Vampiros and Monstruos

Santo Vs. the Vampire Women in Freaky Monsters #7

2012-01-25T18:38:00.001-08:00

2012 is the 50th Anniversary of the best known Santo film worldwide--SANTO VS. THE VAMPIRE WOMEN, and FREAKY MONSTERS #7 has an article on the film by yours truly. It's somewhat of a preview of the article on the film in the forthcoming VAMPIROS AND MONSTRUOS book. I've edited out the racier bits (quite a few bits, actually, as I've investigated the film from a sexual angle, too) and there were a few "Freaky" additions from editor Ray Ferry, but otherwise it's fairly representative of the original text. The magazine preview is well-illustrated, too.

Interest parties may wish to order here.

Secta Satanica Video Cover Art

2011-10-07T08:09:00.000-07:00

Two greats of Mexican cinema (and fantastique)--German "El Vampiro" Robles and Joaquin "Dr. Satan" Cordero--starred in this 1990 horror film, with strong religious overtones, SECTA SATANICA. Above is the box cover for the video release by Million Dollar Video, Spanish language only.

Mexican Horror Resin Models

2011-09-04T16:01:00.000-07:00

In 2004, resin model sculptor Paul Schiola released two models based on well-known Mexican horror icons--El Baron del Terror (the Brainiac) and the Aztec Mummy. Both were limited editions, and Paul was going to produce more when the powers that be put a damper on the project, unfortunately.

Impressive Italian Posters for the Aztec Mummy Series

2011-09-02T08:52:00.001-07:00

They really knew the art of posters in Italy! Below are posters for Mexico's Aztec Mummy trilogy. Very impressive, even if they are not accurate representations of the films. I want all these posters hanging up on my walls! How about you? My favorite has to be the last one presented here. Stunning use of color and lighting effects.

Fear Chamber (1968)

2011-07-29T18:50:00.001-07:00

The quartet of American/Mexican horror films that Karloff did near the end of his life get little respect, but once studied, they evolve into interesting pieces of cinema, with flashes of brilliance among their middling horror fare. These films still need to be released in respectful and authoritative versions, both the English language versions and Spanish language ones.

Here are some screen captures of the best version of FEAR CHAMBER (LA CAMARA DEL TERROR) that I have yet seen. Taken from a Mexican DVD on the Televisa label.

EL VAMPIRO Y EL SEXO Finally Screened!

2011-07-24T08:30:00.000-07:00

Friday, July 15th, saw the Mexican premiere of EL VAMPIRO Y EL SEXO, the uncensored version of SANTO EN EL TESORO DE DRACULA (SANTO IN THE TREASURE OF DRACULA). The premiere was held at Diana Theater in the University of Guadalajara and showings were slated to continue for several days in another theater. It is assumed that whatever legal difficulties prevented the showing were resolved. (Curiously, though, so far no online reviews of the film have shown up.)

Word is that the Calderon Company, which owns rights to the film, is attempting to secure a deal with an American company to at least present the film on DVD here in the States.

EL VAMPIRO Y EL SEXO - Close But No Cigar... Yet!

2011-05-07T07:33:00.000-07:00

Who's that masked man? El Santo or a double?

It was supposed to have been screened. EL VAMPIRO Y EL SEXO. The mythical "nude version" of SANTO IN THE TREASURE OF DRACULA (SANTO EN EL TESORO DE DRACULA). At a film festival in Guadalajara. Then El Hijo del Santo (Santo's son) stepped in, made legal threats, and a public showing of one of the most sought after Mexican films was cancelled.

The history of EL VAMPIRO Y EL SEXO is as follows:

When SANTO IN THE TREASURE OF DRACULA was being filmed, producer Guillermo Calderon Stell suggested to El Santo, who also was producing, that a few nude scenes be filmed for European exhibition. According to El Hijo:

"Guillermo Calderon proposed to El Santo to make--as his first film as a partner--an adult version where they might show naked actresses who participated in the film, including Noelia Noel, with the intention of exhibiting it in Europe, which my father, at that time, strongly objected to, arguing that his films should not have sex or extreme violence, because his films were for the whole family, not for adults....

"My father told his then partner, he had every right to film what he wanted, and even make another movie, but that the name of El Santo and his performance and image could not be used under any circumstances. It was then that, respecting the arguments of my father, Calderon shot some scenes with Aldo Monti (Dracula) and actresses Gina Moret, Jessica Rivano, Sonia Aguilar, among others, who played the female vampires in transparent gauze, exposing the upper part of their bodies, and that was titled EL VAMPIRO Y EL SEXO...."

Guillermo Calderon Stell shelved the nude version (though it had showings in other parts of the world), and it became if not a "lost film," certainly impossible see in its adult version. Recently, while researching the Calderon filmography for a documentary, Viviana Garcia Besne (Calderon's niece) discovered the film in a warehouse and saw the obvious potential of releasing it.

The current wish from Team Calderon is to reactivate the Calderon Stell film library for international sales, to include this coveted version of SANTO IN THE TREASURE OF DRACULA. We can only hope that this will happen, as surely enough years have gone by to diminish, if not invalidate, the wish to keep El Santo's image squeaky clean among kids who are not that into El Santo these days, as were earlier generations, and who are much more familiar with nudity and sex than those generations ever were. Just the knowledge that such a version exists, including other El Santo films in nude versions (!), is enough to make this wish rather realistically flimsy. Then, too, the publicity behind a release of this nude variant would do much to put the entire El Santo film catalog front and center on the market.

Let's go for it.

Will Laughlin Joins Vampiros and Monstruos

2011-03-07T18:14:00.000-08:00

Carlos Enrique Taboada, Mexico's master of subtle horror.

As the book VAMPIROS AND MONSTRUOS was finally nearing completion, I realized that one significant hole remained, despite my intention of doing a second volume dedicated toward Mexican horror and fantasy cinema that could have taken up that missing element. Upon continual review, I realized that it would be a mistake not to have in the first book an article on one of Mexico's great masters of the macabre and supernatural--Carlos Enrique Taboada.

Enrique Taboada started in the horror and fantasy field as a scriptwriter, working on such films as ORLAK, THE HELL OF FRANKENSTEIN, and the Nostradamus series starring German Robles. As a director he is known for a quartet of films that still impress to this day (two of which were redone for contemporary audiences): HASTA EL VIENTO TIENE MIEDO/EVEN THE WIND IS AFRAID (1968), EL LIBRO DE PIEDRA/THE BOOK OF STONE (1969), MAS NEGRO QUE LA NOCHE/BLACKER THAN THE NIGHT (1975), and VENENO PARA LAS HADAS/POISON FOR THE FAIRIES (1984).

I also realized that the assignment was a difficult one (having dabbled in attempting it myself), as not much is known about Taboada, something that could soon change with the publication of a Mexican book on Enrique Taboada this month. But, if not filled with factual information, an article that addressed his directorial work in the genre was still necessary. I'm delighted to have found an author who is most capable of writing about Enrique Taboada and his quartet of chillers (to include also a fifth film, typically not included in a review of Enrique Taboada's genre work--the 1968 EL VAGABUNDO EN LA LLUVIA/THE DRIFTER IN THE RAIN). And so I welcome Will Laughlin (of Braineater.com) to the Vampiros and Monstruos project.

TCM Showing of THE WONDER WORLD OF K. GORDON MURRAY Canceled

2010-12-08T17:23:00.000-08:00

I was very much looking forward to this documentary about K. Gordon Murray, the man who, with his dubbing factory, brought Mexican horror into the consciousness of American "monster kids" in the 1960s. Unfortunately, the scheduled premiere of this documentary on TCM this Friday has been canceled.

Here the official press release from Daniel Griffith, the filmmaker who has been working on this project for years:

After several weeks of frantic editorial adjustments based on a few emerging rights issues with some of the clips used within the body of the K. Gordon Murray documentary, I have regretfully decided to postpone the films official premiere. There's not enough time to negotiate the rights, nor find a suitable replacement for these clips.

This news may disappoint film fans who have been eagerly anticipating this documentary since I began production on it three years ago. For those of you who have stuck by the project, I am indebted to your patience. The K. Gordon Murray documentary is, and has always been, a fully independent venture. It is a passion project that has taken more time and detective work than I will ever admit. It has been a long journey and I assure all of you, I did not come to this decision lightly.

I have given Turner Classic Movies the option of airing the revised documentary in the near future, but as of now, the TCM network premiere is officially canceled. The staff at TCM has been very helpful and understanding regarding this decision. This will not effect the network airing of K. Gordon Murray's SANTA CLAUS, which is now slated for December 10th at 2:00 a.m.

But I assure all of you, the complete, unedited documentary will be released this spring, as intended. Look for news in the upcoming months regarding special 'ROADSHOW' screenings of the film in select theaters, as well as official news on its DVD release. Again, thank you for your patience and support. And have a very Murray christmas!

THE BLOODY VAMPIRE TV ad

2010-11-28T09:21:00.000-08:00

John Charles posted this rare ad on his Facebook page. I know of only one "The Bloody Vampire" film, so I'm assuming that it's an ad for the Miguel Morayta film, EL VAMPIRO SANGRIENTO (1962), titled in English, THE BLOODY VAMPIRE.

Apparently not having any graphics connected to the Mexican horror film, WKBW crafted its own representation.

Nostradamus Trailers

2010-10-29T21:36:00.000-07:00

Above are TV trailers for two of the four Nostradamus films starring El Vampiro himself--German Robles--and directed by Frederico Curiel. Robles made these series of films in 1959 for Mexico's America Studios, which according to union rules mandated that films be shot serial-like, in episodes. K. Gordon Murray bought up these films for the United States, as well as the horror films from Abel Salazar, dubbed them, and then released them primarily to television, though a few saw limited theatrical release, sometimes after their television debut!

From the above trailers, it appears that trailers were made for at least two Nostradamus films. Note the lengthy silence that comes at the end, while the scenes still play out visually. This would be the place were a voice-over would announce where and when the film would be shown, if theatrically, or the time it would be shown on television.

David Wilt's Mexican Film Bulletin

2010-10-18T08:06:00.001-07:00

David Wilt is The Man when it comes to Mexican films, the supreme authority on all genres in Mexico's filmography. Since 1994 he has been publishing, either in hardcopy or online, THE MEXICAN FILM BULLETIN, which reviews all types of films produced by Mexico, including, obviously, horror and fantasy films. Wilt, known on the Latarnia boards and elsewhere under the name of Dr. Ling, is also the author of the mammoth and indispensable THE MEXICAN FILMOGRAPHY, 1916-2001 (McFarland and Company, 2004) and has written for numerous publications on Mexican films. He was also responsible for the informative liner notes for the Mexican horror DVD series released by CasaNegra.

His newest issue, which could be called a Halloween special with its horror film reviews, is available online as a PDF, and you can download back issues from this page.

El vampiro/El ataud del vampiro Soundtrack

2010-10-10T16:31:00.000-07:00

From Klimt Records comes this LP soundtrack of EL VAMPIRO and its sequel EL ATAUD DEL VAMPIRO. Music by the legendary Gustavo Cesar Carrion, who composed the musical scores to many Mexican horror films.

I have my suspicions as to how official this release is, as the cues are taken directly from the Spanish audio of the films (though they sound very good). Also, why on LP and not on CD?

Anyway, this record seems to be available in the United States, despite Klimt Records being, supposedly, a French label. Yeah, sure.

You can listen to samples here, which includes a cue from another movie, LA MALDICION DE LA LLORONA (CURSE OF THE CRYING WOMAN), also an Abel Salazar-produced horror film.

Hat tip: Ben Gart

El Vampiro - Image of Inspiration 2

2010-08-23T19:58:00.000-07:00

I've no idea what this artwork was intended for, but it's a stunning piece by Sanjulian, the famous Spanish artist who used to do work for James Warren publications like CREEPY and VAMPIRELLA. Dated 1994. Oh, Sanjulian's brother is Maren, the artist responsible for the artwork in my previous post that was sourced from the same photo.

El Vampiro - Image of Inspiration

2010-08-20T18:48:00.001-07:00

Images of German Robles in his "el vampiro" role have been employed by artists around the world. Here is the cover by Maren of DOSSIER NERGO, no. 162, which borrows Robles' image. DOSSIER NEGRO was the longest running adult horror comic magazine in Spain, first premiering in 1968.

The original image:

Atmosphere, Atmosphere, Atmosphere!

2010-08-07T06:33:00.000-07:00

One of the most delightful films in Mexican fantastique is the 1962 SANTO CONTRA LAS MUJERES VAMPIRO (SANTO VS. THE VAMPIRE WOMEN). This seventh film in the Santo series stands out because it's drenched in atmosphere, as the above rare still shows. Atmosphere is one of the key components of a classic horror film. Cobwebs, mists, dank cellars, ancient walls slimy with musty dew--the horror film fan breathes in such atmosphere and knows he or she is home.

Club de los Vampiros i Monstruos Presents Tongolele

2010-07-30T17:32:00.000-07:00

You may know her from LA MUERTE VIVIENTE (American title: ISLE OF THE SNAKE PEOPLE), one of the four Mexican films starring Boris Karloff. Tongolele (birth name: Yolanda Ivonne Montes Farrington). She did some fine dancing with snakes in that film. Tongolele was a renowned performer and star in Mexico for many years before working on LA MUERTE VIVIENTE, so her appearance in it was a major plus to Mexican and Latin audiences. Surprisingly, not born anywhere in or near Mexico, but in Spokane, Washington.

Tonight, Club de los Vampiros i Monstruos presents ... Tongolele, whose hips have a dangerous language of their own.

Early Gore Grue

2010-07-24T10:49:00.000-07:00

Whenever I watch EL ESPEJO DE LA BRUJA (THE WITCH'S MIRROR, 1960), I'm struck by the allowance of gruesome flesh and blood in the film. The effect of severed hands is simply done, yet the outcome is no less shocking.

These screen captures are taken from the very commendable DVD release from CasaNegra, a company that's not around anymore, unfortunately. Used and mint copies available from Amazon.com.

Meet Harry

2010-07-09T18:14:00.000-07:00

"Meet Harry. Occupation: grave robber. He digs people the most."

The classic FAMOUS MONSTERS magazine would frequently have photos from Mexican horror films in its pages. And once in a while an article on Mexican horror.

The above page appeared in the first issue of FAMOUS MONSTERS, February 1958. The photo is from the 1956 classic lucha-libre monster film, LADRON DE CADAVERES (THE GRAVE ROBBER). And that's Wolf Ruvinskis under the make-up.

El Vampiro Y El Sexo Really Found -- Really!

2010-06-20T19:09:00.000-07:00

Over at the Latarnia Forums, Mexican film authority David Wilt (Dr. Ling) confirmed that EL VAMPIRO Y EL SEXO, the coveted nude version of SANTO Y EL TESORO DE DRACULA, has been found, this based on information (and clips) from the documentary PERDIDA. The documentary deals with the film producers from the Calderon family. In it, the director, Viviana Garcia Besne, discovers the film in a locked warehouse fault, and copies with French and also English subtitles.

A couple of years ago rumors abounded that the now defunct BCI was going to bring out this film on DVD in the United States, but it was never clear what exactly the company hoped to get its hands on, as other rumors suggested the film was lost or the print destroyed in a fire.

Unfortunately, as of now, there doesn't seem to be any impetus to release this film on DVD, so it sits there in a Mexican vault, possibly waiting until some company with big pockets will make an offer that can't be refused.

Mexican Horror Movies - Mondo Macabro Featurette

2010-04-10T21:42:00.001-07:00

Mondo Macabro's special featurette that appeared on the company's releases of EL VAMPIRO (Pal DVD) and ALUCARDA.

Part One:

Part Two:

Part Three (Closing-very brief):

Lionsgate Continues Non-Subtitled Santo Films

2010-01-18T15:20:00.000-08:00

For a while now, Lionsgate has been issuing a 2-film series of DVDs--Nuestro Cine Clasico--specifically to the Latin market in the United States with, unfortunately, no English subtitles for Anglos who do not understand Spanish. For American Santo fans, this is particularly annoying, as the company has released some noteworthy Santo titles in this series that remain inaccessible language-wise. Nevertheless, many fans may want to pick up these titles, as some of the prints used are of very good quality, the best we have seen.

Recently, I bought the double-bill of SANTO VS. LAS LOBAS and SANTO VS. EL ESPECTRO DEL EXTRANGULADOR. While the color in the first film has lost its impact, the second film is transferred from a glorious and wonderful looking black and white print, as these screen captures show:

LAS LOBAS doesn't measure up print-wise, but the film is one of Santo's best, a genuine horror film.

Other Santo films in the Nuestro Cine Clasico series:

(Note: Lionsgate released a b/w version of LOS MONSTRUOS, though the film is in color.)

Amazon.com sells all of the above films:

Santo contra Blue Demon en la Atlantida/Santo y Blue Demon contra los monstruos

Santo en el museo de cera/Santo y Blue Demon en el mundo de los muertos

Santo en anonimo mortal/Santo y el aguila real

Santo vs. las lobas/Santo vs. el espectro del estrangulador

Santa Claus 50th Anniversary Gift Set!

2009-12-06T12:14:00.000-08:00

From our friend Daniel Griffith of Ballyhoo Motion Pictures and the Wonder World of K. Gordon Murray:

Just in time for the holidays!!! Introducing the "SANTA CLAUS 50th ANNIVERSARY GIFT SET", a great holiday companion for the MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 VOLUME XVI dvd box set (which includes the infamous SANTA CLAUS episode and the companion documentary short... "SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE DEVIL", which I produced and directed)... or any cult film fan!

Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the K. Gordon Murray matinee classic, "SANTA CLAUS", with this unique set... available exclusively at BALLYHOO MOTION PICTURES EBAY STORE!!! The GIFT SET includes one (1) 11x17 inch "SANTA CLAUS: 50th Anniversary Poster" printed on medium/glossy paper stock, three (3) 4x6 inch "SANTA CLAUS" postcards (three separate artworks), one (1) "SANTA CLAUS" button set (two 1.5 inch buttons) with packaging, one (1) collectable "YOUNG AMERICA HORROR CLUB" 2.25 inch button, one (1) "WONDER WORLD OF K. GORDON MURRAY" 2.25 inch button, and a SURPRISE "RETRO" GIFT! It could be anything! Cult film DVD's, magic kits,... you name it! All this for only $16.99 (plus shipping and handling)! But hurry, this offer won't last long!

While you are at our BALLYHOO store, check out some of our other EXCLUSIVE items... including a "ROBOT vs. THE AZTEC MUMMY" T-shirt, a K. GORDON MURRAY POSTER SET, and MORE!!!

German Robles in the Hospital

2009-11-21T17:51:00.000-08:00

Legendary actor German Robles, best known worldwide for his role as Count Lavud in EL VAMPIRO/THE VAMPIRE (1957) and EL ATAUD DEL VAMPIRO/THE VAMPIRE'S COFFIN (1958), is in intensive care at a Mexican hospital from internal hemorrhaging. He had been hospitalized this past summer from a ruptured ulcer, but recuperated. Our thoughts are with him.

Here's a clip from EL VAMPIRO in the original Spanish:

The Vampire's Coffin/The Robot vs. The Aztec Mummy

2009-07-20T14:03:00.000-07:00

They just don't make trailers like this!!!

BTW, I've enabled comments on this blog for the first time.

The Robot in Person!

2009-06-02T09:56:00.000-07:00

The Robot from ROBOT VS. THE AZTEC MUMMY will be highlighting the Wonder World of K. Gordon Murray website's table at the Monster Bash, this June 26-28th, held at the Days Inn Conference Center in Butler, PA (north of Pittsburgh). According to Daniel Griffith of Wonder World and Ballyhoo Motion Pictures: "There will be a 10-minute SNEAK PREVIEW of 'THE WONDER WORLD OF K. GORDON MURRAY in COLORSCOPE' on Friday. The WONDER WORLD will also have a booth at the convention... where we will be debuting a coffin load of promotional items... including WONDER WORLD t-shirts, SANTA CLAUS 50th Anniversary button sets, retro paper masks highlighting various characters from the WONDER WORLD, special edition resin model kits of THE AZTEC MUMMY and THE BRAINIAC, posters, and more!!!!"

Mexican Horror/Lucha Ad Mats

2009-04-06T13:39:00.000-07:00

Mexican horror/lucha libre ad mats are hard to come by, but your intrepid blog host has ways of offering something up to patient ones who have been waiting for a new entry here. Can you imagine seeing these in your local newspaper when you were a young! Even now these would send a thrill up my horror-loving spine. Yours, too, I believe.

LOS CAMPEONES DE LA LUCHA LIBRE Premiere

2009-01-30T04:56:00.000-08:00

LOS CAMPEONES DE LA LUCHA LIBRE heads night of Mexican wrestling films at Hollywood's historic Egyptian Theatre.

The first public screening of the English-language print of "Los Campeones de la Lucha Libre" will head a double feature on Thursday, February 5th at Hollywood's historic Egyptian Theatre. Directed and designed by "Mucha Lucha" creators Eddie Mort and Lili Chin, "Los Campeones" is an animated action/comedy in the tradition of Santo films and vintage Mexican horror cinema. The Azteca-Cine Spanish-language version of the film opened in 350+ theaters across Mexico in October, but his is the first time the 35mm English-language print will be screened for the public, before the film hits festivals overseas.

Creators Mort and Chin will be on hand with other members of the creative team for a pre-screening discussion of the film with never-before-seen production art on display. A second surprise feature from the golden age of Santo cinema will screen after "Campeones" in honor of the anniversary of the legend's passing. Complimentary lucha magazines will be available from the film's writer Keith J. Rainville of "From Parts Unknown," and there will be a door prize giveaway as well.

The American Cinematheque's Egyptian Theatre is located at 6712 Hollywood Boulevard, between Las Palmas and McCadden, just east of Highland Avenue in Hollywood. Tickets are $10 / $8 for seniors; students.

Contacts:
eddie.mort@gmail.com
lili.chin@gmail.com
unknownpubs@yahoo.com

Related URLS:

www.loscampeones.net (includes trailer)
www.xanga.com/fwak
www.americancinematheque.com/mastercalendar.htm
www.frompartsunknown.com

Wonder World of K. Gordon Murray Documentary

2009-01-28T11:03:00.000-08:00

The legendary film distributor K. Gordon Murray is the subject of what appears to be a fun documentary on his life and work. It was Murray who introduced Mexican horror films to American audiences (mostly through television) with his English dubbed versions.

The documentary has a website, with trailers, news and a store, and more:

www.kgordonmurraymovie.com

Check it out!

Italian Posters

2009-01-16T18:07:00.000-08:00

Mexican horror and fantasy films enjoyed distribution in Italy, and must have influenced the Italian gothic horrors of the early 1960s. The Italian poster artwork for these films is some of the best to be found internationally. Here is the Italian poster for Misterios de ultratumba (Mysteries from Beyond the Grave, aka The Black Pit of Dr. M).

And one for La nave de los monstruos (Ship of Monsters):

La nave, incidentally, is due soon for a NTSC release, in the Spanish language only, unfortunately.

The Color Swamp

2008-12-01T14:36:00.000-08:00

Artwork for the opening credits of El pantano de las animas
blooms in a version with decent color.

Spooky opening scene for El pantano de las animas.
------------------------------------------------

El pantano de las animas (Swamp of the Lost Souls/Swamp of the Lost Monster, 1957) is one of those Gaston Santos western horror films that most know in a faded color version, if at all. So it was nice to see a brief preview of the film on the French DVD of La marca del muerto (The Mark of Death, 1960), which I just received today. The colors are significantly better than what we saw on another Santos film, CasaNegra's presentation of El grito de la muerte (American title: The Living Coffin, 1959). Too bad CasaNergra never got around to showcasing El pantano before the company went under. Not that it's that good of a film. But it'd be nice to see in a good color presentation.

The Bloody Vampire in Spain

2008-11-30T07:05:00.000-08:00

Miguel Morayta's El vampiro sangriento (The Bloody Vampire) appears to have been a popular film worldwide. It received a release in Spain, probably in the 1960s, though possibly in the early 1970s, when domestic Spanish horror itself was booming. Above is the Spanish lobby card.

New Look, New Vision

2008-11-28T08:16:00.000-08:00

I was getting tired of the old look of the blog, so I decided to change it around and make it look more polished like a Word Press design. In the process I lost all my links to "friends and fellow travelers." I'll be relisting as time--and memory--provides. If you see that I linked to you before, but that the link is now missing, just drop me a line.

I know many people have been waiting to see the VAMPIROS AND MONSTRUOS book finally come out (including the authors!) and I realize the delay has been long, but I am spending most of my free time trying to finalize everything. I'm happy to report that I'm making significant headway. Excepting for the completely unexpected (which does happen in life), VAMPIROS AND MONSTRUOS should be with a publisher in 2009, hopefully somewhere in the first few months, so that a fall publication (in time for Halloween?) can be realized.

Part of the light at the end of the tunnel is due to my decision to do a second volume. There just isn't enough space to fit everything into one volume, and it was getting hopeless trying to fit and write everything into one book. The second volume should not have the delay of the first, as I already have a fair amount of material collected for it.

El vampiro sangriento (1961)

2008-11-13T20:04:00.000-08:00

The outrageous and hallucinatory El vampiro sangriento (The Bloody Vampire), now on YouTube in the original Spanish version, directed by Miguel Morayta and starring Carlos Agosti as Count Frankenhausen. For non-Spanish speaking patrons of this blog, there is a lengthy synopsis of the film at the World of K. Gordon Murray website.

Part One:

Part Two:

Part Three:

Part Four:

Part Five:

Part Six:

Part Seven:

Part Eight:

Part Nine:

Part Ten:

Part Eleven (Final Part):

Queen Thorina at the Vintage Mexican Sci-Fi Film Festival, and other surprises

2008-11-09T18:22:00.000-08:00

Above you see the back of an upside down postcard, with an autograph of Lorena Velazquez, and below that a ticket for a showing of The Aztec Mummy vs. the Human Robot. This is how in my good fortune, so atypical of my normal fortune, I came to get these....

Manhattan's 92Y Tribeca, which confusingly is not on 92nd Street, but downtown, at 200 Hudson Street, near Canal, was having a brief Mexican sci-fi film festival from October 30 to November 2. I had been alerted to this by my good buddy Derrick Hussey (publisher of Hippocampus Books) some time ago, and later found out that David Wilt, Mexican film authority extraordanaire, would be at a Saturday showing (Nov. 1), so I determined to at least be there to meet David, whom I've been in contact with on the Latarnia message board and through a few e-mails. I was uncertain about whether I'd attend any other days of the festival, as the Vampiros and Monstruos book I'm working on centers around horror, rather than science fiction films. I placed all this info in the back of my mind, where it inconveniently disappeared.

But then Derrick shot off an e-mail to me early Thursday, the first day of the festival, asking me if I was going to attend that night's showing of La nave de los monstruos/Ship of Monsters. This was a thankful alert, as I had forgotten about the specifics of the festival. I read up on La nave, and with Derrick going, I decided I had to attend also, so off I went, winding up, after a bus ride, walking the length of Canal Street (and up an overpass) to get to the theater, which has just recently opened.

Once there, in the lobby, I saw that a photographer was taking pictures of a group of people, among whom I saw someone I thought I knew from film. But the person was decades older, so I couldn't quite place the face with a name. Then someone mentioned the name--"Lorena Velazquez."

