Rating: **
Review Date: 1/27/04
Cast: Phil Caracas, Jeff Moffet
An entertaining and occasionally funny spoof from Canada that concerns a recent outbreak of vampirism in Ottawa. The Church can't handle the threat on its own, so they recruit their savior, Jesus Christ (Phil Caracas), to battle the undead for them. Unfortunately, Jesus is a bit out of sorts, and decides to sport a new look by cutting his hair and piercing his ears. He also has the tendency to break into song... The undead menace proves too much for him, so he enlists the aid of legendary Mexican wrestling hero El Santo (Jeff Moffet), and the two of them eventually succeed in taking out the vampire menace. Oh yeah, there's a bizarre lesbian side plot as well. Odd stuff.
Shot on 16mm film, the production has all the charm of a campy low budget film school project. The writing is tongue-in-cheek and often rather clever, and the acting is decent enough for the material. Just seeing Jesus and Santo interacting is worth the price of admission. The action scenes and visual effects are woefully lacking, but amusing nonetheless. Apart from the strange lesbian commentary, what bothered me the most about the film was Jesus cutting his hair. He looked so good kicking ass on the beach with his long hair and robes, but after he cut it he looked just like some generic skate punk. El Santo is wonderful, and nearly all of the supporting characters are interesting in some way. If you have a taste for campy, low budget, foreign entertainment, there are far worse things you could watch.