FRIGHTFEST 25' - REVIEW – Where Is Juan Moctezuma?

A grainy VHS still of Juan Moctezuma—or someone playing him—mid-monologue about the cost of filmmaking and lost love.

Fact, fiction, and lucha lore collide in this bizarre faux-doc about obsession, lost cinema, and the love that got away

3 out of 5 stars

Sometimes the truth doesn’t matter—especially when the myth is this damn fun.

Playing earlier this year at FrightFest and now streaming on Fawesome and Tubi, Where Is Juan Moctezuma? is a strange, genre-blurring film from Alaric S. Rocha that mixes documentary, romantic tragedy, underground film obsession, and lucha libre flair into one earnest, deranged search for a possibly fictitious director.

That director? Juan Moctezuma—a supposed cult filmmaker who inspired everyone from Guillermo del Toro to Quentin Tarantino, made wildly obscure Mexican horror-exploitation flicks, and then disappeared without a trace. Or maybe he never existed at all.

The question isn’t whether he’s real.

It’s whether you’ll stop looking for him once the movie ends.

Cinema as Myth, Love as Obsession

At its core, this is about one man’s obsession with Juan Moctezuma’s legacy—and how that obsession folds into a deeper, more personal motive: winning back the love of his life through making art. It’s absurd. It’s sweet. It’s 100% unhinged.

Part documentary, part mockumentary, part romantic quest, Rocha’s film never lets you get too comfortable. Interviews with actual filmmakers—including Isaac Ezban, Brian Yuzna, Arturo Ripstein, Julian Richards, and even pro wrestling icon Paul Landon—give the film a strange weight. You want to believe them. You almost do. But something always feels off… and that’s the point.

There’s clear love here for Mexican horror, for lost films, for myth-making, and for the power that cinema has to pull you in and blur the line between real and fake.

Lucha Masks and Memory Holes

There’s lucha libre.

There’s romantic failure.

There’s some truly awkward and hilarious moments of indie desperation.

There’s even a running thread about obscure VHS tapes and films that may or may not have ever existed.

If you’ve ever watched a mock-doc like Spinal Tap, Incident at Loch Ness, or The Great Satan, this will feel familiar—but uniquely grounded in the underground Mexican film scene. For cinephiles, it’s impossible to sit through this without pulling out your phone and Googling whether any of it’s real. (Spoiler: That’s part of the fun.)

Final Thoughts

Where Is Juan Moctezuma? doesn’t give you answers, and honestly, it doesn’t care to. What it does offer is charm, creativity, and a weirdly romantic ode to forgotten (or maybe invented) geniuses. It’s rough around the edges, sure—but it stays with you.

If you like films that question their own reality and filmmakers who are a little too obsessed with their inspirations, you’ll find something to love here.

3 out of 5 from HMU.

You won’t find Juan Moctezuma.

But you might start looking for your own.

WHERE IS JUAN MOCTEZUMA?

Directed by Alaric S. Rocha

Now streaming on Tubi & Fawesome

Featuring: Isaac Ezban, Brian Yuzna, Arturo Ripstein, Julian Richards, Paul Landon