Yes, Queen Thorina of Santo contra las mujeres vampiro was in attendance!

The event was attended by a small but enthusiastic crowd. (The movie theater itself is small; certainly less than 100 seats.) Velazquez sat in the front row.

Lorena Velazquez at another event. At the Vintage Mexican Sci-Fi Festival in NY she was dressed primarily in black.
------------------------------

The night of surprises was not over, as just before the film began, a guy walks in with his date, and I immediately recognize the legendary porn actor Jamie Gillis. What the hell is Gillis doing at a Mexican Sci-Fi Film Festival?! He and his date sit in the row right in front of me, a seat to my left. Having Jamie Gillis sitting so close distracted me from the film for a few minutes. After all, this is a guy whose "films" I've been watching since my Times Square days. And he is one of the most intense actors in the porn genre, with, pardon, loads of rough sex thrown in, real nasty stuff that an aficionado like myself appreciates. Hardly the type of guy you'd imagine going to a film festival like this with what looked like a normal date (who may have been in her fifties). A handsome couple, in fact. And Gillis looks still like Gillis!

I've never seen La nave de los monstruos/Ship of Monsters. What a delightful, charming film. And bizarre. It goes off on a vampire tangent that was bewildering, but wonderfully so. I'm doubt that I will have the time to include it in the Vampiros and Monstruos book, but somehow I'll get around to reviewing the film.

After the film, Velazquez took questions, which was my opportunity to "interview" her briefly. Once Q&A was over, I talked to Velazquez a bit more and got her autograph, as did a few other people, including Derrick, who added to his autograph ticket collection.

Later, everyone headed to another area of the complex, in which a "firing funky, folky Latin pop" group, Pistolera, was performing. A free beer or tequila was part of the ticket price. I decided to somehow approach Gillis, but the opportunity never presented itself before he left with his date, who, as Derrick found out later, is a noted Mexican restaurateur, Zarela Martinez. In the Q & A with Velazquez, Zarela seemed completely unaware about Velazquez's career, but Velazquez answered her two questions or so with unpretentiousness and a smile.

I also got to meet, briefly, underground filmmaker Nick Zedd, who was with his date Monica Casanova, whom I had met at the Two Boots Theater showing of Mil Mascaras: Resurrection a couple of weeks ago.

The next day was also memorable. I finally got to chat in person with Latarnia's Dr. Ling--David Wilt--with whom I could have spent the entire weekend (plus!) talking about Mexican cinema. Unfortunately David had to leave early, but it was great to meet and talk to him. The man is the authority on Mexican cinema (not just the horror/fantasy stuff). Give this guy a million dollar grant!

The book presentation event had several authors of the text giving introductions and answering questions. These topics are so rare that everything they said had extra importance. A real nice group of guys (Hector Orozco, Naief Yehya) and a gal (Itala Schmelz). Schmelz was the organizer of the book project, and I assume, festival.

I've yet to go through the text of El futuro mas aca, but everything looks impressive--the text and certainly the layout. BTW, the book is in both Spanish and English, so it's a valuable addition to anyone's library, even if they don't speak Spanish.

Vampiros and Monstruos Collector Cards - No. 2

2008-10-31T09:22:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!

Mirek

Vampiros and Monstruos Collector Cards - No. 1

2008-09-27T11:57:00.001-07:00

Available in El Vampiro's Imagination Emporium:

El Vampiro

2008-09-20T16:14:00.000-07:00

A color rendering of German Robles as Count Lavud--El Vampiro!

Noche de fieras (1990)

2008-08-26T08:18:00.000-07:00

Here's a film that doesn't even show up on the IMDB, despite having the presence of the great Hugo Stiglitz and being directed by Alfredo B. Crevenna, whose lengthy resume reaches as far back as 1945. Previously available on a video from Mexcinema, it also appears to have had a DVD release on a budget Spanish label.

With a plot that involves getting a wife to go insane so the husband can gain her wealth, Noche de fieras (Night of Beasts) most reminds me of Paul Naschy's Latidos de panico (Panic Beats, 1983). Budget-wise, the Crevenna film can't hope to match the Naschy one, though it does manage to be oddly entertaining in brief parts, sometimes not intentionally so, as with the ridiculous presence of a beefy pseudo mummy (looking, interestingly enough, like Naschy!). The predictable plot gives Stiglitz a chance to emote as never before, and a bathtub scene where the Stiglitz character does away with one of his helpers is genuinely suspenseful and moderately shocking. Beware the disco-style hairdos on the women, however.

Santo contra los burocratas

2008-08-07T14:22:00.000-07:00

I think we can all relate, even without knowing Spanish!

Santo Stamps

2008-06-29T15:14:00.000-07:00

To commemorate the 25th Anniversary of El Santo's passing, the Mexican post office has released a series of stamps honoring the legendary lucha libre wrestler and movie star (and also his son, El Hijo del Santo). A ceremony was held on June 19th, with El Hijo del Santo in attendance, and a surprise visit by Yolanda Montes, who as "Tongolele" may be familiar to Mexican horror fans for her provocative dancing in SNAKE PEOPLE, one of the notorious four Mexican films starring Boris Karloff.

Here are some photos from the First Day Issue event held in Mexico City:

The stamps are available as a sheet or in a special edition foldout that includes the stamp sheet, two first day of issue stamped commemorative envelopes, and what looks like a one-dimensional Santo mask. All items are available on eBay, though prices can get high for the special edition release.

Count Frankenhausen Rulz!

2008-05-03T18:59:00.001-07:00

I'll be getting to the two Count Frankenhausen films, El vampiro sangriento (The Bloody Vampire, 1961) and La invasion de los vampiros (Invasion of the Vampires, 1962), in a future blog entry, but I came across this clip on YouTube from La invasion de los vampiros, which I don't want to lose track of, so I'm placing it here. This wild scene is the battle between Frankenhausen, who turns into a giant bat, and the hero of the story, Ulises. Enjoy!

I could be persuaded that the two Count Frankenhausen films are, overall, more enjoyable than the Abel Salazar's two "El vampiro" films. They certainly are more transfixidly demented.

El Monje Loco

2008-04-27T20:01:00.000-07:00

Creepy as all hell, EL MONJE LOCO premiered in Mexico in 1937 as a radio show, meeting with great success from the outset. Though I haven't heard any of the shows (the You Tube clip above gives a a snippet), I assume that "The Mad Monk" was the host of the horror series, rather than an active participant in them. So great was EL MONJE LOCO's success that in 1940 the character began appearing in the pages of CHAMACO as a horror host and on the screen in a film titled, what else, EL MONJE LOCO. In 1953, the Mexican Mad Monk got his own comic book that lasted until the early 1960s. Later that decade a new series of EL MONJE LOCO comics saw publication, and then another series that lasted 176 numbers.

EL MONJE LOCO is a Mexican institution, and the character turns up in films, TV shows and print media, but is rarely talked about or considered north of the border, even among those with an appreciation for Mexican horror films.

The Santo Photo Comic

2008-03-23T07:27:00.000-07:00

The website KingdomComics.org has a section on the Santo photo comics that were popular in Mexico and throughout Latin America for a few decades, beginning in 1952 when the publication first appeared. The first series lasted from 1952 to 1958, with over 400 numbers. The above cover is from the fourth issue in this series.

The comic was produced by Jose Guadalupe Cruz. In the first issue Santo is mortally wounded in a fight and dies in his son's arms, passing on to him the crime-fighting heritage of The Man in the Silver Mask. In sixteen years, the son continues the tradition, first by hunting down his father's killers. In subsequent adventures, the new Santo battles both human and supernatural evildoers. These comics contributed greatly to crafting the legend of El Santo.

As seen by a few panels from issue number four (shown below), the artwork was of a collage-type: drawings mixed with photos.

The Kingdom Comics website offers a history of the Santo comics, as well as several downloads. Not certain that this will happen, but I may attempt to translate at least one comic for this blog.

La cabeza vivente (1961)

2008-03-11T10:43:00.000-07:00

The world waits for the resurrection of the CasaNegra DVD company, and the freedom from confinement of its two shelved Mexican horror releases--El mundo de los vampiros (The World of the Vampires) and La cabeza viviente (The Living Head). The former film is one of the wildest and most fascinating excursions in the vampire genre--eagerly welcome to DVD--but I consider the latter film the nadir of Salazar's eight horror films, though it has its entertainment and DVD value to be sure. Here's a brief overview of the film and its background:

Taking a week break after shooting El baron del terror (The Brainiac) at Churubusco Studios, the efficient Abel Salazar and his production company ABSA were back at the studio on March 1st, 1961, to make another horror film. Having dealt with the vampire (the Count Lavud films, and El mundo de los vampiros/The World of the Vampires), a Jekyll & Hyde (El hombre y al monstruo/The Man and the Monster), a sinister warlord (El baron del terror/The Brainiac), Salazar must have felt it was about time to give the mummy genre a chance and the same screenwriting team that gave him El baron del terror—Frederico Curiel and Adolfo Lopez Portillo—provided a script. Chano Urueta was again at the directorial helm and in familiar pre-colonial Mexican territory, having mined this terrain way back in 1933 with Profanacion, and in 1939 with El signo de la muerte and La noche de los Mayas.

Borrowing for its credits the main theme from El baron del terror, the film opens with stock shots of the Aztec world (possibly taken from one of Urueta’s earlier films) and then a sacrifice of a traitorous Aztec warrior whose heart is cut out of his body by Xiho, the high priest. (The heart, dripping with blood, is a novel sight for the time of the film's exhibition, though the gore intensity is muted by the film’s black and white palette.) Thereafter we learn that the traitor had caused the death and beheading of great warrior Acatl. Xiho (Guillermo Cramer) is entombed with the head, as is the high priestess Xochiquetzal (Ana Luisa Peluff0). Over four centuries later, in 1963, an archaeological expedition led by Professor Herman Meuller (German Robles) uncovers the sealed tomb. The change in air pressure causes Xochiquetzal's mummy to vaporize, leaving for the taking Acatl's head, the perfectly preserved body of Xiho (which doesn't vaporize), and a large ring that, unknown to the expedition, reveals in its jewel the person destined to die in connection with Acatl and the tomb's desecration. Anyone familiar with Mummy films can guess the rest of the plot.

La cabeza viviente was first exhibited in Mexico in 1963, which required the changing of the time-line from 1961, the year of the film's production. (You can spot the change: A different font is used for displaying the year 1963 in the time-line dissolves that proceed from Aztec times.) The film’s working title, El ojo de la muerte (The Eye of Death), refers to the ancient Aztec ring already mentioned.

Urueta’s direction is rather pedestrian for this outing, possibly reflecting the speedy shoot and the bareness of certain areas of the script. The climax is particularly poor, with Professor Meuller, as the father of the main female character (who is, of course, spiritually connected to the Aztec high priestess, Xochiquetzal) trying to rationalize with a bewitched character (Robert, the male romantic lead played by Mauricio Garces) into not killing his daughter, rather than stepping in to physically stop him. It's an absurd scene, making the father appear cringing and cowardly, and German Robles overacts throughout, as if never receiving any direction from Urueta during this crucial climax.

Furthermore, the K. Gordon Murray dub, The Living Head, which is most familiar to Americans, is filled with classic bad-film lines and a sonorous, portentous reading by dubber Paul Frees of Robles’ lines that gives the film extra humor value where none was originally intended.

La cabeza viviente is the most predictable of Salazar’s movies, nowhere near as outré as his other horrors, and revisiting territory recently covered in Mexican and world horror cinema. It offers almost nothing in the way of innovation.

One might have supposed that, with this film, it was time for Salazar to call it quits and end his mining of horror themes, but there was one more film destined to emerge from his ABSA production company, a masterpiece that ended the horror reign of Salazar with a bang--La maldicion de la Llorona (The Curse of the Crying Woman).

La bruja (1954)

2008-02-16T12:56:00.000-08:00

Several Mexican films from the early 1950s anticipated Mexico's horror boom that started in 1957 with El vampiro, and several key figures during this time emerged to later take advantage of their creative accomplishments. One of the most important members of this select group was director and scriptwriter Chano Urueta. In the space of two years, Urueta directed and scripted three films that would foreshadow and influence Mexico's forthcoming horror and lucha libre films: Monstruo resucitado (1953), La bestia magnifica (1953), and La bruja (1954). The story of the latter film, incidentally, was thought up by Alfredo Salazar, a few years before his brother, Abel, produced El vampiro.

La bruja tells the rather simple, yet effective tale of a woman's life-sacrificing love for a man who, initially, is very much out of reach for her because of his handsome looks. This woman is "la bruja," the witch, a hideous being who inhabits an underground world of outcasts and is regarded with loathing and suspicion even there. Made beautiful by a maddened doctor to carry out his revenge against the heads of a company that desired his formula and accidentally killed his daughter, "la bruja" falls in love with the only innocent high-ranking member of that company, Fedor, played by the debonair Ramon Gay, sans his usual moustache.

Framed by a window, "la bruja" (Lilia de Valle) looks into bourgeoisie society,
as her manipulator, Dr. Boerner (Julio Villarreal), stands behind her.
----------------------------------------

Chano Urueta deliciously crafts a sinister underworld of the poor, wretched and handicapped, a society lorded over by Paulesco, a sort of early and non-supernatural version of Coffin Joe. (Paulesco is played by the future "Dr. Krupp" of the Aztec Mummy films--Juan Aceves Castaneda, while the actor who played the Aztec Mummy, Angel Di Stefani, turns up as a beggar.) Along with the scenes featuring "la bruja" (whose look on the big screen must have been both shocking and riveting), it is these moments in the underground lair that resonate with atmosphere, artful camera positioning, and directorial flourishes. A black-robed trial of the "Tribunal of the Night" that takes place within leads one to surmise that Urueta is setting up a socialistic court date against the ruling class where the judges and jury are from the lower class, but we eventually realize that this society of outcasts is as to be feared, with its cruelty and baser passions, as the opulent and "respected" society above ground.

While one feels that Urueta is at home in this bizarre environment, the rendering of the apparent locale of the story--some unidentified Balkan country--is practically non-existent. The Churubusco studio where the film was helmed fails to duplicate any Balkan locale, and, it seems, there's little attempt to do so, despite the employment of Gunther Gerzso, with his Hungarian/German background, as production designer.

The connections with the European continent come, probably by choice, from some of the actors, however. Lilia del Valle, who assays the titular role, was born Lilián Welker Gundlach, which suggest a Germanic heritage, while the two villains in suits-- Jan and Gunther--are played by German-born Fernando Wagner and Austrian-born Charles Rooner. Even the non-Spanish speaker can recognize their careful Spanish diction.

A melodramatic horror film, a tragedy of beauty and beast where the beast is a woman and the beauty a man, La bruja is not as splendidly outré in its horrors as Urueta's earlier El monstruo resucitado; its aims are simpler and its rewards more straightforward, but welcome nevertheless.

Hasta el viento tiene miedo (2007)

2008-02-01T19:48:00.000-08:00

Based on the 1968 Carlos Enrique Taboada film of the same title, Hasta el viento tiene miedo (Even the Wind is Scared) was one of Mexico's big hits last year, seen by over one million audience members and coming in #5 in the top ten Mexican films seen in that country.

Here's a trailer of the film:

And here's a blog, in Spanish, which devotes itself to this remake:

hastaelvientotienemiedo.blogspot.com

No word yet on if this film will be seen in American theaters or on American DVD.

2nd Volume of Demois' South of the Border Set

2008-01-19T17:40:00.000-08:00

Streeting on March 4, 2008 will be the second volume of Deimos' "South of the Border" collection. This one will contain the following films:

Night of the Bloody Apes
Curse of the Doll People
Spiritism
Masterworks of Terror
Wrestling Women vs. The Aztec Mummy
Doctor of Doom
New Invisible Man

Monsters from the Vault #24

2008-01-12T15:29:00.000-08:00

The newest issue of the highly regarded "classic horror" magazine, Monsters from the Vault, will feature a special section on Mexican horror--Bryan Senn's extensive review of the Mexican horror films released on DVD by CasaNegra, and a rare interview with German Robles, the star of the two seminal El Vampiro films and the Nostradamus series.

The stunning cover by Joe Schovitz features German Robles against a backdrop from a scene in Santo contra las mujeres vampiro (Santo vs. the Vampire Women).

The issue, number 24, is now at press and should be available near the end of January. Copies can be ordered directly from the publisher, Jim Clatterbaugh, at the Monsters from the Vault website:

Monsters from the Vault

Christmas and New Year Cheers

2007-12-26T10:57:00.000-08:00

Hope all readers of this blog are having a wonderful Christmas and holiday time, and that all will have a bountiful and happy New Year!

The coming year looks like a good one for Mexican horror. CasaNegra should be back with the two DVD releases (WORLD OF THE VAMPIRES and THE LIVING HEAD) that were held back due to financial problems, BCI/Deimos is continuing with their Mexican horror packages (we may even see the "lost" Santo film, El vampiro y el sexo, from the company), and, yes, finally the book Vampiros and Monstruos should see publication!

So stay tuned for an informative and entertaining journey into Mexican horror and fantasy!

Wrestling Women vs. The Brainiac Trailer

2007-12-25T19:58:00.000-08:00

Not looking so good.

Mil Mascaras vs. The Aztec Mummy Trailer

2007-12-22T09:29:00.000-08:00

Looks good.

The Return of Mil Mascaras

2007-12-17T15:03:00.000-08:00

Folks who have been aware of Mil Mascaras vs. the Aztec Mummy, which was made what seems like two years ago, have been wondering what has happened to the film. It hasn't turned up in any theater (not that it necessarily would), and there's been no DVD release yet or update info on the official website of the film. For those who don't know, Mil Mascaras vs. the Aztec Mummy was produced in the United States by University of Missouri professors Jeffrey Uhlmann and Kannappan Palaniappan, using college talent and the services of Mexico's legendary lucha libre star, Mil Mascaras.

My suspicion as to the movie's absence has to do with the Aztec Mummy character, and the possible legal weight put upon the new film because it wasn't squared away with the Calderon film company, which claims rights to the character. And, sure enough, the film has re-emerged under a different title: Mil Mascaras: Resurrection--which isn't that great of a title. According to a poster on the Classic Horror Film Board (possibly Mexican film authority David Wilt under a different screen name), the film, or portions of it, had to be reshot to make it suitable for theatrical play. Another reason may be to rework the "Aztec Mummy" aspects of the film, if not elimiate them completely. (The mummy could now be called something else, for instance.)

At the heels of this production emerged another (!) Mil Mascaras film produced by the same duo--Wrestling Women vs. the Brainiac--which now has also been retitled to: Academy of Doom. One wonders again if the title change is indicative of a rights problem.

Despite these setbacks, I'm looking forward to seeing these films. I've read the script of Mil Mascaras vs. the Aztec Mummy, and thoroughly enjoyed it. The plot and dialog remind me of the tongue-in-cheek, but sincere spirit of the old Batman TV show. Photos from the film present a well-put-together effort. The poster on the CHFB endorses both films: "I have seen the mummy film and it is spectacular. The other film is also excellent but it is much less mainstream and will find its greatest appeal among the die-hard lucha film connoisseurs - which I am!"

Alterfilms

2007-11-26T10:27:00.000-08:00

A Mexican DVD company, Alterfilms, has been releasing Mexican horror and lucha libre films for a few years now under the "Vive Mexico" banner. Subtitled "Cine en 35mm," the prints are in far better quality than we've seen before, although, judging by a sampling, these are not sourced from pristine negatives, but rather from prints that show occassional nicks and lines. Besides their fine quality, the initial releases in this series had English subtitles, a policy that, unfortunately, seems not to have been in effect for too long. Below is a list of horror, fantasy, horror-comedy, lucha libre films that Alterfilms has released so far, from the most recent to the earliest:

Las Lobas del Ring
El Castillo de los Monstruos
Santo Vs. el Espectro del Estrangulador
Santo y el Aguila Real
El profeta Mimí
Santo vs Los Asesinos de otros mundos
Asesinos de la Lucha Libre
La casa de los espantos
Santo contra Blue Demon en la Atlántida
Anónimo mortal
Santo y Blue Demon en el mundo de los muertos
Santo vs las lobas
Doña Macabra (English subtitles)
Dos fantasmas y una muchacha (English subtitles)
Macario (English subtitles)
Santo en el Museo de Cera(English subtitles)
Santo y Blue Demon contra los Monstruos (English subtitles)

Where does one purchase these DVDs? Ebay is one place, and also the Alterfilms website, though I have no idea what the shipping cost from Mexico will be.

Here's a nice image of the Frankenstein Monster from Santo en el Museo de Cera:

The Return of CasaNegra

2007-11-17T06:39:00.000-08:00

Possibly. Not a done deal yet, but according to posts by Mike Liuzza, honcho of CasaNegra and Panik House, the two names and their acquisitions are in the process of being sold to yet unnamed company, individual or group of individuals. This info appeared at the Cinehound forum, where Liuzza, as "brains99," revealed to posters who he is and a bit of his background. (Work for the Mr. Skin website, formation of Panik House and CasaNegra, etc.) As far as CasaNegra and its on-hold Mexican horror titles, World of the Vampires and The Living Head, are concerned and any future Mexican horror releases, the money quotes are: "I intend to keep helping the new owners locate and acquire films though. That's all I can reveal about it at this time. What I can tell you is Chained Heat, Red Heat and Jungle Warriors WILL be released at some point in 2008, as well as World of the Vampires and The Living Head. Any future titles for both labels beyond that will be up to the new owners, if in fact everything goes as planned. We should know soon."

Thanks to David Wilt for the alert, which initially appeared on the DVD Maniacs forum.

East West's Mexican Horror and Fantasy Line

2007-11-03T18:13:00.000-07:00

Are they legit? Who knows, but East West DVD has been releasing a bunch of Mexican films, including a few in the horror/fantasy/lucha libra genres. These are poverty-row budget DVDs that, if you can find them in your neighborhood ethnic DVD store, sell from $1 to $2. Covers are exploitatively interesting, making these DVDs collectable items despite their rather middling pictorial quality. Pictured above is the cover of Carlos Enrique Taboada's sublime masterpiece, El libro de piedra. Below is the cover to the second Kaliman film, which is subtitled in English! (The transfer must have been taken from a previous, more expensive release of this title on DVD from another company, Vanguard International Cinema. The source for El libro de piedra is probably a Tekila Films DVD issued in 2005.)

Blazed at the bottom of each cover is the website of East West, but, of course, when one goes to the website one finds that it is "under construction." Good luck in finding out anything about this company and the extent of their holdings--as well as the legitimacy of their ownership of these holdings.

Anyway, one way or another, old-time Mexican horror and fantasy lives on!

Deimos' South of the Border Horror Collection

2007-11-02T09:31:00.001-07:00

Deimos is introducing a new Mexican horror series in its Crypt of Terror line. All films will be in Spanish audio with English subtitles, except Don't Panic, which will be offered up in an English version and a Spanish, with English subtitles, version. Streeting in December is Volume 1 of HORROR FROM SOUTH OF THE BORDER. Here are the contents of this set:

Vacation of Terror (Vacaciones de terror) A family buys a summer house in the Mexican countryside. but this dream home is not what it seems. The youngest daughter finds a diabolical doll, possessed by a witch, who takes control of her and supernaturally attempts to kill the rest of the family. Not Rated - 90 minutes - 1989

Vacation of Terror 2 (Vacaciones de Terror 2) The diabolical doll and Pedro Fernández return for this sequel to the original film. Julio is invited to a birthday party for a little girl on Halloween in a closed movie studio. At the party, he notices she has a doll that resembles the one that his little sister had. This is one party you'll be dying to leave! Not Rated - 90 minutes - 1989

Hell's Trap (Trampa Infernal) A group of hunters are searching for a bear. But what they find is a maniacal Vietnam vet defending his land by planting deadly booby traps for the group. The hunters become the hunted. NR - 90 minutes - 1990

Cemetery of Terror (Cementerio Del Terror) A group of medical students steal the deceased boy of Satanic serial killer Devlon from the morgue to play a Halloween prank. The students perform a Black Mass in an attempt to raise Devlon from the dead with the help of his Satanic book. When nothing happens, but a bad rainstorm, the students flee to a nearby empty house to party. Little do they know the mass worked and Devlon is looking to crash their party. A group of young trick-or-treaters also arrive at the house, but there are no treats at this house. Not Rated. 88 Min - 1985

Grave Robbers (Ladrones de Tumbas) Four teenagers on a camping trip decide to rob a nearby graveyard. They stumble across an ornate grave and tomb housing the corpse of an executed Satanist from the days of the Inquisition. The tomb was used for Satanic rituals and inquisition torture and it's full of gold and jewelry. Our teens believe they have struck it rich or so they think. Soon the deceased Satanist zombie, armed with a massive battle-axe, rises from the grave to claim his treasure. Not Rated - 87 Minutes - 1990

The Demon Rat (La Rata Malidita) In the near future, environmental pollution has increased to the point that people must wear dark glasses and breathing masks just to walk the streets. However, science teacher Axel and his colleague Irina discover an even darker side of the crisis: toxic chemicals dumped by Irina's estranged husband Roberto have resulted in the creation of monstruously mutated animals and insects. And one of these, a man-sized mutant rat, has taken up residence in Irina's house! A tense, four-way showdown between Roberto, Axel, Irina, and the man-rat concludes with only two survivors. Not Rated - 90 Minutes - 1991 Produced by Raúl Galindo - Directed by Rubén Galindo Jr. - Screenplay by Raúl Galindo Jr., José Mobellán - Story by Rubén Galindo Jr. In Spanish with English Subtitles

Don't Panic (Dimensiones Ocultas) (ENGLISH VERSION) On his 17th birthday, Michael is given a Ouija board as a gift from his best friend Tony. During their first attempt to use the board, they unlock an evil force within the board, an evil spirit named Virgil. Soon, there is a wave of violent deaths around town and Michael appears to be the suspect having been a witness to the killings via premonitions. Not Rated - 90 Minutes - 1989 - Color Disc 4 Side B Don't Panic (Dimensiones Ocultas) (SPANISH VERSION)

Silence from Your Host

2007-10-24T18:58:00.000-07:00

I've been terribly busy doing work-for-a-living chores this past month, in another city, which has prevented me from updating this blog, but soon these overtime duties will come to an end and regular updates on Mexican horror will continue.

A bit of good news was announced by Fangoria recently. BCI will be releasing a "South of the Border" collection (Volume 1!!!) containing the following films: VACATION OF TERROR (VACACIONES DE TERROR), VACATION OF TERROR 2 (VACACIONES DE TERROR 2), HELL’S TRAP (TRAMPA INFERNAL), CEMETERY OF TERROR (CEMENTERIO DEL TERROR), GRAVE ROBBERS (LADRONES DE TUMBAS), THE DEMON RAT (LA RATA MALDITA) and DON’T PANIC (DIMENSIONES OCULTAS). More on this set soon.

Silence from Mexican Horror DVD Land

2007-09-23T13:16:00.000-07:00

Nada (that's Spanish for "nothing") from my request three weeks ago to Rebel Crew Films for an interview with someone, anyone, who can shed light on the company's past and current Mexican horror offerings. Neither has anyone heard anything recent from CasaNegra, despite a claim from Michael Liuzza that the company is not kaput. With rumors rampant that CasaNegra is no more and a request by Liuzza to spread the word that the company is alive, wouldn't it be wise for someone at CasaNegra to update its website or My Space presence? But mystery is good for the soul. It keeps us on our toes and keeps us guessing.

