Hell (2010 film)

El Infierno (English: Hell) is a 2010 Mexican black comedy crime drama film produced by Bandidos Films, directed by Luis Estrada and following the line of La ley de Herodes. The film is a political satire about drug trafficking, organized crime, and the Mexican Drug War. It has been a critical and commercial success in Mexico and was nominated for the 25th Goya Awards for Best Spanish Language Foreign Film.

El Infierno
Mexican poster
Directed byLuis Estrada
Produced byLuis Estrada
Written by
  • Luis Estrada
  • Jaime Sampietro
Starring
Music byMichael Brook
CinematographyDamian Garcia
Distributed byBandidos Films
Release date
  • September 3, 2010 (2010-09-03)
Running time
145 minutes
CountryMexico
LanguageSpanish

El Infierno is rated NC-17 by the MPAA for some graphic violence and explicit sexual content.[1] In Australia, the movie is rated MA-15+.

Plot

The story begins with Benjamin García, nicknamed as "Benny", says farewell to his mother and younger brother to migrate to the United States. 20 years later he is deported back to Mexico, where finds a bleak reality where an economic crisis and a wave of crime and violence hit the country as a result of the War on Drugs.

His mother and godfather tell Benny his younger brother was killed on strange circumstances, leaving his wife and a son; not too long after Benny meets them and feels attracted towards the widow Guadalupe Solís, and makes a promise in front of his brother's grave to help her and his nephew. Some time later he meets his childhood friend Eufemio "El Cochiloco" Mata, who has become part of a drug cartel. Talking about it he finds out his brother worked along with him in the "Los Reyes del Norte" cartel, and was known as Pedro "El Diablo" García, but he was killed by the rival cartel "Los Panchos".

Days later, Benny, now in a relationship with Guadalupe, finds himself in trouble after knowing his nephew was arrested for robbery and will only walk free with a bribe of 50,000 pesos. Benny asks Cochiloco for help and accepts joining the cartel, where he meets the boss, Don José Reyes and his son Jesús "El J.R." Reyes. He's accepted not before being reminded about the rules: Honesty, loyalty, and absolute silence. Benny seems content, but after witnessing the torture and killing of "La Cucaracha", who was a whistleblower for the federal police, he starts to doubt himself in front of the horrors he must commit. In spite of that, Guadalupe convinces him to stay, claiming they would get used to anything except starvation.

After this, Benny starts to adapt and progress, but soon the rival cartel grows stronger and begins a major dispute, for which Los Reyes employ ex-military mercenaries as new members. J.R. divides them in three groups and gives them separate missions.

Soon Benny receives a call from Cochiloco saying he's in trouble. Someone had betrayed them and told the rival cartel their location, and J.R. was killed in the ambush since he was having sex with two of the mercenaries. Since J.R. was probably hiding his homosexuality from his father, Cochiloco decided to lie to Don José about his death, which causes him to doubt the loyalty of his subordinate. The day of the funeral, Don José looks at Cochiloco with distrust and resentment, who he believes is the culprit of his son's death. He then orders another member known as "El Sargento" to kill Cochiloco's eldest son. The latter, filled with rage, goes against Don José for revenge, but dies off screen in his attempt.

After all this, Don José offers the remaining members a large reward to kill his brother Don Francisco "Pancho" Reyes, his nephews Los Panchos, and whoever gave the location of his son's squad. They slaughter the rival cartel, and discover the traitor was a young man from the same town: Benjamin "El Diablito" García, Benny's nephew, but the other members don't recognize. Angry and nervous, Benny questions his nephew about his reasons, who between tears confesses he did it because he found out it was Los Reyes who killed his father and shows the gold chain he always wore, the one Benny gifted him when he left for the United States.

Benny, with more questions than before, begins to search for the truth, and interrogates his partner "El Huasteco" and he reveals the truth at gunpoint: Don José personally tortured and killed Pedro by castrating him as he had slept with Don Jose's wife. Between laughs and rage he realizes the other members do know his nephew, and it was a matter of time before they found out about his involvement in the ambush. Benny muzzles Huasteco and goes back to take his nephew to safety and get him out of the country. But on the way back Benny receives a call from Guadalupe warning him Los Reyes already know what's going on and urges him to abandon the town. Benny resorts to the federal police to testify against Don José for protection, but all too soon he realizes they're involved with Los Reyes as well. After being tortured he attempts to save himself from being brought to Don José by bribing to policemen who let him escape, offering them money and drugs.

When they arrive at his brother's grave, Benny shows the policemen the bribe, which was hidden in a small niche on the grave. But as they are distracted, Benny takes out a gun to shoot the agents, however, he misses and one of them shoots back. Benny is left for dead and buried in a shallow grave next to his brother's, knowing Don José had ordered them to bring Benny alive for punishment. The morning after, Benny wakes up and gets out of the grave just to find out Guadalupe had been murdered. Badly hurt, he decides to get away to recover.

Months later, Don José becomes the county governor, and Benny decides to kill of Los Reyes while they celebrate Independence Day, mowing them down with an AK-47, wiping out the cartel.

In an extra scene only available in the DVD and Blu-ray editions, Benny is at his brother's and Guadalupe's graves, saying farewell to them and that he's going to Arizona to make a new life with his nephew. Before leaving, an unknown young man goes up to him to ask for a cigarette, and after a few words he reveals he's Don Francisco's grandson, before taking out a gun and shooting down Benny.

The final scene shows Diablito in front of the three graves, crossing himself with a smile on his face, and leaving in his van to later arrive in a drug warehouse to kill Don Francisco's grandson.

Cast

Awards

References
  1. "Search Results [El Infierno]". filmRatings.com. MPAA. Archived from the original on 2013-12-05. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  2. "Festival Internacional del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano" (in Spanish). Habanafilmfestival.com. Retrieved 2016-08-10.
  3. "San Diego Latino Film Festival (2012)". IMDb.
  4. Archived 2014-07-28 at the Wayback Machine
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