Maya (1989)

Maya (1989). 1h 40m

“More late eighties Italian horror from the director of Spectres! This time, absolute jerk Peter is some American ex-pat slob working in a bar, sleeping with a local gas station attendant, and gambling his money away on some strange finger wrestling matches (where one guy gets his finger torn off!) when his mate Solomon (600 year old William Berger) gets mysteriously murdered at some Mayan temple. Solomonu0026#39;s daughter turns up looking for answers and Peter gives it about five minutes for her to mourn before he starts hitting on her, the douchebag.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eJust in case you donu0026#39;t think heu0026#39;s an a**hole, Peter also hits on his bosses wife (the stunning Mirrela Du0026#39;Angelo) whou0026#39;s having an affair with some guy, and goes deep sea diving while wearing headphones and chewing gum. Two redneck muppets turn up to get drunk and try and rape Peteru0026#39;s girlfriend, which results in some supernatural force turning up and killing both of them in typical twilight era Italian horror film style.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSolomonu0026#39;s daughteru0026#39;s a bit curious as to why these two guys have the same wounds as her Dad, but the local doctoru0026#39;s giving her the brush off. Around this time she finds out the local legend of some spirit who tried to wipe out the local tribe with the help of the God of death, but got thwarted and vowed to come back. Has this demon returned? Peteru0026#39;s girlfriend catches Peter (the fud) getting lovey-dubby with Solomonu0026#39;s daughter and goes a bit mental, trashing Peteru0026#39;s apartment but then getting herself killed rather graphically in her bath. The local police donu0026#39;t seem to be too bothered though as Peter isnu0026#39;t even a suspect and just goes about his daily business. Oh – I forgot to mention the creepy kid that turns up to frighten the crap out of people, and that looking in a mirror in this film means death. And that guy that pukes up snakes.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIt takes about an hour of the film before anybody starts trying to unravel the mystery, but you wonu0026#39;t be bored as the demon works itu0026#39;s way through the cast, where people are pierced through the mouth with steel poles, have their faces torn to shreds, have their nose split open (eww), get lifted of the ground by hooks and generally meet fates that anyone appearing in a late eighties Italian film generally meet. Thereu0026#39;s also plenty of female flesh on display, but I could have done without the two attempted rapes, thanks.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSo, yet another late eighties gore/boobs film thatu0026#39;s pretty good. Nice, non-sensical ending too, as per the norm for this kind of film.”