Rojo sangre

Rojo Sangre (2004)

*** (out of 4)

Spanish horror film written and acted by the legendary Paul Naschy. In the film, which is semi-autobiographical, Naschy plays a horror legend who finds himself becoming a has been due to how the business is ran these days. He gets a break working in a club where he's paid to perform as various real-life serial killers but one day he starts to take the job too serious and begins to murder off the "new and cool" people of television. This film started out so well, unlike any other Naschy film but the director really blew things in the second half. The second half of the film is incredibly bad but I still enjoyed this for the terrific start. The opening hour is a brutal attack on current fame and current Hollywood, which rings all too true. Seeing the legend Naschy having to beg for work hits home quite strongly and Naschy's performance has never been better. His screenplay for this opening stuff dealing with a forgotten great is also the best he's ever done. The second half of the film really falls apart due to the director trying to be too stylish and there's an incredibly stupid twist in the story that doesn't work at all.