El Muerto (film)

Centuries ago, the Aztec Empire of Mexico was conquered by the Spanish conquistadors. Horrified by their religious practices, the Spaniards set out to convert the native population to Catholicism, effectively declaring war upon the Aztec religion. According to an ancient prophecy, the Aztecs and their religion will return to dominance in a time known as the Sixth Sun.

While attempting to illegally cross the United States-Mexico border, young orphan boy Juan Diego is singled out by a fellow traveler, a strange old man known only as "Old Indian" claiming to know the way. The old man leads the boy to an old Aztec shrine dedicated to the god of death, Mictlantecuhtli. Explaining that they must give thanks to Tezcatlipoca, the god of sacrifice, Old Indian proceeds to carve a symbol of the god in to Diego's hand. Declaring the boy's blood to be pure, the Old Indian dies in the throes of invocations of Nahuatl, abandoning the boy in the desert.

Ten years later, 21-year-old Diego has made a home for himself in East Los Angeles. He shares an apartment with his best friend Zak and is in love with Maria, niece of Padre Somera of the local mission which dates back to the Cortés era. However, Diego and Maria's relationship is strained both by his haunting encounter with Old Indian and the devout Padre's disapproval of the young man's sympathy towards Aztec beliefs and mythology. Anticipating a local Dia de los Muertos festival, Diego begins to feel the call of something powerful. He dresses as an undead Mariachi, clad in black with the traditional markings to give himself a skeletal appearance.

En route to the celebration, the forces of the Aztec underworld cause Diego's car to crash, ending his life. Diego awakens in the Aztec afterlife of Mictlan where the god of death sacrifices him to Tezcatlipoca in a ritual where his heart is torn from his chest with the aid of an obsidian blade. He is then sent back to the land of the living exactly one year after his death. Diego, selected long ago by the Old Indian, is the sacrificial priest in service to Tezcatlipoca. In order to fulfill the prophecy of the Sixth Sun, Tezcatlipoca requires three human sacrifices, each symbolizing the Catholic Church that wiped out the old gods over five hundred years ago. And Maria, being the direct descendant of the Somera family is at risk. Armed with the power to take life or restore it, Diego must struggle against the very gods who created him in order to save the woman he loves.

• Darien Dikeos as Young Juan Diego: While trying to cross the border into the states, a young Juan Diego is singled out by an old Indian man who speaks the Aztec language. The Indian man leads him to a small shrine, performs an ancient ritual, and declares the boy's blood is pure. Soon after, the man goes into convulsions and dies in the violent throes of strange mutterings and invocations.
• Billy Drago as The Old Indian/Catrina (Indio Viejo): A strange old Native American man who marks Diego with an Aztec symbol representing Tezcatlipoca and soon after dies.
• Wilmer Valderrama as Juan Diego (Diego de la Muerte / El Muerto): Ten years later, a 21-year-old Diego has made a home for himself in the Latino community of East Los Angeles. Diego has fallen in love with Maria, a young lady who is the niece of the padre of the local mission, and whose family goes back to the very first Christian missionaries to settle the southwest. However, Diego's past still haunts him and secretly dreads the thought of his destiny.
• Joel David Moore as Zak (Zak Silver): Longtime friend to Diego, who is crushed to hear of his friend's demise, but shocked to find his friend still lives as the walking-dead. Zak is the more skeptical character in the movie, often preferring logic to faith.
• Angie Cepeda as Maria Somera (Maria Hermosa): Love interest to Diego and best friend. She is descended from the first Christian missionaries from Spain to settle in the southwest, dating back to the Cortés era.
• Tony Amendola as Padre Somera: Father of the local mission and the uncle of Maria. The Padre, a very dogmatic Catholic, would often get into theological debates with Diego who was fascinated by Aztec culture and mythology. Padre Somera's disapproval of Diego placed strain on the couple's relationship.
• Tony Plana as The Caretaker (Aparicio): An older Chicano man and caretaker of the local cemetery. He befriends Diego after witnessing his powers and acts as his mentor. The character of Aparicio was the invention of director Brian Cox, which was inspired by a minor character in the original comic book. Hernandez has gone on record saying that Aparicio was his favorite character in the film.
• María Conchita Alonso as The Nun (Sister Rosa): A nun of the local mission with an abused past.
• Michael Parks as The Sheriff (Sheriff Ezra Stone): A police sheriff investigating recent murders within the Somera mission and strange occurrences surrounding Maria.
• The Aztec gods Mictlantecuhtli and Tezcatlipoca were both created through special effects. Mictlantecuhtli was made up of puppetry and other visual effects, being depicted as a giant skeletal figure and speaking entirely in Nahuatl. Tezcatlipoca's depiction was completely computer-generated with his voice supplied by Alfonso Arau (credited as "Voices"). The film also referenced Tezcatlipoca's many epithets, such as Night Drinker.