Backstreet DVD Companies of Mexican Horror

2007-09-04T10:17:00.000-07:00

What do I mean by "backstreet"? Well, these are small companies and distributors of "urban," latino, children, animation and other lower budget films whose websites (if they have them) frequently do not give up-to-date information about all their product. Their Mexican holdings have been apparently acquired through package deals with other companies, and it's dubious that the original rights holders in Mexico, if they exist, are aware of the DVD production of their films in the United States. Still, as far as is known, everything is perfectly legal, despite the fact that it's hard, if not impossible, to contact a higher up in such a company who will answer questions about the company's Mexican releases. It's almost as if these companies wish to remain underground, being content to distribute their product to several online retailers and big city neighborhood stores that cater to Hispanic customers.

Today, I came across in a DVD store on West 14th Street in Manhattan two Mexican horror DVDs from a company called Phoenix Entertainment Group, distributed by Allumination FilmWorks. Each was priced at $4.99. (That's another thing about these mysterious releases--they tend to be cheaply priced.) The films were La bruja (1954) and La Llorona (1959), two classics from Mexico's golden age of horror. The front and back covers look almost identical to the previous releases of these films from Ground Zero, which had made a deal with the Agrasanchez Group over two years ago for a sizable group of Mexican horror and lucha-libre films. (Phoenix's CEO is Anthony Perez, who used to run--surprise, surprise--Ground Zero. From the ashes of Ground Zero comes Phoenix rising?)

According to a press release on their site, Allumination will be distributing Phoenix product, though so far, in the Mexican horror department, only La bruja and La Llorona are mentioned.

While we wait for an American DVD company to release Mexican horror with English subtitles, we have to do with these non-subtitled releases, which generally have a pleasing picture quality. If you can't find them at your big city neighborhood store, you can probably get them for a cheap price on eBay. Just make sure they are the original DVDs, and not DVD-R copies.

CasaNegra--The Comeback?

2007-08-30T10:34:00.000-07:00

As reported by David Wilt on the Latarnia forums, CasaNegra appears to still be in business and hopeful of releasing new titles in the near future!

Wilt posted an e-mail received by Darryl Mayeski of Screem magazine from Michael Liuzza that stated:

"Thanks very much for your interest. PLEASE spread the word, CasaNegra is still around and we are hoping the future looks bright. We just need a bit more time to work out some details. If your fans are wondering... please tell them to hang tight a little while longer. We are hoping to be back with new releases very soon."

So spread the good word!

Mexican Horror and the Latin Market

2007-08-28T04:05:00.000-07:00

In an informative and thorough old interview on Cinephelia.com, Michael Liuzza, one of the persons behind CasaNegra, responded to the question of how many Spanish speaking households have acquired CasaNegra's DVDs.

"We have not been able to fully assess that yet mainly because we have not yet fully targeted the Latin and or Mexican American consumer directly. You really have to know what you are doing with that. Marketing to that demographic is a bit different then marketing to the other consumers. While the Latin consumer in America is slowly getting in the with the rest of the mix they still shop at their own stores and stick closely to their own culture so a grass roots effort is extremely important here. We do have plans to market directly but it takes some time to put together the right plan for the right venues and since we are not Latin ourselves it's a bit of a learning process for us. But again, we are confident there is a substantial number of Latin consumers who will appreciate what we are doing."

According to a USA Today online article:

• The U.S. Hispanic market, some 50 million people, is the second-largest in the world, trailing only Mexico.

• Hispanic consumers have one of the largest disposable incomes of any minority group, and the U.S. Census Bureau predicts 29% growth in the Hispanic population in the next eight years, vs. 9% generally.

The tapping of the Hispanic market may be crucial to the success of Mexican horror on DVD. It's clear from the Liuzza interview that CasaNegra did not actively go after this market. Would it have mattered in the final tally?

Difficult to say, because I'm convinced that most of the U.S. Hispanic market is not that interested in old horror films from Mexico, but (depending on how much was spent beforehand) it only takes about 5000 DVD units sold to make a DVD successful. Of course, budget dollars would be necessary to invest in advertising to the Hispanic market, and the advertising would have to catchy and have the power to create a healthy consumer base. In all likelihood someone with a thorough knowledge of the Hispanic market would have to be hired to craft such an advertising campaign. As stated on SmartMoney.com:

With Hispanics rapidly becoming the largest minority group in this country and increasingly wielding buying clout, everyone from Fortune 500 corporations to television stations to sports stadiums are waking up to this growing consumer market. But business owners whose roots are in places like Mexico or Latin America or Puerto Rico are discovering a new-found advantage: With deep knowledge of Latin culture and united by the Spanish language, they inherently know best how to reach Hispanic customers.

Whenever I go to a NYC DVD store that has a substantial Latin section for Spanish customers, I see tons of cartel, ranchero and India Maria films. Is there no room for Mexican horror films? With English subtitles, please.

The Dynamics of the CasaNegra Failure

2007-08-24T05:28:00.000-07:00

The failure of CasaNegra to succeed in a line of classic Mexican horror films gives rise to speculation about what, if anything, the company did wrong, but chiefly (in my mind) about the viability of Mexican horror in the American and even international market.

Regarding CasaNegra itself, the company did get the attention of many horror fans and nutured a positive and in many cases enthusiastic response to its releases, consistently receiving high marks for the quality and presentation of its films. The company even won a Rondo Award for best DVD company of 2006. While I can complain about the commentaries that were included on its initial releases (needless commentaries because of the lack of familiarity and knowledge of Mexican horror and its filmmakers) and that one awful cover for The Man and the Monster (a cover that in itself pointed to a desperate, last ditch attempt to gain a greater consumer response), I can't point to any one thing that CasaNegra did wrong that would have effected its releases negatively in the marketplace.

Which leads to the critical issue: Is Mexican horror sellable here in the United States?

I believe that it's not. At least not sellable enough to justify significant expenditure on the acquisition of prime prints and the production of sterling Criterion-like releases. At it's not just CasaNegra that has met a depressing fate when releasing Mexican films to the American market. A few years ago Kit Parker tried to establish a DVD line of Mexican classics for VCI, including a series of Santo films, that petered out after a couple of releases. More recently BCI tried to interest consumers with an Aztec Mummy box set and several Mexican horrors, an endeavor that also didn't produce notable financial results.

The bottom line is that the general horror audience in America, let alone the American public, is not really that interested in Mexican horror films, old or new, in black-and-white or in color, unless a Mexican horror film makes it big in theaters, such as some of the films coming from Guillermo del Toro. The sadder fact is that even in Mexico, Mexican horror films are not hot or lukewarm items. As in the United States, they tend to be ignored by the masses, as they are ignored in the rest of the world. (A DVD company in France, Bach Films, introduced a line of Mexican horror classics, almost the same one released by CasaNegra here in the States, to disappointing results.)

Despite our affection for these films, we must realize that they are niche product at this time, far distant from the days (in many cases almost fifty years ago!) when they were popular, either in theaters or on TV. Time moves forward, and the attention of newer generations is focused on so many other things and not, obviously, on Mexican horror films.

What is to be done to rectify this situation? And are we, the fans of these films, doomed to view Mexican horror films through murky bootlegs that lack the English subtitles so many of us desperately need?

Regarding the first question, the most that can be done is to continue what we've been doing--watching these films, talking about them, spreading the good word and supporting endeavors that further promote Mexican horror.

Regarding authorized releases of Mexican horror in the United States, with English subtitles, it still is possible for some company to take an admitted risk to acquire rights to release Mexican horror films, but such a company can't give in to exorbitant demands on the part of the Mexican rights owners, nor should they be too concerned about making sure that the elements are in sterling condition. Cutting unnecessary financial costs would be crucial. A US DVD company could also make attempts to work with Mexican DVD companies, so that both can produce and market DVDs that do have a passionate, albeit small audience. Mexican DVD companies that do on occasion release a Mexican horror film (usually with lucha libre legends) could be solicited to make sure those releases have optional English subtitles, and then those releases could be exported to the United States.

Something may just click, and Mexican horror could become reasonably popular, enough so as to justify the expenditure and time spent on producing such DVDs. Perhaps a patron or patrons can be found--a person or persons with ready capital, for whom being in the red on such releases wouldn't matter much, and who could get satisfaction at the promotion and archiving of an important and fascinating catalog of films, films that we'll never see the likes of again and which addressed a country's entertainment and spiritual needs, as well as our own.

The End of CasaNegra

2007-08-15T16:02:00.000-07:00

The first word came on the DVD Maniacs message board on August 12. Poster Thomas Hart informed the board that he heard from Synapse honcho Don May Jr at the Horrorfind Convention that Panik House and its sub-label CasaNegra Entertainment were out of business. News spread quickly to other message boards, and the news was confirmed on the Classic Horror Film Board, where Monsters From the Vault publisher Jim Clatterbaugh, who is preparing a special Mexican horror-themed issue of his magazine, admitted that he knew about CasaNegra's troubles for a while, but needed to keep silent.

I saw this coming for several months--first when I saw this in a NY Times article on niche DVD companies:

As independent retailers dwindle, larger chains focused more on mainstream titles seem to “control and set the arbitrary taste for the entire market,” said Matt Kennedy, former president of Panik House Entertainment, which specializes in international genre movies like “The Curse of the Crying Woman” and “The Pinky Violence Collection. Not getting a title into one of these stores can be the death of a small label, but so can getting one in. If you get an order for 40,000 titles and only sell 4,000 because it was left boxed in the back, misfiled by category or never entered into inventory, it can mean bankruptcy.”

Aside from the despairing information, I noted that Matt Kennedy was now the "former president" of Panik House. Something clearly was up.

Then, the remaining head of the company, Michael Liuzza, posted a message on the Latarnia boards stating that CasaNegra should not be thought of as just a company releasing Mexican horror films, that it's aims were wider, and hinting that future product would reflect this.

I knew what that signified: Despite all the acclaim, CasaNegra's Mexican horror releases had not been as successful in the marketplace as hoped. They were, in fact, money losers when taking into account how much they cost to acquire from their rights owner, Alameda Films. Michael's statement about the label expanding had a feeling of a prospectus to me, and I easily pictured such a thing being planned out to save a small DVD company in trouble.

I have heard recently that Michael was indeed trying to find investors to breathe life back into CasaNegra. It seems that effort has failed.

This leaves two films waiting in the wings--The World of the Vampires and The Living Head. While one shouldn't cry about not seeing the latter film actualized as a definitive DVD, the former is one of the wildest and most entertaining rides in the Mexican horror filmography.

I think there is still a possibility, however slim, that CasaNegra may rise again. One shouldn't give up hope. And, unless CasaNegra never acquired the elements for Vampires and Living Head, it still could be possible for the company to sell the films to another company (taking a loss, of course), who could then issue them on DVD.

Various questions arise out of the failure of CasaNegra. I'll try to address these in my next post.

Leyendas macabras de la Colonia (1973)

2007-07-18T16:37:00.000-07:00

My initial aim was to just show the entrancing primitive cover for an old Mexican video release of Leyendas macabras de la Colonia (shown above), but then I decided make a DVD-R of the video and subsequently started to watch the film, which I had already seen some time ago, but forgotten much about.

The film is, in a word, bad, but with that exquisite badness of certain Mexican fantastique that qualifies it as a low-grade mescaline trip or a dazed tequila dream (not potent enough to be a nightmare) of an incomprehensible walk among the weird and the strange. The Rogelio Agrasanchez production stars three lucha libre heroes--Mil Mascaras, Tinieblas, and El Fantasma Blanco, and the high-cheekboned actress, Lorena Velazquez, best known to Mexican horror fans for her role as Queen Thorina in El Santo contra las mujeres vampiro (Santo vs. the Vampire Women, 1962). The story has Tinieblas buying a haunted painting, which later in the evening transports him and his wrestling buddies and two girlfriends back to Mexico's colonial times. This fivesome is mostly kept out of the action and the action takes place all in one night, as a sorceresses, played by Velazquez, takes vengeance on those who tortured and executed her mother, now a mummy who looks like the Aztec Mummy's better half. The characters of La Llorona and El Monje Loco make embarrassing appearances.

The plot is good for a half-hour TV show, but it's padded out with one of the longest lucha libra matches committed to film (nearly twenty minutes long), a couple of uninspired sword fights, and a slowed-down pace that surprisingly isn't boring, but mind-tripping instead. A mind-trip that induces a honeyed languor and an understanding that life makes no sense, but it's okay, because sleep will come again and then another dream will take over.

You can well imagine movie patrons in Spanish theaters going to see this film in the early 1970s with high expectations and then being trapped into watching something so awful, yet so insightful as to the human condition. I've been in theaters in Central America where I've had such other-worldly, yet equally earthy, experiences, and they humanize one and give one a calmness of the body, mind and spirit. Perhaps it is only through a certain type of bad film that we look at ourselves and realize the co-existent duality that we and life are unreal, as well as real. Good films never present this type of learning. Not even close.

The ending of Leyendas macabras is amusing, however, even naively ridiculous, so the film does leave a viewer on a relative high note, which is always a good note to leave on after you've been through the ringer in primal philosophy and dumbfounding meditations. You can actually leave this film feeling satisfied, which is remarkable considering it is not a satisfactory film.

The print I saw seemed to have the murkiness and color bleed of 16mm, which just made everything more captivating.

The title is flavorful a la español (I believe there was a Mexican horror comic with the same title), and the poster artwork wonderfully evocative. The film was completely shot in Antigua Guatemala, one of the best persevered cities from Spain's colonial past in the New World, so your trip will be in actual historically heady locales.

