25 years ago, TVN broadcast ‘Takilleitor’ for the first and only time, a Chilean film shot for almost 6 years, starring the late Luis Dimas and which was destroyed by critics after its unsuccessful premiere. With dialogues out of context, scenes of the protagonist constantly singing, without a clear story and even with alien abductions, the few available VHS’s disappeared, turning it into a cult tape, despite being nominated as the worst in the entire movie industry. Chilean cinema.
“There are no well-developed conflicts”, “a handful of stories that seem to have no beginning or end”, “I never understood anything from the script”. These were some of the criticisms of “Takilleitor”, the film starring the late Luis Dimas, described as the worst Chilean film of history.
The 1990s production has just turned 25 years since its only premiere on broadcast television, when only a couple of VHS’s that survived with the recording turned it into a cult film.
“(This sea knows too much) Takilleitor”, it lacks a specific story, it has absurd dialogues, its script mixes Star Wars stories, CNI characters, alien abductions and scenes of Luis Dimas singing, without any kind of connection between them as if each one were a separate sketch. This is his story.
The genesis of “Takilleitor”: Film starring Luis Dimas
After a long stay abroad, with lights and shadows, Luis Dimas He returned to Chile at the end of the 80s. In this way, one of the great stars of the national New Wave was looking for a project that would help him revive his career in the local environment.
That’s how he got an offer he couldn’t refuse. It was about “(This sea knows too much) Takilleitor”a film that the “King of the twist” saw as an excellent opportunity, not to mention its lack of consistency in the script and future bad reviews.
The production of the film began in 1990 and had a cast of actors that would be dreamed of today. In addition to Luis Dimas, the cast included names such as Alejandra Fosalba, Sergio Hernández, Elvira López, Shlomit Baytelman, Patricia Rivadeneira and more.
“I always wanted to work with Dimas and I looked for him,” explained his director, Daniel de la Vegain the Saturday magazine. “I explained to him that I wanted to make a film that was about a popular idol that could narrate current and past moments in Chile,” he added.
According to the media, the creator of the tape was tempted on several occasions to change Dimas as the protagonist, however, he remained stoic in his decision. “Not for a couple of million I was going to change the lead and the actors,” he clarified.
25 years after its premiere and only broadcast on open TV
Yes indeed, the film “Takilleitor” It took longer than expected to see the light. According to the director, they worked with a limited budget, with a bank loan, with close to $10 million contributed by one of the first Fondarts in history and with the profits from having sold the project to TVN.
In addition, in between all the work, there was a stoppage in filming for almost 2 years, a change in the recording material, modifications to the script and weight changes in its protagonist. Details that are evident in the final product.
Thus, after more than 6 years and with a cost of around 60 million pesos at that time (almost 160 million today), “Takilleitor” was screened at the Extension Center of the Catholic University, with very bad reviewsaccording to what his screenwriter for the film, Felipe Vilches, stated.
As he said in the magazine Bush In Action, “the next day the critics in the press made shit out of the film. They came to say that it was the worst thing that had been filmed not only in Chile, but in the universe“.
The same luck ran the tape when it was broadcast for the first and only time on open television. On the night/early morning of February 21, 1998, TVN aired the film, with 9 audience rating points, never to air again.
“Takilleitor” Cult or the worst film in Chilean cinema?
The national production has 2.8 stars out of 10, on the specialized site of FilmaffinityMeanwhile in IMDb, does not exceed 2.4. “Extremely bad, without any merit for its ‘cult’ status”, says one of the critics of the users of the aforementioned Internet page.
The bad comments on the film, until today, speak above all of a poor script and a story that makes no sense. “I never understood anything about the script, why am I going to lie. Nothing was ever clear to me,” said Rodrigo Vidal, who brought the character to life. Takilleitor, Luis Dimas’ personal driver.
For his part, Patricia Rivadeneira He also criticized the weakness of the story in the aforementioned report, but pointed to a metaphor by the screenwriter. “There are no well-developed conflicts, it does not have an Aristotelian structure, but that is something typical of Felipe Vilches. If you looked at scenes, you understood that he was talking all the time about the dictatorship.
However, one of the most memorable reviews of that year came from Juan Andres Salfatewho at that time wrote for El Mercurio:
“’Takilleitor’ is supposed to be an almost Dadaist film, even dyslexic. A handful of stories that seem to have no beginning or end, are scrambled without order or concert, in what must be the most unusual film ever seen in our country (…) Takilleitor gets out of his boxes. It is what is said, an anti-everything film: anti-commercial, anti-logic, anti-cinema”.
More recently, Valeria Jaure wrote a review of the film, after the death of Luis Dimas in 2021, in Culturizarte.cl. “It may be that the absurdity of its plot is due to the construction of the script on the fly, while the scenes were being recorded, with which their dialogues were also improvised,” he said.
He added, finally, that “his aesthetic presence not being consistent, in addition to not having critical appreciation, neither at the time nor now, we are left with the factor of the public, and this is at the same time a decisive element for the determination of a film as cult”.
Where and how to see ‘Takilleitor’?
After its only broadcast on the state channel, “Takilleitor” and the performance of Luis Dimas gradually became a cult tape, despite being indicated as the worst film in chilean cinema.
Only a handful of VHS’s were available to the public in the different video stores in the country. But according to Vilches, people stole them, which is why their cult name increased.
However, in 2014, a good Samaritan climbed “Takilleitor” in full form on YouTuband. On the platform, the film by Luis Dimas and company has nearly 77,000 views.
In one hour, the film shows the journey (for no apparent reason) of the protagonist, accompanied by his driver Takilleitor through the roads of Chile, while two CNI agents chase a “wooden parrot” that contains a “political message”, to end in a surreal scene with flying saucers.
Is “Takilleitor” the worst film in Chilean cinema, or is it a cult film, misunderstood for its time? You can form your own opinion, seeing it here:
