Perdita Durango

There comes a point with S&V when disgusting is no longer a joke. Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez passed the puke barrier in From Dusk Till Dawn. Spanish goremeister, Álex de la Iglesia, goes beyond. He treats torture as a turn on.

Perdita (Rosie Perez) is a bullet-sized Mexican devilette, who hangs out with a grave-robbing, voodoo-chanting, bank-robbing maniac, called Romeo (Javier Bardem). Together they kidnap two white middle-class American kids (Harley Cross and Aimee Graham), handcuff, rape and abuse them in preparation for human sacrifice.

At the same time, they drive a refrigerated truck, full of human foetuses, to Las Vegas for the Mob, while a bad tempered FBI agent (James Gandolfini) follows, fuming. Romeo dresses heavy metal. Perdita wears skimpy tank tops. Guns are phallic. Ditto cacti. Killing becomes so commonplace, screams from the teenagers have more shock value. It's all good fun for the late, late crowd. Except it's not. The gratutious violence sickens. The grandstand sex is faked. Bonnie And Clyde Go Tex Mex? In your nightmares.