promptly moves his two daugh- ters and expectant wife into the hideously run-down dwelling. Naturally, it happens to be the very spot where an evil witch met her fiery end and swore revenge many years ago, and her cursed possessions (including a sinister doll) are lying in wait, ripe for re- trieval. Luckily for the family, older daughter Paulina (Gabriela Hassel) has brought her boy- friend Julio (singing star Pedro Fernandez) along for the ride; he is quite knowledgeable when it comes to blessed artifacts and the counter-balancing powers of good.
It’s a standard haunting: doll “befriends” little girl, walls and portraits bleed, food rots in the fridge, and the evidence is always gone when someone else looks; and one gets the impression fairly quickly that nothing utterly devastating is actually going to happen, despite a huge over- emphasis on closeups of the doll’s eyes shifting to a piano glissando. On the other hand, director Cardona (who cam- eos under the pseudonym “Al Coster”) displays plenty of low- budget skill and enthusiasm when it comes to furniture-toss- ing poltergeist activity, and the characters are a likable lot. VACATION OF TERROR is the weakest film in this collection, but things pick up very quickly on Disc 1’s flip side with the ex- tremely loose sequel, directed by Pedro Galindo III, producer of the original and yet another veteran of a hugely busy Mexican film family (though quite as prolific as the Cardonas, the works of the various Galindos rarely received Stateside exposure—though they certainly rated equal attention). So removed is Vacaciones de Ter- ror 2: Cumpleanos Diabolico from the first entry that this writer first enjoyed it (sans translation of any kind) as a stand-alone
One of the friendly rubbery faces you’ll meet in VACATION OF TERROR 2.
feature under the title Pesadilla Sangrienta (“Bloody Nightmare”) without a clue that anything was missing. BCI, understandably, settles for VACATION OF TERROR 2 (the two films were previously released by the label as a “Crypt of Terror” double feature). Pedro Fernandez is back as Julio, but without Paulina in tow—he’s now a florist looking to make an im- pression on Mayra, played by fel- low pop star Tatiana, who, unlike Fernandez, is indulged with an actual musical number (“Chicos, Chicos, Chicos”). Mayra is the daughter of famous filmmaker Roberto Montage (Joaquin Cordero), and she’s entertaining at her kid sister’s birthday/Hallow- een party on the set of his latest film that very night. But Julio finds himself with more than Mayra to worry about when he catches a glimpse of the doll from the previous film (on its way to being used as a prop). Thankfully, the lackluster doll appears as such only briefly—it isn’t long before it gobbles up some bloodied birthday cake and transmogrifies into a snarling
demon-monster (no longer reluc- tant to actually tear someone’s throat out), eventually trapping little sister Tania (Renata del Rio) in another dimension (her scream- ing face still visible on one of the valuable coins her father had given her as a present) and obli- gating Julio and Mayra to rescue her before sunrise, or else. Sur- real set pieces abound (skepti- cism in the supernatural is reasonably refuted with the un- forgettable line “How do you ex- plain that it turned you into a sugar figure?”), the film-studio set is exploited to its full poten- tial, and it doesn’t matter if the monster makeup is a bit over- stated and rubbery, because the film itself is nothing less than a full-fledged Halloween party that frankly sweeps its predecessor under the rug. Various release dates have been attributed to this production, but the end titles of the print on display set it as 1989. The one non-supernatural film in the set appears on Side A of Disc 2. 1990’s Trampa Infer- nal, now known as HELL’S TRAP, was also directed by Pedro
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