The film is available on American DVD from BCI's Brentwood, double-billed with El robo de las momias de Guanajuato, another picture produced by Rogelio Agrasanchez and filmed in Guatemala. Spanish language only.

Bela Lugosi in Mexico

2007-07-07T09:24:00.000-07:00

It never happened. Bela Lugosi never made a film in Mexico, but it could very well have happened had Lugosi lived past 1956. Indeed, it's highly probable that Lugosi would have been easily seduced to make horror films in Mexico just as several of his compatriots in American horror films had been. Lon Chaney Jr. was the first American horror legend to make a Mexican film, La casa del terror (1959). In that film he played not only a mummy, but a werewolf, with make-up similar to his famous portrayal of Lawrence Talbot in Universal's classic horror series of films in the 1940s. Lugosi's "rival", Boris Karloff, made four films for Mexican producer Luis Enrique Vergera during the spring of 1968, though because of his emphysema, he had to film his scenes in Los Angeles. Basil Rathbone, Lugosi's co-star in Son of Frankenstein (1939) and The Black Sleep (1956), succumbed to the need for money with Autopsia de un fantasma, (1967) a lighter touch Mexican fantasy. The American horror star with the most credits in Mexican fantastique is, no surprise, John Carradine, who reprised his Dracula role in Las vampiras (1968) and made four more Mexican films, Autopsia de un fantasma, La Senora Muerte (1967), Pacto diabolico (1968), and Enigma de muerte (1968).

Lugosi's death came right before the explosion of Mexican horror in 1957 when El vampiro became such a success, with German Robles in the role of the vampiric Count Lavud. One wonders if Lugosi himself would have been solicited for this role by producer Abel Salazar, but even if he had not been, the upswing in horror film production in Mexico would have meant that Mexican film producers would have sought the original Dracula actor and horror king to star in their films. Undoubtedly, someone would have had the predictable, but certainly thrilling thought of having Lugosi appear as the legendary fright character, Dracula himself. Given how many of the Mexican horror films of the 1950s imitated a Universal feeling (even going beyond the Universal films in atmosphere in several films), any appearance by Lugosi in a Mexican horror film would have pleased many horror fans and reinvigorated Lugosi and his career. Had Lugosi lived into the 1960s, it's probable that a Mexican horror film in color, with Lugosi as Dracula, would have been made. This would have been a realization of one of his latter day goals--an appearance in a color film as his most famous character.

El monstruo resucitado (1953)

2007-07-02T08:10:00.000-07:00

An investigative reporter, Nora (Miroslava Stern), is sent by her editor to find out if ads in personal columns hold any kind of interesting story element. At an arranged meeting in the dock area of the city, she meets the writer of an intriguing advert--a mysterious man, dressed in black, his face covered by what looks like a black surgical mask and his eyes hidden by dark glasses. Determined to stick to her assignment, despite the man's peculiar, if not frightening, appearance, she accepts to ride back to his house. In the car, he introduces himself as Herman Ling (Jose Maria Linares-Riva).

They arrive at a cemetery and get out. Ling's country hilltop residence is reached through this spooky graveyard of gnarled trees and tombstones jutting up at odd angles, as if the dead under the earth were attempting to push through the ground to seek revenge or succor in the land of the living. As the horrors begin to mount, Nora stifles her fear in pursuit of the story. Ling's house is filled with sculpted figures of women in various tragic poses; at his employ is a peculiar servant who appears either half-idiotic or half-mad. The mirrors of the house are covered in black cloth. Soon, horrid noises and screams will be heard. We have fully entered the land of nightmare....

Trapped by her own desire to complete her assignment, Nora must brace herself for these horrors and more to come. Ling, who is a plastic surgeon, begins to reveal his past to Nora, telling her of his rejection by society and his peers. Nora responds with sympathy in order to elicit more from Dr. Ling--until finally he takes the traumatic step of removing his mask in front of her. The scene and what follows contain the most raw and emotionally uncompromising moments of any such "Phantom of the Opera" moments in cinematic history. At this time, El monstruo resucitado reaches its most impacting, if not shattering point. Soon after, however, another plot element is introduced which quickly turns the film in another direction. Back in a restaurant in the city, Nora relates to her editor the horrors of the night. Unbeknownst to her, Dr. Ling, wishing to make sure if Nora's sympathetic feelings have been real, has hidden himself behind a partition in the restaurant, and he overhears her conversation with her editor. Now there will be revenge. To that end, Dr. Ling restores life to a suicide victim, Serguei Rostov (Carlos Navarro), turning him into Ariel, who will be his automaton of vengeance. The resuscitated "monster" is handsome, while his maker, Dr. Herman Ling, is the repulsive monster. The good-looking and charming Ariel introduces himself to Nora at her favorite restaurant. A relationship begins, while Dr. Ling plots to have Nora kidnapped and disfigured....

Miroslava Stern, who professionally went by her first name alone, received top billing in El monstruo resucitado. Stern was a Czech émigré, who escaped with her father and mother from the Nazi takeover of her country. Her stardom began solidified when she appeared on the cover of LIFE magazine in 1950, for her role in The Brave Bulls. Her suicide in 1957 would give her a future appellation of being "The Mexican Marylin Monroe." Considering her credits in La muerte enamorada (1950), Monstruo resucitado, and Luis Bunuel’s Ensayo de un crimen (1957), one may want to add another appellation--"Mexico’s first scream queen," a descriptive that's admittedly of some tenuous reasoning, but fun, nevertheless.

Carlos Navarro received second billing, to be followed by Jose Maria Linares-Rivas, who as Dr. Herman Ling, is the undisputed star of the film, traveling expertly from stately controlled evil to pathos, then to hysterics and mad laughter, and back again. The Spanish-born Linares-Rivas had already an impressive acting resume before appearing in El monstruo resucitado, with two nominations for the Silver Ariel award for Best Supporting Actor. He died a couple of years after the making of El monstruo resucitado, at the age of fifty-four.

The man behind the mask:
Jose Maria Linares-Rivas

With El monstruo resucitado, director Chano Urueta was on his way to confirming his place as one of Mexico's premier exponents of fantasy and horror. A year later he would helm the classic La bruja (The Witch, 1954), in which a woman this time was the disfigured one. Abel Salazar would employ him for his productions of El Baron del terror (The Brainiac), El espejo de la bruja (The Witch's Mirror) and La cabeza vivente (The Living Head), which would garner Urueta, or at least his films, the attention of many horror fans in the United States.

Arduino Maiuri was responsible for the film's story and part of the screenplay. Born in Italy in 1916, Maiuri spent the 1950s in Mexico, writing many scripts, before returning to Italy in the 1960s, where he became involved in such films as Mario Bava's Diabolik (1968), Sergio Sollima's Citta violenta (1970) and Sergio Corbucci's Vamos a matar, companeros (1970).

For producer Sergio Kogan, El monstruo resucitado was his first horror film. He would follow-up with the aforementioned La bruja, then the pivotal Ladron de cadaveres (1956) and finish off his horror production with Misterios de la magia negra (1958). Though his name as a producer of horror films has been completely overshadowed by Abel Salazar (no doubt due in large part to absence of English-dubbed versions of his films), Kogan is critically important in the development of the genre in Mexico and can, with some debate, be considered the true father of the golden age of Mexican horror.

El monstruo resucitado embraces all the essential components that make a traditional horror film memorable--crescendoing terror, captivatingly weird visuals, plot surprises, and a heartfelt sympathy for the monster (in this case, two monsters--the doctor and the revived killer). There are moments in its latter half when it becomes nearly too outrageous, and the film's lackadaisical back screen projection work is unfortunate, but clearly El monstruo resucitado is just brimming for a major discovery by classic horror fans throughout the world, who should be both astounded by and delighted with the film.

German Robles at the Bash

2007-06-26T17:28:00.001-07:00

Don German Robles in front of two posters for the films that made him a legend in Mexican fantastique (photo: Jim Clatterbaugh)

One of the most luminescent and important of actors in Mexican fantasy and horror, German Robles, was honored at the Monster Bash over the weekend, and received his Monster Kid Hall of Fame Award at the Lugosiphilia Room on Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, I couldn't make it (perhaps Don Robles will stop over one day in New York for some tapas!), but from all accounts the 78 year-old Robles was delightful at the Bash and everyone came away with splendid memories of the actor, his talk and the award presentation. Below are photos graciously provided to this blog.

Jim Clatterbaugh, publisher/editor of Monsters From the Vault, and Don Robles (photo courtesy Jim Clatterbaugh)

Richard Sheffield, German Robles, and Marian and Jim Clatterbaugh. In Sheffield's hand is the cover of the next Monsters from the Vault, which features a stunning painting of "El Vampiro" (photo courtesy Jim Clatterbaugh)

Thanks to Jim Clatterbaugh, Marian Clatterbaugh, and the Classic Horror Film Board

Before the Deluge: The Early and Mid-1950s

2007-06-21T04:48:00.000-07:00

Though assuredly the success of El vampiro (1957) stimulated Mexico's golden age of horror, the country had produced a good number of fantastique films before that time, from the 1930s onward, many of them of considerable interest, and a few even classics of the genre. The early and mid-1950s are of particular interest, as it was during this period that Mexican fantastique began to unequivocally mature and foreshadow what was to come.

These are some of the notable films during these years:

El hombre sin rostro (The Man Without a Face, 1950)
El monstruo resucitado (The Revived Monster, 1953)
Retorno a la juventud (Return to Youth, 1953)
La bruja (The Witch, 1954)
Ladron de cadaveres (The Grave Robber, 1956)

This blog will take a brief look at each film in the next couple of weeks.

The Curse of the Doll People (1960)

2007-06-13T02:24:00.000-07:00

While CasaNegra Entertainment has been getting a lot of very good publicity for its Mexican horror DVDs (and rightfully so), BCI has been mining Mexican horror territory, too, with several releases from the Cinematografica Calderon catalog. Thus far, seven Mexican horror films have been released by BCI, a three-film set of the Aztec Mummy trilogy and two double-disc sets: Night of the Bloody Apes/Curse of the Doll People and Cemetery of Terror/Grave Robbers. The latter sets are part of BCI's CRYPT OF TERROR series.

Of the CRYPT OF TERROR sets, The Curse of the Doll People (Munecos infernales, 1960) is the only film that's part of Mexico's Golden Age of Horror. It is a splendid example of the outre nature of the fantastique emerging from Mexico at this time--wild and nearly ridiculous, but hypnotic and chilling at the same time.

Inspired by Tod Browning's The Devil Doll (1936) and the profanation-revenge motif of many mummy films, The Curse of the Doll People relates the fate of group of visitors to Haiti, who steal a sacred figure from a voodoo sect and bring it back to Mexico. Naturally, there's a curse attached to stealing this idol, so very shortly members of the expedition are being mysteriously killed off, one by one.

We soon find out that the killers are dolls--mobile, mute little assassins with transfixing paper-mache like faces--who employ long needles to strike at and murder their victims. At each murder they also pick up a strange hair thread knotted in nine places. This we learn later is "the sorcerer's ladder"--actually more commonly known as "the witch's ladder," an item crafted by a sorcerer or a witch that carries with it the omen of a fatal death. These machinations are the work of Zandor, a high priest of the cult from whom the religious object has been stolen. Zandor has made the journey to Mexico, along with his prune-faced, zombie helper, Staloon, who plays a wind instrument that guides and helps the killer dolls come back to safety, much like Bela Lugosi's Ygor did for the monster in two Frankenstein pictures.

Atypically for the time, the strongest and most intelligent protagonist of the film is a woman, Karina (Elvira Quintana), a doctor who has an impressive knowledge of archeology, medicine and voodoo traditions. She even takes it upon herself to courageously visit, on her own, the evil den from where the murders arise. Nowadays, when strong females are fashionably prevalent in horror films, the choice of actress would probably be some anemic waif who doesn't look suitably rigorous for the part or some gym-muscled knockout who goes overboard in Tomb Raider-like capacities and needs to knock out a few male characters to prove her strong female traits. Elvira Quintana, however, looks both feminine in that robust "I am a woman" European way (she was born in Spain) and assertive enough to hold her own in a company of men, which her character does all the time in this film.

Though not the lead male character, Molinar (Roberto G. Rivera) is also a unique presence in Mexican film. He appears to be some crime boss, with his "muscle" always around to help him, yet he is a congenial part of the gathering of friends that includes those who have been cursed. This sympathetic portrayal of a criminal and an acceptance of his lifestyle among the "good" characters in the film is unusual and oddly refreshing, as it takes into account the natural and easy cohabitation of the criminal in society. It is Molinar who finally decides to take the law into his own hands in dealing with the murders of his friends, though it will be up to Dr. Karina to find the most effective means of doing so.

What's instructive about this film, and other Mexican horror films as well, is that the performances are generally top-notch. Despite the outre subject matter of much of Mexican horror, it's difficult during this time to come across bad acting in the main principles that falls into an amateurish Ed Wood zone. (Any Woodisms are typically sourced to the risible English-language dubbing familiar to most American fans.) Mexican fantastique, at least up to the end of its golden period, was crafted by professionals, even if the films were frequently of low budget. The resumes of the artists involved are usually always impressive and involve other genres, to include serious art or drama films. While the United States had its plethora of amateurish horror films with amateurish acting, Mexico remained relatively free of these impulses, undoubtedly because of the limited options for making truly independent films. Even the masked wrestlers in luche libre films were given a veneer of acting skills, as their voices were dubbed by professional actors.

From an American perspective, the only area in which Mexico seemed deficient was in the make-up department. Mexico never produced a Jack Pierce, for instance, or a Paul Blaisdell. That said, the monsters arising from Mexican cinema are certainly unique and, in their own way, impacting. Delicacy was not a strong suit here; a powerful, immediate impression was the intent and perhaps a need to outdo the visual weirdness being manufactured in the horror cinema of Mexico's northern neighbor. As it is, The Curse of the Doll People has some of the best make-up of Mexican horror cinema. Simply and ingeniously done, the adult-faced masks of those little devils are memorable and searingly impacting to anyone who may have seen this film as a kid. Even now, from an adult's perspective, these guys are damn creepy looking, though kinda cute, too.

