El Infierno follows the story of Benny Garcia (Damián Alcázar), a man who leaves his mother and younger brother to emigrate to the United States. Twenty years later, we meet Benny as he’s being deported back to Mexico. “Please move along,” says the American border guard. “And never come back.” From the land of opportunity to his gang-torn homeland, Benny comes back to find that things have changed. His brother had become, before his untimely demise, a big time dealer known as El Diablo, married a smoking hot prostitute and had a son. With a sense of debt to the brother he left behind and couldn’t keep on the straight and narrow, Benny tries to pick up the pieces and take care of his brother’s family. He soon gets far more than he bargained for. Aside from the obvious perks — sexing up his brother’s old lady, becoming a father figure to the boy — there isn’t much left in his hometown. If you want to make money, you deal drugs for Don Jose Reyes, the local kingpin. Caught up in his desire to provide for his newly acquired family unit, Benny takes to dealing. And that’s where things begin to accelerate significantly.
If some of this sounds familiar, don’t be surprised. There isn’t a whole lot that’s new about Benny’s story. He gets involved, reluctantly, with the drug trade and quickly excels. Then he gets a little greedy and begins having to pay the price in blood. Alright, so I can see the Scarface comparison, but only in broad thematic brush strokes. What El Infierno does that’s unique is that it maintains an incredible amount of style and flair. Memorable supporting characters, including Benny’s friend El Cochiloco (Joaquin Cosio), provide color for an otherwise drab, dust-covered landscape. Be it intentional or unintentional — it’s difficult to tell, as the story is delivered completely void of irony — it’s a very funny film. Then it becomes a very violent film. Then it becomes a very, very, very violent film. Then the shooting starts, if you can believe such a thing.
Carried by humor and charisma early on, Estrada’s film ultimately explodes with a blood bath of a drug cartel turf war. No man is left unscathed, no death is unearned and it all pays off with big moments in the final act. Long by at least 15 minutes or so, the film pays its audience back for a slow start by unleashing the grim, hellish fury of Mexico’s gangland conflicts. The turn can be jarring, as the film flips quickly from funny and slow to extreme violence, but in the end it’s plenty entertaining, leaving the audience to believe that it has lived up to its original name, El Infierno (“Hell”).
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