Diana Penalver Movies

Forty-years after a group of frightened villagers convinced authorities to build the dam that would flood the village of Marinbad and drown the evil that lurks therein, a village built next to the reservoir that sits placid over the cursed ground begins to experience a series of mysterious deaths. Decades ago a curse consumed Marinbad, and as the evil threatened to expand into the surrounding land the villagers successfully lobbied to have their once-peaceful hamlet flooded in hopes of keeping the malevolent spirits contained. Two decades have passed since that fateful attempt to wash away the sins of the land, and now something unspeakable has surfaced in the waters that cover Marinbad. When numerous area people go missing and scores of citizens perish under strange circumstances on the fortieth anniversary of the dam, it begins to appear as the one who was left for dead has risen from the depths. Director Brian Yuzna teams with The Fantastic Factory to adapt an original novel by author Matthew Costello. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

This thriller is a remake of the popular Spanish 1963 version and marks the directorial debut of Jesus Mora. Ex-con Roman is on the road to reform until he gets close to thirty and has a crisis about his heretofore wasted life. He finds himself torn between the criminal temptations offered by Martin, and the sweet rewards of honesty offered by his girlfriend Marisa. Roman chooses the former and with former druggie Picas and his pregnant wife Julia, begins conspiring to help Martin rob an armored car slated to carry the spoils from a big rock concert to the bank. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Director Peter Jackson's second feature cheerfully trumps the gross-out quotient of his splatterfest debut, the appropriately named Bad Taste. The tone is cartoonishly comic, and the premise is simple: The village dweeb (Timothy Balme) is trying to maintain a budding romance with the sweet Paquita (Diana Penalver) while concealing the fact that his overbearing mum (Elizabeth Moody, in an amazing good-sport performance) is a flesh-eating zombie. (She owes her condition to a bite from a "Sumatran Rat Monkey" at the local zoo.) Complicating matters even further is Les, a greedy uncle (Ian Watkin), who suspects that his sister has died and is eager to occupy her elegantly furnished Victorian mansion. The climax is a housewarming party Les throws to celebrate his "inheritance;" what he really gets is his comeuppance, thanks to his sister and her similarly afflicted zombie pals, who burst out of their basement prison to turn the guests into appetizers. Our hero finally cuts a wide swath through the zombie party crashers with the help of a rotary blade lawn mower, leaving the house awash in blood and body parts in order to save his romance. ~ Tom Wiener, Rovi

Policemen everywhere are sometimes lampooned for their self-importance and pomposity, and it is not unusual for a particularly impudent thief to become a national hero. However, Spain's Guardia Civil in the 1960s were an unusually self-righteous lot, and the otherwise not particularly edifying real-life exploits of the young thief Eleuterio Sanchez, nicknamed "El Lute," thrilled the nation. This crime adventure drama retells his story. After being arrested for a robbery gone bad, the young thief refuses to finger his partners in crime even under torture. Despite this, they are rounded up and executed for the murder they committed while robbing a jewelry store. El Lute received a commutation from General Franco, and was on his way to prison when he escaped, eluding a nationwide manhunt for several weeks despite having a broken arm. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Fernando Rey plays a Spanish cardinal who returns to his home town thirty years after leaving for Rome. Rey knew that he'd left an illegitimate daughter behind, but was unaware that he also has a granddaughter (Victoria Abril). The girl is embroiled in an affair with Rey's own brother (Francisco Rabal), a Marxist activist. The filmmakers' sympathies are more with Marxism than Catholicism, but politics are secondary to the kinky romantic intrigues. Evidently Fernando Rey didn't consider Our Father (original Spanish title: Padre Nuestro) significant enough to list on his official, published resume. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi