review for Dance with the Devil on AllMovie

Serving as an interesting companion piece to David Lynch's hyper-charged, surrealistic epic Wild at Heart, Perdita Durango (also co-written by Wild at Heart scribe Barry Gifford) expands on some of the characters introduced in Lynch's film, and takes those characters on an equally kinetic and bizarre journey through the dark underworld of wild debauchery, reckless abandon, and Santeria. Though likely to polarize viewers who feel that similar studies in violence such as Natural Born Killers simply glorify the revolting acts they attempt to satirize, director Alex de la Iglesia's exploration in cultural isolation and constant sense of self-conscious irony makes it difficult to see as an endorsement of the acts it portrays. An excruciatingly exhausting barrage of stimulus and symbolism, shifting from cartoonishly hallucinogenic to all-too-real violence, Perdita Durango is embroidered throughout with de la Iglesia's trademark black humor, often forcing the viewer to cringe and laugh simultaneously.