Javier Hernandez made a cameo appearance in the film in which he has a short conversation with El Muerto, credited as "Man in Costume", while co-producer Susan R. Rodgers appears in an uncredited cameo as a participant in the Dia de los Muertos festival. Rafael Navarro, longtime friend of Hernandez and fellow comic book creator had a brief cameo as a witness of a car wreck inadvertently caused by El Muerto.

DVD Covers for the film's original release as The Dead One (left) and the reissued DVD (right).

The DVD was released by Echo Bridge Entertainment on September 18, 2007.[20] Despite being titled El Muerto throughout its conception and subsequent film screenings, the original DVD release was later re-titled The Dead One, a loose-translation of El Muerto, for marketing purposes. It is currently being reissued under the film's original title.

Special features include:

• Seven original illustrations by special guest artists Michael Aushenker, Jason Martin, Rhode Montijo, Rafael Navarro, Ted Seko, Bernyce Talley, and Mort Todd
• Commentary with Director Brian Cox and Javier Hernandez
• Drawing the Dead art tutorial by Javier Hernandez
• Slide-show of the original comic book
• Day of the Dead featurette
• The Making of The Dead One
• Fun on the Set of The Dead One
• A Spanish language track
• A DVD-ROM feature

Also included within the DVD case is an exclusive collectible mini-comic created for the DVD and 2 wash-and-wear tattoos.

The premiere and subsequent film screenings created a positive response, with tickets to the film's premiere actually selling out.[23] After the film's initial DVD release, the online community had some generally mixed reviews. The film currently has a "B+" rating Yahoo! Movies.[24] JoeHorror.com praised El Muerto, calling it "a very well acted supernatural thriller, heavily steeped in Latino mysticism and gorgeously decorated with Dia de los Muertos symbolism" and summed up the movie as a "Beautiful Dia de los Muertos inspired nightmare!."[25] One review bemoaned the lack of big budget special effects but praised Billy Drago's performance as the villain.[26] While another reviewer from Film Critics United.com admired the effort placed in the film's production but thought the overall product "fell flat".[27]

On the more negative side, a review from JoBlo.com called the movie "nonsensical, ridiculous and boring in every way you don’t want your comic book adaptation to be" and gave the DVD a 1.5 out of a possible 4 rating.[28] KillerReviews.com defended the film against some of the more harsh reviews, calling it "Bland But Not Altogether Bad."[29]

• In the film, it is explained Diego crossed the U.S. border illegally from Mexico as a child. In the comic book series, Diego is in fact a natural-born citizen.
• In the comic book, the more prominent antagonist is Mictlantecuhtli. The film instead depicts a more vengeful Tezcatlipoca as the villain.
• Maria's last name in the comic book is Hermosa, while in the film it was changed to Somera in order to lend a connection with the Spanish Conquest of Mexico.
• In the comic book, Diego and Maria ended their relationship long before his death. In the film however, they never broke up.
• Shortly after becoming El Muerto, Diego decides to leave his hometown and head to Mexico in search of answers. In the film, no such trip is made.

• El Muerto
• Javier Hernandez
• List of films based on comics

• Official El Muerto Site
• El Muerto at IMDb
• El Muerto at AllMovie