The new documentary from Alaric S. Rocha, “Where is Juan Moctezuma?,” asks a question most of us would never have considered—and a good thing, too, as it turns out the answer is more surprising than anyone could have imagined.
“Where is Juan Moctezuma?” debuted this past weekend at London’s FrightFest 2205. The film is a passion project of Rocha’s that has been in the making for over a decade, fueled by his personal connection to the obscure filmmaker. The grandson of Mexican immigrants, one of the few ties to Rocha’s Mexican heritage that he had growing up was through the films of Moctezuma, which he watched with his grandfather, who, otherwise, cast off his Mexican roots to assimilate into American culture.
The film opens with select moments from a long-lost Roger Corman film, “1000 Paths of Death,” which vanished in the 1970s, along with Moctezuma, who directed the film, and sets the stage for a story about a filmmaker whose short career was built around his love and obsession with an actress named Lisa de la Luna.
Moctezuma’s story is told through interviews with those who worked with him, as well as clips from his long-lost films. It also taps the son of The Scorpion, an infamous luchador who would star alongside de la Luna in one of Moctezuma’s films and ultimately marry her. Having lost the woman he longed for, the director made it his lifelong mission to make her his own. That drive would fuel each of his films and would ultimately put him at odds with pretty much everyone in Mexico, from the government to the cartels and even the luchador community.
The film, as Rocha stated, when the film’s FrightFest premiere was announced, “is both a celebration of that early cinema and an homage to the scrappy, subversive spirit of B-horror movies, told with a touch of Latin magical realism and tragic romance,” but it comes with a catch.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
If any of the initial overview and review of the film above has piqued your interest, I suggest seeking out the film and watching it before reading further. Doing so could ruin your viewing experience.
As I settled in to watch “Where is Juan Moctezuma?,” I was excited to discover a new corner of classic Mexican horror cinema. It’s a genre I’ve been fascinated by ever since I first discovered Universal’s Mexican production of “Dracula.” But as the film unfolded, a nagging feeling began to set in.
Early on, the film feels authentic as Rocha tells his story about his connection to the director and how he uncovered his long-lost works in an abandoned Mexican cinema. He even builds on the credibility of his story by mentioning Moctezuma’s alleged influence on directors like Guillermo del Toro, Robert Rodriguez, and Sam Raimi. The film also features interviews with notable horror director and producer Brian Yuzna and longtime Mexican director Arturo Ripstein.
However, as the interviews with Moctezuma’s colleagues unfold, things begin to take a turn. Alleged actor and friend of Moctezuma, Miguel Nunez’s personality felt so over-the-top that it landed squarely in the uncanny valley—a perfect piece of misdirection that felt off but didn’t scream ‘fake.’ This, paired with actress Gabriela Mayorga’s conspicuous aging makeup, classic film lighting that felt too modern, and photos that looked a little too superimposed, created a subtle dissonance that challenged my perception of what was real.
I didn’t delve too deeply into it while watching the film, but a few searches offered some legitimacy to Rocha’s work, including this 2024 article from Rue Morgue, which led me to think I was reading too much into it. I finished the movie with my doubts, but as I prepared to write this review, it was eating at me, so I did some more digging.
In the end, I realized I’d been duped. There is no Juan F. Moctezuma II. The character was created for this film, and his “lost” films were all created by Rocha leading up to the release of “Where is Juan Moctezuma?” The film is a mockumentary released under the guise of a documentary, and it works so well because the subject of the documentary is unknown. Not to mention, Rocha went all out on the marketing leading up to this, which had me thinking back to the days of “The Blair Witch Project,” where the filmmakers had us all convinced the found footage flick was real.
Despite being a mockumentary, it’s a well-made film. I can’t imagine it’s an easy feat to make a documentary about a fictitious person and make it feel mostly legit. Sure, there are moments where you might be able to see through the charade, but it still keeps you interested enough to stay to the end.
Ultimately, “Where is Juan Moctezuma?” isn’t just a clever mockumentary; it’s a brilliant love letter to the power of cinema itself. It reminds us that sometimes, the most compelling stories are not found in the archives of history, but in the legends we create to celebrate them.
