The Legend of Diablo (2003) User Reviews

This is Absolutely the worst film of the Millennium

[palacchi · 1/10 · 17 September 2004]

I rented this movie because it sounded pretty interesting but to my Horror this movie was the worst movie I had ever seen! I read the comment from Gumby-8 and he has to be a part of the cast or the crew. Unless Gumby-8 is a 4 year old child or some demented cult member no one in their right mind would think that this movie had any potential at all.

I couldn't believe Gumby-8's comments.

Quoting: "From the "Dune" inspired opening animation to the quick pace...this film keeps the eye moving and works so well that repeat viewing is not unexpected."

The Animation is the only aspect of the movie that was interesting and the fact of that the film keeps the eye moving, well that's because you keep looking for any type of suspense. I mean give me a break Halloween was shot with a budget of $100,000.00 and a painted mask and also by the way became a cult classic. As far as "repeat viewing is not unexpected" I think he made a typo.

Another quote from Gumby-8 the only Fan: "The acting is also a strong aspect of the film."

With all due respect for the actors, their performance is nothing more than the respective talent of Robert Napton.

The catchy Tagline: "Beware the hour between dusk and darkness"

That's because there is no dusk or darkness in this movie.

MPAA rating "Rated R for some violence/gore"

The only gore you see is some red paint on a sheet over a dead body you never see. As far as I know it might be a clump of grass.

In summation, I have seen horror flicks from the 50's, 60's and 70's. I have seen what I thought to be the absolutely worst and some that were very good. The director of this film either did not make any attempt, was asleep, or took a hit of acid. Whatever the case I think the actors deserve applause for trying to salvage a very poor job of direction. I would give this film a rating of .5 for a 'B' movie.

A waste of film.

[FiendishDramaturgy · 1/10 · 12 September 2004]

This isn't cinema. It isn't talent. It isn't informative. It isn't scary. It isn't entertaining. It isn't anything at all.

I got this because my cousin says, "Diablo! COOL!" Yeah, right. The only thing cool about this experience was the lone fact that I didn't buy it but rented it instead.

It's shot like a bad soap opera. No wait. Soap operas at least LOOK professional...sorta. This? This looks like it was shot with someone's camcorder. It's horrid! Wretched! It sux.

The cinematography is detestable! WHO IS this director anyway? I don't even care enough to look him up. He STINKS! The performances by these poor unsuspecting actors were far better than this crap-fest deserved.

2.6/10 on the "B" scale.

That registers about a 0.3/10 on the "A" scale from...

the Fiend :.

If George Romaro had studied under Ed Wood

[mlevans · 1/10 · 12 September 2004]

The good news is a movie was made, drawing on a supposed Aztec myth and featuring an unusually Aztec-American (is such a word exists) cast. The bad news is, it was dead at birth.

If Ed Wood had come out of retirement and coached George Romaro through his classic 'Night of the Living Dead,' this is what we might have come up with. 'The Legend of Diablo' is clearly fodder for any future resurrections of 'Mystery Science Theatre 3000!'

I don't think one can even call this a 'B' movie. The production values are so abysmal that I kept getting the feeling I was watching either a lengthy skit from a variety show or a backyard 8-mm film shot by a group of school kids.

SOME SPOILERS

The basic plot line sounded interesting enough to lure me into renting it. A rural California sheriff finds a box containing an Aztec demon and accidentally unleashes it on the unsuspecting community. His daughters, one hot and one homely, team with a gringo FBI man and a priest, to try to re-cage the demon.

Meanwhile, every zombie scene one has ever seen in previous undead movies is re-enacted-poorly. These zombies walk more like an army of Nutty Professors than the undead! The supposed infrared scenes from the demon's viewpoint are nothing special … and he/she/it sure seems to back up a lot (as opposed to turning around the moving forward). And the scene where the priest lures the demon out of the cave in fast-motion is ludicrous! It really, really appears to be done for comic effect-although I know it wasn't! I kept expecting the Benny Hill theme music to start playing & for the whole gang of zombies to start chasing the priest all over the beach!

