I watched this gobbler on purpose, nobly suffering to spare you the pain. In truth, I was just looking for a little wacky fun at the end of a long week and thought, “Amateur pornographers versus a masked maniac Mexican wrestler. Sounds like fun.”
I was wrong. Except as a rationale to screen two seconds of tit, the fact that our victims are amateur pornographers has nothing to do with the story. They’re the same maniac fodder appearing in films since Texas Chainsaw Massacre, whence this bow-wow derives most of its playbook. That the maniac is a masked Mexican wrestler is likewise mostly irrelevant, mere shtick and not scary.
Biggest missed opportunity is Leyla Razzari, performing as Leyla Milani, who’s had WWE training and could have given us a slam-bang wrestler-on-wrestler finale. But no. We get nothing but people running around screaming and a few ineptly done bits of action and gore.
For once the filmmakers have an excuse. On the commentary they explain that they lost their location just before shooting. That doesn’t get writer/producer/director/editor Jesse Baget off the hook for his paucity of imagination, or for trying on that tired old excuse “It’s really a comedy. ” It isn’t.
EXTRAS Director and actor commentary, making-of footage. Widescreen. Spanish subtitles.
