Synopsis
A cute, openly gay latin boy's hormones go into overdrive when his hunky cousin Angel arrives for an extended stay. The two explore the young and sometimes dangerous gay scene in the city's Latin neighborhood, with surprising outcomes.
Latin Boys Go to Hell
Cast
Director
Producer
Writers
Original Writer
Executive Producer
Composer
Studios
Country
Primary Language
Spoken Languages
Alternative Titles
ラテンボーイズ・ゴー・トゥー・ヘル, 该死的拉丁男孩, ლათინური ბიჭები ჯოჯოხეთში მიდიან
Releases by Date
Theatrical
-
USANR
Physical
23 Sep 2003
-
France
Releases by Country
France
23 Sep 2003
- Physical
USA
05 Sep 1997
- TheatricalNR
Popular reviews
More-
Dos Vidas
Finally, a movie to expose one of the big universal truths: gay men love telenovelas. Equal parts Almodovar and Wishman, all rendered in occasionally gorgeous super grainy 16mm and tacky video. Surprised this isn’t talked about more.
-
("feels ripe for rediscovery" voice) feels ripe for rediscovery, knowing "90s gay slacker giallo" would probably check a lot of boxes on some film programmer's bingo card. kinda stacked soundtrack w/John Zorn + Kevin Aviance
-
-
The title of this movie isn't an abstract proposition so much as it is a literal synopsis.
What is Hell? Here, it's the looming shadow of Dracula, prescient skeletons with dicks in their mouths, violently isolating nights at the club, yuppie photographers, jealous lovers, crucifixes, clowns, and the nagging whine of your mother saying she'll only be appreciated in death.
Just another day in the novela of life.
I've rarely been treated to films that so vividly display the intersections of queerness, Latin identity, and being an alt kid. There's a real charm here that feels deliciously familiar without sacrificing any devotion to novelas and the crazed melodrama they often employ. This movie is as indebted to Almodóvar and Pink Narcissus as it is to Araki and Videodrome.
Don't get me wrong, this movie is rough, but more people need to see this. Also, John Zorn did the music!
-
It's a gay giallo with gratuitous sexy shoots of Mike Ruiz so of course I liked it.
🏳️🌈 Queer Film Challenge 2021 Movie #16/45
🌈 Task 2. A film starring or written by Guinevere Turner -
Campy and touchingly amateurish, there is real style and heart in this sudsy melodrama about forbidden lusts and gay hook-ups. Taking place within a really specific and underrepresented cultural milieu, Ela Troyano's Latin Boys Go To Hell plays a little like Almodovar's early, punkier efforts and the grainy 16mm photography gives all the lurid color a warming glow. The acting is definitely way worse than in the master's work but, like most of the film's seeming deficits, this works in the scrappy sexed up movie's favor. In fact, it may be more likable than good by most traditional metrics but many of those old standards tend to be a little too constraining anyway. At just under 70 quick minutes, this delightful descent into debauchery deserves to be more well known, especially among fans of the New Queer Cinema movement with which it shares a lot of beautifully rude feels.
-
hahahaha how is this not talked about more. It has cult status all over it.
Gay cousin romance, sleazy hookups, horror and murder, drag shows, corny one liners. This was both super stupid an a good ass time that I'm glad I indulged in the provocative DVD cover.
Watch it for the culture.
-
a sex scene in the middle of this might be my favorite scene I've seen al year. so stylish, smarter than I expected, and just when I was about to be like, "girl, this plot.." GAG the final frame.
-
Campy and gay as fuck, but that’s what you should expect from Troyano. Latin Boys Go to Hell teeters right on the edge of New Queer Cinema and B-movie trash—something it’s well aware of. I also love the 3-second cameo of my favorite academic, José Esteban Muñoz, towards the end of the movie.
-
Wow, I loved so much about this. It's so many things; it's a 90s American indie about coming into your own sexuality and the confusion that ensues when there is no north star to follow, jaded hedonists butting heads with the romantics of the world, Catholic guilt represented by leering religious iconography. It's a movie so informed by identity and lived experiences that it feels beautifully personal, even as it spirals into telenovela and giallo-adjacent territory in its back half (the Dos Vidas intercuts and Trauma poster are as much foreshadowing as they are allusions).
Latin Boys Go To Hell is a new personal favorite in the New Queer Cinema canon that I would've never found if not for this silly little website and I think that's very cool -
the way this is such an unknown gem. it’s gay unserious and CAMP…what’s there not to love?
-
My first rewatch in 6 years!
Two things I noticed this time around: Guinevere Turner comes out in the novela the characters watch, and the movie was produced by Jürgen Brüning (Bruce LaBruce’s producer). I swear the queer film circle is TINY.