Cover Art

Credits

Director: Scott Maginnis Starring: Erika Fay, Gabriel Gutierrez, Michael Carreo, Martine Hughes, Sara Erikson Screenplay: Scott Maginnis Music: Matthew McGaughey Tagline: Terror has JUST crossed the border! Country: USA

Mexican Werewolf in Texas is former set decorator Scott Maginnis' second feature, and certainly an ambitious entry in the werewolf subgenre. However a number of setbacks unfortunately mar the film. Apart from a decent performance from Erika Fay as plucky heroine Anna, the rest of the teenage characters are one-dimensional stereotypes and ready-made slasher fodder. Sara Erikson's role as ditzy blonde Jill is meant to be played for laughs, but comes across as merely annoying. Indeed much of the intended humour falls flat, apart from a genuinely funny scene of idiotic yokels stumbling about the desert kitted out in full army gear, taking random pot-shots and winding up shooting one of their own men. As for the adults, all the white Texans are unlikable, bigoted redneck caricatures. Most of the Mexicans are also typical caricatures (but at least not all are stupid). Maginnis' script could also have been fleshed out more, and though the tedium of teenage life in a small town rings true ("There are only three things to do here: get in fights, herd goats or screw around in the desert"), far too much time is spent on talky scenes of Anna and her friends sitting around dwelling on this issue, whereas the racism subplot could have been broadened into a witty social commentary.