Watching Bingo Hell was like being taken back to my childhood. Dusty and cigarette smoke-filled bingo halls, with gray haired couples talking loudly with one another across the room. Too many Virgin de Guadalupe and/or St. Jude candles on every table to the point that it could be a fire hazard. A certain kind of laughter and joy mixed with exasperation as someone called out “BINGO!” signaling the game’s end. Childhood in a nutshell…minus the greed-loving demon. I mention that, because I don’t think you’ll be getting a “non-biased” review out of me. I’m hella biased on this.

Bingo Hell fucking rules.

Not even because it’s a movie with a baddass Latina main character, directed and co-written by another badass Latina. It’s just a fun movie and I think we all could do with more fun movies.

Bingo Hell follows Lupita (Adriana Barraza), an older Latina who loves her neighborhood more than anything in the world. She fought to keep it a good place to live, and she’s fiercely loyal and defensive of it. Unfortunately, more and more local businesses and homeowners have to move and close up show and everything around her is changing. Lupita is at the end of her rope. All she has left is her close friends and her bingo hall. And when that suddenly changes from a community run hall to something that feels like a corporate/hell version of its former self, Lupita knows something is wrong and she’s going to get to the bottom of it.

Based on the premise alone, I was already excited. We don’t really see a lot of big budget horror movies with a Latin main character, let alone older characters who aren’t in their teens to mid-thirties. And the way Hollywood portrays older Latinas? Creo que no.

When an older Latina woman is put on the screen in a big budget movie, she is usually typecast as a poor/sad maid, the overly religious abuela, or the quiet older woman who suffers in silence. But watching the opening moments of Bingo Hell and seeing how Adriana Barraza’s Lupita interacts with those around her felt like the first time I’ve seen an authentic portrayal of the most influential women in my life.

Lupita smokes, curses, and sometimes she’s so blunt that it pisses people off. She isn’t a mean person; she’s just older and a little crotchety…but she cares about her people. She never comes across as a one-dimensional character, and that’s where Bingo Hell soars. All the characters are fleshed out, some more than other obviously, but you get visual clues and light-exposition that helps develop everyone from the man whose death the movie opens with to the film's main villain, Mr. Big (Richard Brake).

Speaking of the characters, one of my favorite things about Bingo Hell is how it highlights the love between a tight knit community, and that’s helped exponentially by the talented actors who makeup Lupita’s community. Whether it’s the neighborhood hairdresser Yolanda (Bertila Damas) and her un-handyman friend Morris (Clayton Landey) playfully flirting with one another, or the way Lupita and her best friend Delores (L. Scott Caldwell) go back and forth but with love for another like two best friends who have known been through some shit together during their long friendship. Each actor brings their a-game and helps to keep you immersed in the world of the movie.

I think anyone that has been a fan of Luchagore Productions/Gigi Saul Guerrero’s past work knows that there will always be good character building, but with that comes the other area that they excel in: over the top gore! I won’t be giving any spoilers, but I will say that because of the excellent character work set up early in the film, deaths (and the practical gore effects that accompany them) hit a lot harder. Especially one of the extra bloody deaths that has a devastating effect on our characters throughout the remainder of the film.

Beyond gore, the characters, and acting, the entirety of Bingo Hell is superb. Everything from the way the film is shot and directed, to the set design and costuming, and especially the editing, feel like they were handled with love and a great attention to detail. You can tell that people who worked on this wanted to do their best, and they succeed. Whereas a lot of movies nowadays rely on shocks that really only work the first time you watch them, Bingo Hell feels like the kind of movie you’d want to watch again right after you just finish it.

Gigi Saul Guerrero’s Bingo Hell is the perfect love letter to gory B movies, older people who get shit done, and the power of community.