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Grim Fandango


The Land of the Dead in Grim Fandango™ is a blend of images from Mayan and Aztec art, Mexican folklore, and film noir of the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s. For those who don’t know, film noir is a film genre that features hard-boiled detectives, hard-hearted, treacherous women, big guns, fast cars, labyrinthine plots, and snappy patter. The men wear big hats, and everybody smokes* and drinks a lot.

The Land of the Dead, according to Aztec beliefs, was a real place where dead souls journeyed for four years until they reached the ninth underworld, their final home. To help the souls make their long journey, the dead were buried with money, food, and even dogs. Mexican folklore added humour and festivity to those beliefs by celebrating special days each year when the dead returned to visit their loved ones as honoured guests. For the annual fiestas, papier-mâché skeleton dolls were made and dressed in traditional and contemporary costumes.

Our hero, Manny, and the other inhabitants of Grim Fandango’s Land of the Dead, are modelled after these colourful skeleton dolls, called calaveras. And what about Manny? Well, he’s not exactly hard-boiled —he’s just led a less-than-perfect life and is trying to work off his “debt” by helping out at the Department of Death. His job is to act as a travel agent, picking up souls from the Land of the Living (it’s called “reaping” because the Department of Death issues scythes to its agents), and then selling the souls the best travel package possible to get them through the Land of the Dead. Then things go wrong for Manny, and it’s all because of a dame. He must hit the road to stop the skells that have made this afterlife into a cruel game, so that good souls everywhere can rest in peace.