A member of that impressive list of exiles from the Spanish Civil War, Elvira Quintana's career in Mexico took off when she got a nose job and purportedly added more measurement to her breasts with silicon. (With her upturned nose, Quintana bears a remarkable resemblance to euro-cult actress Edwidge Fenech.) Unfortunately, in those early days silicone injections were problematic, health-wise, Elvira may have been aversely affected by them. A multitude of serious health issues began to imped her in 1967, including acute pancreatitus, and she died a year later at the age of thirty-two.

At least she outlasted her co-star Roman Gay. Gay, a popular romantic actor of the time, appeared to have been a ladies' man on and off the stage. He was shot dead by a jealous ex-husband in May of 1960. Both Quitana and Gay played with each other before, in Bolero immortal (1958), a seminal film for Quintana, and El vestido de novia (1959), so The Curse of the Doll People became a sad send-off to their brief partnership, considering that Gay would not outlive the film's premiere.

Quintin Bulnes is suitably austere and commanding in his role as Zandor, the voodoo high priest. A noteworthy character actor with a long list of credits in Mexican cinema, many in the western genre, Bulnes is a familiar face from other Mexican fantastique. He appeared in two of Boris Karloff's Mexican quartet of horrors, Dance of Death (Macabre serenade, 1968) and Isle of the Snake People (La muerte viviente, 1968) and played a vampire in Frankenstein, the Vampire and Company (Frankenstein, el vampiro y compania, 1962) and Little Red Riding Hood and the Monsters (Caperucita y Pulgarcito contra los monstruos, 1962) He's also seen in a couple of Gaston Santos westerns, as well, including the horror-tinged The Living Coffin (El grito de la muerte, 1959), which has been recently released on DVD by CasaNegra.

The director, Benito Alazraki, had a varied career in cinema that included not only genre films like Santo vs. the Zombies (Santo contra los zombies, 1961) and Spiritism (Espiritismo, 1961), but a string of well-received documentaries made during the 1950s for his own production company, Teleproducciones. He spent ten years in Spain, beginning in 1962, directing and writing television programs, and directing two co-productions with Mexico, Los jovenes amantes (1970) and Las tres perfectas casadas (1971). After returning to Mexico, Alazraki became heavily involved in managing positions in television, and kept his hand active with the occasional directing assignment.

Several members of the cast of The Curse of the Doll People (Elvira Quintana, Roberto G. Rivera, Quintin Bulnes) already appeared together for director Benito Alazraki in La ley de las pistolas (1959), likewise scripted by Doll People's screenwriter Alfredo Salazar and produced by Cinematografica Calderon (and Roberto G. Rivera). Excepting for Bulnes, the same team made an earlier western, Pistolas invencibles (1959). These were artists familiar with each other, moving smoothly from genre to genre.

BCI's The Curse of the Doll People is presented in the original Spanish version, as well as the K. Gordon Murray English-dub on the flip side of the disc. The source material appears to be from a video master provided by Cinematografica Calderon, the original producers of the film, so the quality on the Spanish version is not up to the finer Mexican horror emerging from CasaNegra. The right side of the credits are slightly cut off, obviously indicating that we are not seeing all of the picture, and scenes end with the picture getting temporarily brighter before the next scene takes over. Inexplicably, at 3:42 into the film, a second of an exterior pan scene intrudes itself into the film. Having the K. Gordon Murray dub available was a commendable idea that went wrong when a cut version of the Murray dub was mistakenly used. The Spanish version clocks in at 1:21:57, while the Murray version present here is only 1:10:00. Despite these rough edges, the BCI presentation is the best that this film has seen in any format in any version, and this one has the considerable benefit of being the original Spanish version with English subtitles. When coupled with two versions of Night of the Bloody Apes and David Wilt's excellent liners (housed in an eight-page booklet), the price is superbly right for acquiring the DVD set and making it part of anyone's Mexican horror collection.

The BCI set of The Curse of the Doll People and The Night of the Bloody Apes is available at Amazon.com for $12.99.

Meet German Robles at the Bash!

2007-06-12T18:31:00.000-07:00

The legendary actor German Robles is scheduled to appear at this year's Monster Bash, June 22 to 24, at the Airport Four Points Hotel in Pittsburgh, PA. This is a rare appearance by Robles in the United States, certainly in the eastern states, so those who can make it, should definitely be there for this notable and, yes, historic event. Call for info at (724) 238-4317, and also check the Monster Bash page at Creepy Classics (www.creepyclassics.com).

If you will be at the Bash and taking photos of Don Robles, please feel free to send a couple to me at eurosin@aol.com, so that I can post them on this blog. Many thanks!

And don't forget that "German" is not pronounced like the word for a person from Germany, but it's pronounced more like "Herman," as the "G" has an "H" sound in Spanish.

El hombre y el monstruo (1958)

2007-05-23T07:04:00.001-07:00

El hombre y el monstruo (The Man and the Monster), producer/actor Abel Salazar’s follow-up to his two successful "El vampiro" films (El vampiro, 1957, and El ataud del vampiro, 1957) moved away from vampire myths to seep itself in a delirious combination of Faustian legend and Robert Louis Stevenson's classic Jekyll & Hyde tale. Shooting on the ABSA production began on June 23, 1958 at the Churubusco Azteca Studios, and if some of the sets are recognizable to the Mexican horror initiate, it is because the filming followed the helming of another horror film, Misterios de ultratumba (English title: The Black Pit of Dr. M), and employed some of the same sets and decorations. Interesting enough, though undoubtedly coincidental, both films share an underlying warning for man against desiring more than is meted out to a human in life.

The film starts with a bang--almost literally, as the first image in the wonderful prologue is a car heading at furious speed down a night road to almost immediately smash into a tree. (Why the woman driver is driving so furiously is never made known--it's almost as if she is escaping from a horror that precedes the one she will face in a few minutes.) The woman driver gets out and seeks help at a nearby hacienda mansion--a foreboding, run-down dwelling, from inside which a piano is heard. The heavy courtyard door is open, but the door to the hacienda is locked. When the woman knocks on the hacienda door, the pianist stops his playing. As the woman moves away in trepidation, the pianist pleads with her to open the door and set him free. Curiously, a set of keys are lying not far from the foot of the door. The woman hesitates, but, compelled by the begging voice and her human duty toward suffering, she picks up the keys and opens the door. The title of the film is played over her screaming face. (In the K. Gordon Murray American edit, not present on the DVD except for an English audio track, the English title of a film is seen against a black background, while we hear the audio of the woman’s scream.)

This exceptional and atmospheric beginning, almost European in nature with its blonde female, sleek modern car and sophisticated camerawork, heralds a genuine classic of Mexican horror cinema. The moralistic story tells of a famed pianist, Samuel Magno, who has nowadays retreated from the world to focus his time on developing the talents of his protegee, Laura, a woman who is the exact image of Alejandra, a female pianist whom Magno had killed in fit of envy and after making his Faustian deal with the Devil. ("Magno" is derived from the Latin "magna," meaning "the great," so the character is slyly named, in code, "Samuel the Great.")

Faustian tales have been around for ages, both in legend and artistic works. The great violinist Paganini was thought by some to have sold his soul to the devil in return for being such a virtuoso on the violin. So much was this taken to heart that for five years after his death the Church refused his body’s burial in consecrated ground! 19^th century musical works such as Franz Liszt’s Faust Symphony (1854) and Charles Gounod’s opera Faust (1859) dealt with the fable, underlying how effective and entertaining a combination music and damnation can make. It is to the credit to the man responsible for the story, Raul Zenteno, that he chose to develop his plot from this folktale that has spread to many cultures through the years. Music is the link throughout the entire film, with the suspenseful climax taking place in a concert hall, where Laura performs with an orchestra under the direction of Samuel Magno. The final scene is operatically emotional (by far the most emotional of all of Salazar's horror films) and ends on a perfect note, much like a classical piece of music.

Aside from its many strengths, what makes the El hombre y el monstruo particularly intriguing is that Samuel only kills his rival, Alejandra, after she plays in a concert a “strange melody” from sheet music that is, sinisterly, white notes on black paper. As she tells Samuel in a later scene, she has no idea where the sheet music came from and it bears no composer’s name. We realize at this point that the Devil has set up a trap and Samuel will fall into it. The hand of cruel fate is evoked here, much as in the aforementioned Misterios de ultratumba, though the ABSA film refrains from highlighting any religious message.

Rafael Baledon, one of Mexico’s notable craftsmen of genre cinema, directs with a superb eye for framing, making each scene count aesthetically, despite the quick shooting schedule of the film. It is quite an impressive directorial outing, reaching beyond just an ordinary journeyman's work for a paycheck, a criticism that could be applied to another ABSA horror director, the notorious Chano Urueta.

The major leads--Enrique Rambal, Abel Salazar, Martha Roth and Ofelia Guilmain--all perform superbly. Roth does a heroic job of keeping still in the scenes in which she plays the corpse of Alejandra, but I do believe several nearly unnoticeable tricks were used, including a photographic cut-out of the actress when the camera is looking over her character's shoulder. The most amusing performance, intentional or not, must go to a black cat, who jets out of the hands of Magno's mother whenever Magno or trouble approaches.

The highly regarded pianist Maria Teresa Rodriguez played the classic compositions in the film and probably the wilder, non-classical compositions as well. Born in Hidalgo on February 18^th, 1923, Teresa Rodriguez was a child prodigy who performed Beethoven’s First Concerto with an orchestra at age eight and graduated as a concertista at fourteen. Her participation in the film, noted in the credits, shows the classiness that Salazar was attempting to give his production.

Much has been made, negatively, of the make-up used for the monster. I think it's intentionally a conflicting mixture of repulsive-horrid and pug-ugly lovable, as we are meant to not just be frightened by the monster, but alternately also be sympathetic to it. The gross largeness of the features is also in keeping with the horror make-up of several earlier Mexican horrors, including the classic El monstruo resucitado (1953), though the inspiration here seems to be the Hyde make-up used on Frederic March for the 1931 filming of the classic Robert Louis Stevenson tale. Just add a lot more hair and some facial elephantiasis that balloons up nose and lips.

The DVD from CasaNegra is up to the usual high-standards the company has consistently attained with its previous Mexican horror releases. The print quality, for a film this old, is as good as it gets, and CasaNegra has done a nice job of subtitling the Spanish audio, rendering the lettering in a pleasing and easily readable bluish font that just about glows. The K. Gordon Murray English dub is available as an audio option. Special features include a Mexican horror movie poster "slideshow," a US radio spot (when the film was paired with El vampiro sangriento/The Bloody Vampire), and cast bios by an uncredited David Wilt. The only negative in the entirety is the ugly color photo that graces the cover. The photo has nothing to do with film, but was placed there in a misguided effort to attract the casual buyer. It is one of the most misleading and unnecessary of DVD covers and, thankfully, as evidenced by the advance cover art for CasaNegra's next two Mexican horrors, it's a mistake the company won't make again.

It cannot be stressed enough that fans of Mexican horror need to support this release, and CasaNegra's other Mexican horror ventures, in order for the company to keep on investing in the genre. While no official word has emerged from CasaNegra concerning the sales of its DVDs, the logical surmise, based on the financial troubles that all niche DVD companies are going through these days, is that the plethora of sterling and authorized presentations of foreign horror may be coming to an end. The market will determine this, and it's up to us who love and respect these films to make sure these releases are as successful as possible.

CasaNegra's The Man and the Monster is available at Amazon.com for $17.99.

Abel Salazar's Horror Eight

2007-05-19T17:32:00.000-07:00

Even those who are not novices to Mexican horror cinema, may be unfamiliar with all the horror titles that emerged from Abel Salazar's Cinematografica ABSA productions. There were eight films in number, and here's the list, with director credit, production and premiere dates:

1 - El vampiro/The Vampire, D: Fernando Mendez (May 1957; premiered 10/4/57)
2 - El ataud del vampiro/The Vampire's Coffin, D: Fernando Mendez (start date: November 14, 1957; premiered 8/28/58)
3 - El hombre y el monstruo/The Man and the Monster, D: Rafael Baledon (start date: Junes 23, 1958; premiered 10/8/59)
4 - El mundo de los vampiros/The World of the Vampires, D: Alfonso Corona Blake (start date: August 17, 1960; premiered 11/2/61)
5 - El espejo de la bruja/The Witch's Mirror, D: Chano Urueta (November 14, 1960; premiered 7/12/62)
6 - El baron del terror/The Brainiac, D: Chano Urueta (February, 1961; premiered 11/9/62)
7 - La cabeza vivente/The Living Head, D: Chano Urueta (March, 1961; premiered 3/1/63)
8 - La maldicion de la Llorona/The Curse of the Crying Woman, D: Rafael Baledon (November/December, 1961; premiered 8/15/63)

With the September releases of The World of the Vampires and The Living Head, CasaNegra Entertainment will have issued on DVD all eight films from the finest elements available. One's ABSA Horror Library will be complete.

Forthcoming Mexican Horror DVDs

2007-05-18T19:32:00.000-07:00

Considered a lost film for a long time, El vampiro y el sexo, the nude variant of Santo en el tesoro de Drácula (Santo in the Treasure of Dracula), will finally emerge on DVD from BCI's Deimos Entertainment. Pictured above is a rare promotional still from the film. No word yet on a release date, but the transfer is being currently done in Mexico. An English audio track has been found also, though it's missing for one reel, so that portion will be subtitled. I'm assuming a Spanish audio track will be present as well.

