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Adrián Cardona
Hard-working and capable Spanish (Ibizan) director of fun splatter films and a prominent member of the Eskoria Films production company. His films, so far, are mainly low-budget fan-films, paying homages to classics and genre favorites, without much in the way of inspired unique visions, but they are done enthusiastically and entertainingly. Mostly produces fun short films combining comedy and splatter, most of which are available at their site. Often loves to combine elaborate fight scenes, campy action fun and humor, and splatter, resulting in energetic, albeit low-budget, splatstick, and not always in the horror genre. Usually works with an enthusiastic cast and goes all-out in his movies, piling on as much action and special effects as he can cram into his movies, working much harder on these than on plots, which is why he does best with short movies. In short, old-school-style gore action movies for genre fans. A 15-minute short notable for three reasons: It is by the talented makers of Kombate Brutal, it features Jesus in a zombie story, and it delivers highly entertaining splatstick that almost reach the levels of Peter Jackson's Braindead. According to this short, raising Lazarus did not go quite according to plan. After screaming like a little girl, Jesus collects his wits and his fists... and his miraculous fish, and declares war on the zombies. The movie is basically one long splatter zombie fight scene with a wisecracking team of Judas and Jesus. Fun. (Included along with another fun short by Cardona in the anthology 'Zombieworld'.) This may be one of the most hard-working home-made movies you're likely to see. This is a Spanish spoof of Mortal Kombat by Adrián Cardona and no effort was spared to make it entertaining. The first half features silliness in the form of goofy training montages of a farmer who wants to compete in the ultimate fighting championship arena to the death, a bible-thumper killing his grandmother and becoming an evil master fighter with the help of a demon, and some qualifying fights with silly ninjas used as human punching bags. The second half is simply one fight after another between a couple dozen combatants in various colorful locations, with some over-the-top splatter death scenes involving geysers of blood and the ripping apart of bodies and body parts in homage to Peter Jackson. The fights vary in quality, especially considering this is a home-made movie, but there are many, the guys obviously have some background training, and the effort is appreciated and entertaining. Cardona tackles Westerns, rough & tough spaghetti-western style, with a blatantly copied Morricone soundtrack, and with an extra bonus: zombies. Although filmed with a low budget with rough amateur cinematography, the cast, costumes and locations are surprisingly good for its budget, and the energy and genre-loving dedication shows. The plot is about an evil mass-killing outlaw, and a gun-man hell-bent on revenge years after his wife was killed by the outlaw. The trap is set, and several bounty killers gather to do away with the outlaw once and for all. Except, ignoring a warning from some silly 'Native Americans', they manage to awaken a new evil (gooey, drippy, fighting zombies!). The characters are fun, there is a lot of action, and most of the entertaining over-the-top buckets of splatter is saved for the final mass-fight, although the gun-fights before then are splattery as well, definitely making this amongst the top goriest Westerns out there. Plus, they have a uniquely painful way of hanging a man in these parts... Cardona does fantasy horror on evil trees, with homages to Sam Raimi. The beginning is confusing and mostly incoherent, telling a fantasy tale of a mysterious magical tree, and it promptly sets up the plot in a simple village full of human fodder (and lesbians) for the demonic trees. The evil takes many forms as the movie progresses, from tentacle trees from Evil Dead literally tearing apart the villagers, to unique tree-monsters, and a demon-hybrid with a sharp-toothed monster-penis who has some warped ideas for breeding with the human females. Men explode or are torn apart, and women are kidnapped, only to meet even more grisly splattery fates as the demons go berserk. Enter a woodsman with near-ninja hatchet skills who declares war on the demons, and now it's a proper Cardona movie. Silly, rough around the edges, but entertaining, as long as you know what you're getting into. |
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