Papá Wrestling

I work at a certain large retail store in central London. I found this slipped into the 'World Cinema' section. It had to be taken out due to the fact it had no BBFC ratings and no price/barcode. However, it looked funny and the premise made me laugh so I watched it with a few other employees.

I'm not sure I've laughed so hard in my life. The story is simple yet had me laughing from the start. The editing is actually pretty good as is the sound/music. The blood and gore effects were really quite good for an amateur.

Its only 9 mins long and I think maybe it has a few pacing issues. But a great start for a director/writer. The ideas are all there, as are the effects and camera shots.

It is now regarded as a 'tresure' to be played in the mornings before the customers come in the store.

One thing is for sure: You won't see that sort of wrestling on your TV screens (in the WWE or any other organization that is)! Seriously though, this little movie that could is great fun. It might not have a great/grand story (it's only 9 minutes long, so how could it) and it is pretty simple overall, but it is good to watch and be entertained (if you don't have a problem with a little bit of blood/gore).

Not for the sensitive viewer then and not for one who is out to watch something serious and/or something that has serious acting in it. The effects are good enough (though the video shown on the Frightfest screen during the Short Film showcase, wasn't exactly very flattering) and you can just sit back and have a blast with this one. Looking forward to the next project of the director at hand here (hopefully with more great ideas).

The premise of the story is simple enough. A bit of a nerd is about to eat his lunch which looks like it has been prepared by a very caring mother gets his food and lunch box stolen by a bunch of bullies. Well the poor boy goes home crying and the maker of the lunch is quite upset. To bad for the bullies the person who packed the boy's lunch is not his mother, but a wrestler instead and a wrestler that goes on the rampage. The film lasts about a bit over seven minutes with credits taking the rest of the time, but man that was one wild ride. I knew the dude was going to take care of the bullies, I am just surprised how brutal it got. It also got me laughing as I could not believe the one kid tried to take a swipe at him after what he did to the first two boys. Then the last one is just standing there in shock, but he got off relatively easy compared to the others. Very well done and funny, not really any horror to speak of, but there is lots of blood to view. After watching some other short horror movies tonight that were quite frankly boring, this was a nice change of pace. I watched one a bit earlier that had about the same run time, but this one felt much shorter.

Many schools these days operate a zero tolerance policy when it comes to bullying, but stop short of tearing the little barstewards limb from limb (liberal minded namby-pambies!). Masked wrestler Papá Wrestling (Clemente Santos) has no such qualms, happily meting out extreme violence after a gang of bullies steal his dorky son's lunchbox.

Papá Wrestling pile-drives a kid into the ground, reducing the lad's head to a pulp, crushes another's noggin in his bare hands, pulls off one bully's nuts and feeds them to him, yanks another's leg off and impales his friend on the severed limb, and hangs the ringleader with a noose made from intestines. Director Fernando Alle handles this splattery mayhem in an energetic, excessive, cartoonish style that only the most conservative of folk could find offensive. Everyone else will have a blast!

7.5/10, rounded up to to 8 for IMDb.