Meanwhile, CasaNegra maintains its classic Mexican horror course with the September releases of El mundo de los vampiros (The World of the Vampires) and La Cabeza Viviente (The Living Head). Both films are Abel Salazar productions. El mundo de los vampiros is particularly outre and mesmerizing.

German Robles Audio Commentary for EL VAMPIRO

2007-04-24T07:41:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's true. "El Vampiro" himself, German Robles has recorded an audio commentary for El vampiro, the Mexican horror classic that celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. Unfortunately, at this point in time, the commentary will only surface on a special edition Mexican DVD due for release in October. The DVD is being produced by Daniel Birman Ripstein of Alameda Films. Considering that CasaNegra Entertainment has inroads with Alameda Films (CasaNegra's Mexican horror DVDs are from Alameda's film holdings), it's possible that this important commentary will see a subtitled release here in the United States sometime in the future. CasaNegra already has a "Special Edition" DVD, released last year, of El vampiro and its sequel, El ataud del vampiro, but unless it's too late for a 50th Anniversary Edition of El vampiro, a "Special, Special Edition" may be warranted if sales of the first DVD proved satisfactory.

Another Big Night for PAN'S LABYRINTH

2007-03-25T17:07:00.000-07:00

On March 20th, Mexico City's Palace Of Fine Arts held a ceremony for the Ariel, Mexico's version of the Oscar. The big winner of the night was Guillermo del Toro's El laberinto del fauno (Pan's Labyrinth) with nine wins:

Best Film - El laberinto del fauno
Best Director - Guillermo del Toro
Best Actress - Maribel Verdu
Best Cinematography - Guillermo Navarro
Best Score - Javier Navarrete
Best Production Design Eugenio Caballero, Ramon Moya, Pilar Revuelta
Best Costume Design - Lala Huete
Best Makeup & Hair - Jose Quetglas, Blanca Sanchez
Best Special Effects - Edward Irastorza, Everett Burrell, David Marti, Montse Ribe

Will the amazing worldwide success of Guillermo del Toro's film inspire other Mexican filmmakers to make films in the fantasy and horror genres? Will audiences take an interest in the rich history of Mexican fantastique that predated and led up to Guillermo del Toro? Questions to which we will know the answers in the near future.

Mexican Horror Pleases Rondo!

2007-03-12T13:07:00.000-07:00

The results are in! Among the winners of the Fifth Annual Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards, given out to the best work in the horror/fantasy/sci-fi genres, are Guillermo del Toro's PAN'S LABYRINTH for Best Picture and CasaNegra Entertainment for Best DVD Company. CasaNegra did an exemplary job last in year in bringing to the public several classics of Mexican horror cinema, including El vampiro (The Vampire, 1957) and El baron del terror (English title: The Brainiac, 1961). Their handsome editions featured great print quality, English subtitles for the Spanish-language original tracks, and also, when available, an English dub option. Each disc had generous supplements as well. Congratulations to Guillermo del Toro and CasaNegra Entertainment!

It doesn't end there. The legendary German Robles received the coveted "Monster Kid Hall of Fame" Award for his groundbreaking work in Mexican fantastique. Hopefully, when he receives news of this award, someone will explain to him just what is a "monster kid"! Congratulations to Don Robles, who should be at this year's Monster Bash in June to accept the award.

1,480 classic horror fans voted in the competition. More on the Rondos at:

www.rondoaward.com

Orlak, the Hell of Frankenstein (1960)

2007-03-11T10:03:00.000-07:00

After completing their scripts for the Nostradamus quartet of films starring German Robles, screenwriters Alfredo Ruanova and Carlos Enrique Taboada crafted a Frankenstein script for producer/director Rafael Baledon. As director, Baledon was already familiar with the demands of a horror film with his impressive El hombre y el monstruo (The Man and the Monster, 1958) and the less than impressive El pantano de las animas (English title: The Swamp of the Lost Monster, 1956). Though the Frankenstein monster and other similar creatures had turned up in Mexican cinema in brief appearances, such as the horror comedy El castillo de los monstrous (The Castle of the Monsters, 1957), Ruanova and Taboada’s script dealt exclusively with the Mary Shelley literary creation--the first Mexican film to do so, in fact. Baledon must have been inspired by the popularity of vampires in recent Mexican cinema and saw an opportunity to mine another familiar monster found in Universal’s Golden Age of Horror and the newer successes of Britain’s Hammer Films with The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958). The production was helmed at the America studios, which meant that like the Nostradamus series this film, due to union regulations, had to be scheduled as a serial, this time in four parts lasting, roughly, twenty-five minutes each. Filming began on July 4and lasted to July 21, 1960, and the film premiered that same year, on December 8, 1960.

Working in a chiaroscuro landscape and with not much funding, Baledon cleverly reverted at appropriate times to the minimalist approach of certain German filmmakers of the silent era, not in duplicating expressionistic poses and design, but in evoking an expressionistic sense of positioning and drama; at other times, he created a visual delight, part expressionistic, part surrealistic, as when filming about a wedge shaped building whose center juts toward the audience in the middle of the screen. Sets still standing from the Nostradamus series were used, and enough craftsmanship is in evidence to impart a moderate richness of production.

He's back! Carlos Ancira reprises a similar scarred makeup from Misterios de ultratumba
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Ruanova and Taboada’s script kept some traditions of Frankenstein cinema. So, the film has the evil human, Jamie Rojas (Joaquin Cordero), who uses Dr. Frankenstein's creation, here named Orlak (Cordero also), to revenge himself on the people who sent him to jail, replicating the motivations found with Ygor in Son of Frankenstein (1939) while anticipating Hammer’s Evil of Frankenstein (1964). The determined brutality of Rojas even extends beyond the wickedness of someone like Ygor, as when Rojas instructs the Orlak automaton to murder the wife and child of one upon whom he seeks vengeance. While the child's death is kept offscreen, the scene leading up to it shows a crying child (clearly upset at what’s being staged during filming) being threatened by the advancing Orlak. The film also presents an ugly assistant of Dr. Frankenstein, the scarred Eric, played by Carlos Ancira, who desires a transformation of his pitiful condition and helps Rojas in criminal activities with that aim in mind, another motivation shared by previous cinematic deformed assistants of Dr. Frankenstein. (Ancira wears similar make-up to that he wore in his impressive performance in Misterios de ultratumba/English title: The Black Pit of Dr. M, 1958.) And the fiery ending with townspeople chasing Orlak has clear antecedents in many a Frankenstein film, including the first one from Universal with Boris Karloff made in 1931. Despite these borrowings, Orlak emerges as interesting on its own merits thanks to Baledon’s efficient and at times inspired direction, the adroitness of the script that keeps things moving, the general excellence of the cast, particularly Joaquin Cordero's dual role as villain and an automaton killer, the creepy atmosphere of the impressive subterranean vaults housing Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory, and one’s own fascination at watching a different country’s respectful take on the Frankenstein legend.

As with the better Frankenstein films, the Frankenstein creature shows a sympathetic emotional side that makes him more human (and humane) than some of his normal flesh-and-blood counterparts. Finally freed of Rojas’ control, Orlak journeys to Elvira, the woman Rojas has fallen in love with in an attempt to exact vengeance on her father. Seeing Orlak, Elvira naturally mistakes him for Rojas and offers up her desire to elope with him, decrying her loneliness without his presence. Orlak responds that she doesn’t know who he really is. “I fell in love with you because I needed peace,” he adds, perhaps not only speaking for himself but for Rojas as well. Remarking on his apparent sadness that Elvira picks upon, Orlak replies, “No, it is not possible. Only men know sadness. I am not human.” As he speaks of the torments of doing evil deeds that seem compelled by a power outside of him, Orlak sits facing the fire, which captivates him as it warms both his undead body and soul. As he continues sitting and talking, a tear running down his cheek, his artificial face begins to melt and give way to a mass of hideous lumps. It is both an emotional and physical breakdown, the highlight of the film, and a rich setup to the revelatory moment when he will turn to Elvira, revealing the fallen-apart reality of his being.

Orlak (Joaquin Cordero) gazes into his soul...

...and comes apart
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Though Baledon’s earlier El hombre y el monstruo is more dramatic and sustains the resonance its monster’s inner turmoil longer, Orlak, el infierno de Frankenstein impresses with its simmering gothic meditation on duality, and the sincerity of its filmmakers who were determined not to undervalue or make fun of the original source material. The film remains a tantalizingly unique and successful interpretation of the Frankenstein legend.

Cover of the Tekila Films DVD
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Orlak, el infierno de Frankenstein is available through Tekila Films as a standalone DVD and part of a four part Mexican horror collection that is sold as three films with a bonus film added. Marketed solely toward the Hispanic population in the United States, neither of the DVD presentations are subtitled in English. The standalone DVD has a nice sepia cover and an interesting menu design, but the menu sloppily misspells Frankenstein and incorrectly adds an “en” into the film’s title. The back copy mistakenly states that the film is in color and 99 minutes long, six minutes longer than the actual running time. The source of the film is clearly a video format. A frisky stretch line is visible near the top of the frame when the DVD is viewed on a computer monitor, though a television monitor’s over-scanning alleviates the problem. Despite the video source element, the picture quality is generally good and certainly far better than any of the fuzzy dupes that hardcore Mexican horror addicts have had to deal with in the past.

Unfortunately for Baledon’s goals, the film was never dubbed into English for a release to the Anglo market in the United States, either theatrically or on television, so any future DVD release geared toward the English-speaking viewer would have to be subtitled. It would be a worthy endeavor for a welcome DVD release.

The French DVD Releases

2007-03-04T17:45:00.000-08:00

Misterios de ultratumba/The Black Pit of Dr. M

El hombre y el monstruo/The Man and the Monster

La maldicion de la Llorona/The Curse of the Crying Woman

La marca del muerte/Creature of the Walking Dead

El pantano de las animas/Swamp of the Lost Souls

While CasaNegra and BCI/Deimos are bringing out classic Mexican horror films on DVD in the United States, a small French DVD company, Bach Films, is doing the same for the French market. Bach Films has twelve releases, all of which stem from the Alameda Films catalog, the same company from whom CasaNegra is acquiring its films. The twelve, with their commonly known English titles, are:

El vampiro/The Vampire
El ataud del vampiro/The Vampire's Coffin
El baron del terror/The Brainiac
La cabeza viviente/The Living Head
El espejo de la bruja/The Witch's Mirror
El hombre y el monstruo/The Man and the Monster
La maldicion de la Llorona/The Curse of the Crying Woman
La marca del muerte/Creature of the Walking Dead (the Warren-edited version)
Misterios de ultratumba/The Black Pit of Dr. M
El mundo de los vampiros/The World of the Vampires
El grito de la muerte/The Living Coffin
El pantano de las animas/Swamp of the Lost Souls

Based on French reviews of the DVDs that have already been released in this series, it appears the quality is very good, indicating that the same upgraded masters are being, or have been, used by CasaNegra. None of these DVDs have English-subtitling, btw.

Mexican Fantasy/Horror at the Oscars

2007-02-26T10:15:00.000-08:00

With several Oscar nominations, the Mexican-Spanish El laberinto del fauno (Pan's Labyrinth, 2006) picked up three Oscar wins last night: Best Achievement in Cinematography (Guillermo Navarro), Best Achievement in Art Direction (Pilar Revuelta, Eugenio Caballero; pictured above), and Best Achievement in Make-Up (David Marti, Monste Ribe). Crafted by Mexican director Guillermo del Toro, certainly the most impressive contemporary artist in cinemafantastique, the film lost out to Germany's Das Leben der Anderen for Best Foreign Language Film.

Of the winners for El laberinto del fauno, only Guillermo Navarro (pictured to the right) is Mexican born. Navarro has had a long-standing working relationship with del Toro that started with Cronos (1993). Interestingly enough, another Mexican cinematographer, Emmanuel Lubezki, who had been nominated for Children of Men (2006), may have once worked with del Toro on the Mexican horror TV series, Hora marcada (1986-1990), which represented del Toro's first professional directorial efforts.

Congratulations to all the nominees and winners!

The Caprices of EL BARON DEL TERROR

2007-02-25T17:32:00.000-08:00

Does this look familiar?

If you are a fan of Mexican horror, you should recognize one of the images in the opening credits of El baron del terror (The Brainiac, 1961). The first image, in fact. From Goya's "The Caprichos" etchings and prints. Now, why would the filmmakers opt to use images from Goya's "The Caprichos" to set the tone of El baron del terror?

Think of the irreverent Baron d'Estera, mocking the Catholic inquisitors of New Spain; think of his general disdain for humanity. And then reflect on this, written about "The Caprichos":

"The entire set of some 80 prints cover subjects of prostitution, child sexual abuse, witchcraft, numerous specific superstitions, and satiric critiques of doctors, politicians, and clergy, among others. Nearly half of the imagery concerns itself with witchcraft, often in a mocking tone that shows that Goya's use of this particular subject was meant to have more than just one single understanding for the viewer." http://eeweems.com/goya/sleep_of_reason.html

Or this:

"The series known as "Los Caprichos," which, loosely translated, means "the caprices," shows Goya's rancor at the unpredictability of life, combining acerbic commentary on the Spanish aristocracy, the clergy and human nature itself with images of monsters, ghouls and other supernatural figures." http://www.columbia.edu/cu/record/archives/vol19/vol19_iss3/record193.27

It seems there was a method to the outre madness of those behind the Brainiac!

Closing In

2007-02-25T17:02:00.000-08:00

I'm really pushing myself to finish up the Vampiros and Monstruos book by the end of March. Though a chunk of work still remains to be done, there is light at the end of this long tunnel and I'm very hopeful a publication date can be finalized for the summer. The book will cover the Mexican horror and fantasy film of the 20th century and is guaranteed to be the most comprehensive book on the subject yet. (Though, admittedly, there are only a few books that touch upon the subject at all!)