Of course the Darth Vader/Field of Dreams voice, calling the FBI agent becomes downright comical. Then again, so was most of this cheese ball! Robert Napton, director and writer of the screenplay, should win SOMEthing for this effort! (How about a lifetime blackballing, like the 'Hollywood 10?') This one, I now see, is rated 1.5 on a 10-scale. I fear this might be a tad generous!

Is there anything good about this movie? Well, Lindsey Lofaso looks pretty hot as the younger daughter of the dead sheriff. This is probably why her homely older sister (Calvi Pabon) really ran away from home! Fred Estrado is reasonably decent as the FBI agent. I wonder if Mario Soto, who played Father Rodriguez, is the same Mario Soto who pitched for the Cincinnati Reds? If so, he should have stuck to baseball. In fact, they couldn't have done any worse if they had gone with a baseball theme and called it 'Demons in the Outfield!'

If I find out this was actually a project for a community college cinema class, I will issue apologies. It might be good enough for a B or even B+ as long as the gang got the college's camcorder back to campus in one piece! 'The Blair Witch Project' proved that a cool, campy movie could be made on a shoestring. 'The Legend of Diablo,' though, didn't appear to have a shoestring OR shoes to work from! It was low-budget, low-talent, low-everything. The very final scene-and I mean about the final 10 seconds of the film-is the ONLY mildly creative or interesting moment.

I paid $3.45 to rent this. I could have better spent it on a hamburger!

Don't waste your time

[wingedcobra · 2 December 2004]

So I rented this with low expectations. After watching it, even those weren't met.

The movie looked like it was shot on a camcorder in broad daylight at some friend's house. Oh, there are scene at a beach were people run in and out of a cave.

The make up looks like they poured hot wax over the actors faces.

I dunno, I feel sorry for the actors because some of them looked like they were really trying.

No creature effects though...the demon only 'possesses' people a 'la Exorcist.

bout this AWFUL "Movie"

[GothicBaby8907 · 1/10 · 2 August 2008]

me, my boyfriend, and our friend watched this "movie" if thats what u wanna call it, and we agree with the last person, but we were stupid and bought the damn thing, we thought it really was about diablo so we bought it.

we hate it Really SUXZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so beware: DO NOT BUY THIS THING THEY CALL A MOVIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

we would return it, but don't no if anybody would want this stupid movie.

oh and another thing, the shouldn't call it "The Legend of Diablo" they should of called it "Legend of Azar".

and this movie is rated R????? this should not of even been not rated.

we think that diablo would be crying his eyes out laughing at this stupid movie.

this is a movie that would have been done by a Church.

theses "actors" are never gonna become nothing because this movie.

Absolutely horrendous piece of garbage.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 2/10 · 9 May 2006]

The small California town of Diablo is plagued with mysterious deaths after sheriff Robert Lopez unearths an ancient box.Legend has it that the box holds the sixteenth-century Mexican demon named Azar.FBI agent Gil Vega is sent to investigate the murders and joins forces with the sheriff's daughters,Dominique and Mary to fight with evil and bloodthirsty demon."The Legend of Diablo" is an absolute garbage.The film lacks scares and gore,the acting is amateurish and the direction is bad.The animation is the only one aspect of the film I enjoyed.I'm a big fan of indie horror flicks,for example I loved "Torched","Live Feed","Bone Sickness" or "Neighborhood Watch",unfortunately "The Legend of Diablo" is a huge misfire.Definitely one to avoid.

Next Subject for International War Crimes Tribunal...

[junk-186 · 1/10 · 2 September 2006]

This may be one of the worst movies to ever make it to production, ever.

1. The most exciting part is the beginning, where the guy is walking... and walking... and walking (spoiler). There is about 15 minutes of just walking. How?

2. Not to mention there's a lot of issues with the lighting, and it's almost like they even shot the night scenes during the day.

3. The acting was TERRIBLE. It looks like they found a community theater (in Mexico)... and then took the people who were turned away.

Please, for the love of everything holy, don't rent this movie. If you know someone who owns it, apologize to them. The director should be subject to punishment through the war crimes tribunal for foisting this on the public.

