The commercial success of Eli Roth’s Hostel has — in addition to the normal birthing of a sequel — lead
to a lot of people both scrambling to resituate developing spec scripts and locate/purchase
more of the same in lands aboard (see
Turistas) and to reposition their schlocky B-movie horror pictures as somehow of that same
grim, torture-centric ethos. While billed as “the Spanish answer to Hostel,” first-time director Martin
Garrido Barón’s H6: Diary of a Serial
Killer is actually much more of a piece with 1986’s appropriately well
regarded cult classic Henry: Portrait of
a Serial Killer or writer-director David Jacobson’s 2002 indie Dahmer, starring Jeremy Renner.
H6 centers around Antonio
Frau (Fernando Asaco), a convicted murderer who, recently freed after 25 years
in prison in the death of his girlfriend, inherits an old brothel from an aunt
he never knew. Taking this as a sign to “cleanse” the surrounding area of the women
who work the streets, Antonio embarks upon a course of ritualistic purification.
He sets up a little torture shop and meticulously records his misdeeds in bloodletting
— all while, in parallel fashion, beginning a new life with a new wife
had both a garish and darkly humorous side to ostensibly counterbalance the bleak,
unremitting torture and gore of its late second and third acts. Even if you
could in no way, shape or form feel good about yourself after it was over, it
was the story of a descent into hell. H6,
meanwhile, is less forcefully convincing in its narrative specifics, as well as
its setting. It feels cobbled together, distilled from other American genre
entries, and if the killer’s diary is an original element, it’s never quite
fully utilized to the degree that one might guess from the title. It never
offers a deeper glimpse into Antonio’s soul that might be described as
lastingly haunting. He seems withdrawn and almost taciturn — a shallow proxy of
wickedness for the audience to impress their own ideas of evil onto.
swatches of not inconsiderable psychological sway courtesy of this production
design and cinematographer Sergio Delgado’s murky palettes. While not driven by
gore to the degree many American independent and low-budget genre productions are,
diehard fans of psychopathic fare with a forgiveness or indulgence for psychological
affliction and/or foreign flicks will find in H6 some… well, enjoyment?
widescreen, with Dolby digital 5.1 surround sound and DTS surround sound 5.1 audio
tracks, H6’s special features consist
of eight minutes of interviews with director Barón and lead Asaco, plus the
movie’s theatrical trailer and a trailer gallery of other releases from
distributor Tartan. Naturally, for this Spanish flick, English subtitles are
also included, though hey, violence is universal. B- (Movie) C+ (Disc)