Mexploitation

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Film genre

title: "Mexploitation" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["cinema-of-mexico", "culture-of-mexico", "exploitation-films", "films-about-mexican-drug-cartels", "film-genres-particular-to-the-united-states"] description: "Film genre" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexploitation" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Film genre ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/El_Mariachi_01.jpg" caption="''[[El Mariachi]]'' (1992) is a noted Mexplotiation film"] ::

Mexploitation (sometimes called Cabrito Western or Mexican video-home) is a film genre of low-budget films that combine elements of an exploitation film and Mexican culture or portrayals of Mexican life within Mexico often dealing with crime, drug trafficking, money and sex.

Mexican narco-cinema

The Mexican narco-cine (Spanish for narco-cinema) or narco-películas (Spanish for narco-films/narco-movies), are a subgenre of the Mexploitation style films, focused solely on the violence and luxurious lives of drug lords and cartels. The title and the storyline of these films are usually inspired by popular narco corridos (drug ballads, drug songs), and are marketed as low budget tie-in merchandising to the narcocorrido songs. Sometimes these films feature famous narco-corrido singers on them, and are rumored to be financed by drug lords themselves. However, only a few such cases have been proven.

Common qualities

Mexploitation movies made in the 1960s and 1970s in Mexico were closer to their American exploitation film counterparts, with low-budget science-fiction films that often starred Mexican professional wrestlers (or luchadores) such as El Santo and Huracan Ramirez.

In the early 1980s and 1990s there was a notable change with films increasingly dealing with real-life issues such as drug cartels and the murders of their rivals. Notable actors in these films include Mario Almada, Hugo Stiglitz, Sergio Goyri, Valentin Trujillo, Jorge Reynoso, Rodolfo de Anda, Fernando Almada, Rosa Gloria Chagoyán and David Reynoso.

The director Robert Rodriguez has been considered a pioneer of Mexploitation in the United States. His first film, El Mariachi, contains many Mexploitation elements and his 2007 film, Planet Terror, contained a fake trailer which developed into a feature film called Machete (2010), which contains many familiar elements of the genre.

K. Gordon Murray

Exploitation film producer and distributor named K. Gordon Murray acquired a unique collection of horror films in Mexico which began to appear on American late-night television and drive-in screens in the 1960s. Ranging from monster movies clearly owing to the heyday of Universal Studios, to the lucha libre horror films featuring El Santo and the "Wrestling Women" alongside the 1959 Christmas classic "Santa Claus", these low-budget films are still notably campy and inspired a small cult following.

References

References

  1. (12 November 2013 }}
    - {{cite web). "Pistoleros famosos revela la identidad regional". Milenio.
  2. (10 June 2014). "Sangre, apuros y chingadazos: ¡viva el videohome mexicano!". VICE.
  3. (29 March 2010). "Mexican Narco Cinema - VICE - México". VICE.
  4. (11 August 2015). "El Universal - Espectáculos - Millones de latinos compran narcopelículas". El Universal.
  5. (23 April 2015). "Narco Cinema". Springer }}
    - {{cite web    .
  6. "BBC Mundo - Noticias - México: la violencia del narco, al cine".
  7. Micaela Arroyo. (22 April 2014 }}
    -{{cite web). "Tijuana, la meca del 'narcocine'". Milenio.
  8. (18 January 2017). "Actué en una película de 'narcotraficantes'".
  9. (18 June 2013). "Fabián López - IMDbPro}}
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  10. Alex Tieleman. (25 September 2011). "Alfredo Ríos, "El Komander", la voz de los narcocorridos mexicanos".
  11. (3 September 2015). "El Universal - Espectáculos - 'Narcos fueron actores'". El Universal}}
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  12. Rashotte, Ryan. (2015-04-23). "Narco Cinema: Sex, Drugs, and Banda Music in Mexico's B-Filmography". Springer.
  13. Conway, Christopher. (2019-12-15). "Heroes of the Borderlands: The Western in Mexican Film, Comics, and Music". University of New Mexico Press.
  14. Rohrer, Seraina. (2017-12-20). "La India María: Mexploitation and the Films of María Elena Velasco". University of Texas Press.
  15. Mora, Carl J.. (2015-05-07). "Mexican Cinema: Reflections of a Society, 1896-2004, 3d ed.". McFarland.
  16. Aldama, Frederick Luis. (2015-03-15). "Critical Approaches to the Films of Robert Rodriguez". University of Texas Press.
  17. Senn, Bryan. (2019-02-28). ""Twice the Thrills! Twice the Chills!": Horror and Science Fiction Double Features, 1955-1974". McFarland.
  18. (2005). "Horror International". Wayne State University Press.
  19. Greene, Doyle. (2015-01-28). "Mexploitation Cinema: A Critical History of Mexican Vampire, Wrestler, Ape-Man and Similar Films, 1957-1977". McFarland.
  20. Cotter, Robert Michael “Bobb”. (2015-06-14). "The Mexican Masked Wrestler and Monster Filmography". McFarland.
  21. Craig, Rob. (2019-02-15). "American International Pictures: A Comprehensive Filmography". McFarland.

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cinema-of-mexicoculture-of-mexicoexploitation-filmsfilms-about-mexican-drug-cartelsfilm-genres-particular-to-the-united-states