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It seems the members of Julietta's family die like flies: First her
father disappears, then her uncle is found dead and walled in (under
extremely mysterious circumstances), then her mother is threatened, and
even she is attacked by a severed hand. And what are those skull-headed
riders doing on the family premises? Fernando, a young and hot-headed
cop, tries his best to make sense of the whole situation and guard
Julietta's life, but he's only a man and bound by the law. Thanks for the
headless rider then, a spooky avenger with no head (or so it seems ... in
some scenes), who doesn't only scare the shit out of everyone, he also
fights the skullmen and investigates in places where Fernando can't. Who
would have thought then that the headless rider is a notorious womanizer,
drunkard and gambler who sits in Fernando's jail for 30 days - but of
course, he's also a federal agent and in league with Fernando who lets him
out (and even takes his place in his cell should need arise) in times of
danger. Ultimately, the skullmen are unmasked as a gang of rich landowners
who have banded to scare (or kill) all competition off their lands to buy
them for cheap, and are all brought to justice thanks to the headless
rider. The severed hand who crawled about quite freely during the entire
film, is never really explained though. A Western/horror hybrid
... that simply doesn't quite cut it. Basically, on a narrative level, the
film is too much focused on squeezing the full effect out of certain
scenes and elements to care too much about creating a comprehensive plot
or narrative buildup. So the whole thing feels over-convoluted, muddled
and illogical when all it's trying to tell is a rather simple (and
simplistic story) story. On top of that, it features several musical
numbers that seem to be out of place, a whole romance subplot between the
headless rider and the female judge that is only badly woven in with the
rest of the story, and a funny character that's not all that funny. Add to
this a rather bland and atmosphere-free directorial effort and effects
that are a bit too cheap for their own good, and you're left with ...
well, not very much. Sure, fans of cheap Mexican 1950's genre
entertainment like myself will still find something to chuckle about in
this film ... but as a whole, it simply isn't good.
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