in

H6:DIARY OF A SERIAL KILLER

H6

H6: Diary of a Serial Killer is the directorial debut of 25 year old Spaniard, Martín Garrido Barón. The film opens with Antonio Frau (Fernando Acaso) beating and strangling his girlfriend to death during a violent domestic dispute, shown before the beginning credits.

The story truly begins years later when Antonio is released from prison and visits his family solicitor to claim his deceased aunt’s “guesthouse” (ironically named Paradise Guesthouse) left to him as the only remaining member of his family . This guesthouse is now closed and run down as it was actually being run as a brothel.

Antonio moves into the property and starts “doing it up”… a lick of paint here, some new furniture there, oh and of course lining the walls of room number 6 with plastic sheeting, bringing in a work bench with useful tools including a chainsaw! All this is shown while his internal monologue describes how he intends to write a diary and “leave evidence of his intentions” so that future generations can “understand his mission.” His dialogue continues, describing how as a teenager he read the biography of French murderer Henri Landru, how he had admiration for his crimes and his meticulous diary, then maligning the efforts of Jack the Ripper and Charles Manson as weak in comparison! Yes you’ve got it (if the title didn’t already give it away), our friend Antonio is a sandwich short of a picnic and only has one thing on his mind.

The film now skips forward to Antonio marrying his new wife, Francisca (María José Bausá), which seems to be very much be a marriage of sympathy and convenience on her part. After years of writing to Antonio during his prison sentence, Francisca found the prospect of marriage to be the easiest way out of her situation, but still continues to have an affair with a doctor in the hospital where she works, meaning “working night shifts” an awful lot. This of course suits Antonio who begins to put his murderous plans into action.

Antonio’s first victim is a young Valencian backpacker who had occasionally squatted in the building when it stood empty. Antonio invites him down from his hiding place to partake in food and wine, a grave mistake on the backpackers part as mid meal he falls to the floor gagging and writhing in pain from the poison that Antonio has watched him gorge upon.

Antonio’s further victims include a prostitute, a drug addict and a pimp who he seems to dispose of in a manner of self righteous delight, as he like the Blues Brothers before him, seems to think he is on a mission from God! We’re treated to him tormenting and raping the women while they’re strapped down to his workbench, before getting to put his chainsaw to good use, although it has to be said that very little of this is actually that explicit especially when compared to many other genre films. The clothes of both parties are kept on during the rape scenes and we see more of the effect of the sawing from the blood splatter and the aftermath rather than any of the actual cutting and carnage itself.

In scenes reminiscent of Eric Stanze’s Scrapbook, we find Antonio taking Polaroid’s of his victims and sticking alongside the psychopathic babble contained within in his diary, as his internal monologue boasts delusions of grandeur about how famous he’ll become, that books would be written and films would be made about him. This is of course intentionally ironic. The film also contains some darkly comedic qualities such as when the unsuspecting Francisca is fed the remains of one of the victims as part of her fried breakfast as she compliments Antonio on his cooking skills!

H6 is not a film for everyone, certainly for those looking solely for out and out hardcore blood drenched shocks it may disappoint… and I have to admit, while not wanting to sound like nothing more than a salivating blood thirsty gorehound, the film may have benefited far more from being more explicit in its “shock” scenes. While it wasn’t my kind of film, to it’s credit H6 is beautifully shot with some immediately standout and stylish cinematography, it’s well acted, especially considering that the cast is primarily made up of first timers and although in places it maybe bares a passing resemblance to other films such as American Psycho or Hostel it still has a style of its own.

The official website for H6 can be found here.

H6 5

On general release from Monday 12th of February in the UK, Tartan Video have once again done a top notch release in terms of quality here. The film is presented in perfect anomorphic widescreen with the Spanish language track in Dobly Digital 5.1 Surround, DTS 5.1 Surround and Dolby 2.0 Stereo options, and removable English subtitles.

Tartan have also released H6 on Region 1 DVD with the same extra features, available here.

Special Features include:
Press Conference
Fernando Acaso Interview
Martin Garrido Interview
Alejo Sauras Interview
Teaser
Trailer

Checkout more Tartan Video DVD releases here.

Mitchell Wells

Founder and Editor in Chief of Horror Society. Self proclaimed Horror Movie Freak, Tech Geek, love indie films and all around nice kinda guy!!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.