Intentional Fraud

[fagdamager · 1/10 · 28 May 2017]

If you're reading this review it's already too late. You've been duped by the distributor into thinking this is a real movie, which, as you should be aware, this most certainly isn't. This must have been Robert Napton's pet project. He probably always wanted to direct a movie and thought he might give it a go. While that's all well and good for him and the nice people he paid to shoot this during a rain free weekend, it simply isn't a real movie.

If you're one of the few people here bothering to look at this page without having experienced this first hand, you may be wondering, "how is this not a 'real movie', exactly?"

Oh, let us count the ways.

The most striking absence is in the lighting department. By that I mean they didn't have one. Every single shot is flat. Everything is evenly lit, at all times. It's the visual equivalent of Nyquil. I wouldn't be surprised if Napton himself just wandered around with a camera, picked a random bush to stand by, and yelled "action!"

Speaking of bushes, I suspect this was filmed in and around his own home. The entire film's events take place within a few acres of the Lopez estate with the same four or five locations reused over and over again. It's probably all they had to work with.

The acting is amateurish, as well. I'm not trying to sound like a jerk, I mean they were literal amateurs doing their best in this pretend movie. The only noteworthy performance was Giovanni Lopes as the priest. I wouldn't call it good acting, but he was the only remotely human thing about this mess.

And it is a mess, but that doesn't mean I want to slam it as some travesty against the medium. All it ever wanted to be was a horror fan's attempt at making their own horror movie. Good for him, he went out and got something done, even if it sucks, it's more than I can say.

But this should never have gotten a real release. In the same way you strumming on a guitar pretending to be Bob Dylan shouldn't have it's own vinyl. This is a scam, plain and simple. This company spent basically zero dollars getting the rights so that they could slap a nice looking cover on what they knew wasn't a proper film just to cheat you out of your money. Well, sucks for you guys, I got this at Goodwill.

Devil in a box

[nogodnomasters · 1/10 · 19 March 2018]

This is a Christian based movie that is all around bad. It starts off with a pseudo-history of the Aztecs. The demon Azar has been locked in a light weight box with a 20th century lock since the 16th century. His eye symbol looks like a 50's wallpaper design. He is now loose in the 20th century and create zombie fighters who are more like zombie hippies. A skeptic FBI man is chasing everything down, and because he is a skeptic everyone is a little snarky with him. The acting was very bad as was the script. Special affects include makeup and placing a filter lens on a camera and shaking it around. It may be fun to watched stone, but I wouldn't try it.

The R rating was really confusing. No bad language, no sex, no nudity. No real blood or gore...oh wait wasn't that a body missing a head? Looks like it was filmed in super VHS. I'm surprised it was in color.

Best movie of all time

[supera-90247 · 10/10 · 9 May 2022]

Distractible is good podcast. I like distractible. Go listen to distractible. They showed me this film, and I had a spiritual awakening. Thank you distractible for showing me this. The part where the Mexican Zombies are tearing a car apart is cinematic gold. The music is great too.

Simply Incredible. So bad it's good. Distractible.

[Dragfinn · 10/10 · 8 April 2023]

This is a college made film or something. It was surprising especially being made in early 2000's how good the special effects, the makeup, costume really are. They really find their footing in the second act.

Once you've invested a little bit of time, you will wish to see the end of it. Once the second act starts you will end up finishing it.

The movie will shock you as how satisfying it actually was.

Best experienced with friends, the more, the merrier.

You will certainly enjoy it with friends. CERTAINLY.

You should go listen to Distractible. Episode is "So bad it's good".

The review is by Wade Barnes.

a horror film for those tired of all the rest...

[gumby-8 · 10/10 · 3 May 2004]

"DIABLO" is a fun flick with many layers and a story that pays homage to comic books.

From the "Dune" inspired opening animation to the quick pace...this film keeps the eye moving and works so well that repeat viewing is not unexpected.

The acting is also a strong aspect of the film. It is nice to see non-stereotypes to tell a story with Mexican origins.

Don't forget to listen to the filmmaker's commentary track...the director (Napton) and DP (Fredericks) make it a fun listen with behind the scene stories and exact explanation for production techniques.