It's not that surprising to me that this film has been described as 'the Mexican Black Sunday': like Bava's (over-rated, IMO) classic, The Curse of the Crying Woman opens in terrific style, but soon devolves into a mess of tried and tested gothic horror cliches, with hidden rooms, a cobweb-strewn dungeon, lots of rats, rubber bats on strings, and a demented relative driven mad by the villain, with not much of a plot to tie them all together.
The excellent pre-credits sequence sees a coach travelling through a foggy forest before being waylaid by hunchback Juan (Carlos López Moctezuma), who also has a hideously scarred face and a club foot. The coach driver is knifed, one of the passengers is throttled, and another is set upon by a pack of vicious dogs. The pretty female passenger faints to the ground and the henchman runs the coach over her, which I didn't expect! It's a cracking start, but also the best part of the movie.
The remainder of the film involves married couple Amelia and Jaime (Rosita Arenas and Abel Salazar), who arrive at the spooky hacienda of Amelia's Aunt Selma (Rita Macedo), who has invited them to her home so that she can complete a ritual that will grant her great power and revive the body of La Llorona, the wailing witch. Amelia gradually begins to fall under the spell of her aunt, while Jaime is attacked by Daniel, the crazy man in the bell tower, and is almost killed by Juan.
Director Rafael Baledón delivers some atmospheric visuals but with a routine gothic horror scenario that does little out of the ordinary, his film plods along predictably until the ridiculous finale, when Amelia's love for Jaime ruins Selma's plans, and Jaime and Raul have a prolonged fist fight as the hacienda collapses around their ears.
5.5/10, generously rounded up to 6 for the unintentionally hilarious moment when two policeman, both brandishing revolvers, allow themselves to be mauled to death by dogs (were the weapons unloaded or did they just forget to pull the trigger?), and for Amelia's equally amusing attack on an old man, who puts up no resistance as she chokes him and gouges his face with her nails.
The excellent pre-credits sequence sees a coach travelling through a foggy forest before being waylaid by hunchback Juan (Carlos López Moctezuma), who also has a hideously scarred face and a club foot. The coach driver is knifed, one of the passengers is throttled, and another is set upon by a pack of vicious dogs. The pretty female passenger faints to the ground and the henchman runs the coach over her, which I didn't expect! It's a cracking start, but also the best part of the movie.
The remainder of the film involves married couple Amelia and Jaime (Rosita Arenas and Abel Salazar), who arrive at the spooky hacienda of Amelia's Aunt Selma (Rita Macedo), who has invited them to her home so that she can complete a ritual that will grant her great power and revive the body of La Llorona, the wailing witch. Amelia gradually begins to fall under the spell of her aunt, while Jaime is attacked by Daniel, the crazy man in the bell tower, and is almost killed by Juan.
Director Rafael Baledón delivers some atmospheric visuals but with a routine gothic horror scenario that does little out of the ordinary, his film plods along predictably until the ridiculous finale, when Amelia's love for Jaime ruins Selma's plans, and Jaime and Raul have a prolonged fist fight as the hacienda collapses around their ears.
5.5/10, generously rounded up to 6 for the unintentionally hilarious moment when two policeman, both brandishing revolvers, allow themselves to be mauled to death by dogs (were the weapons unloaded or did they just forget to pull the trigger?), and for Amelia's equally amusing attack on an old man, who puts up no resistance as she chokes him and gouges his face with her nails.