Mexican horror

[slayrrr666]

Ugh, can't believe I missed this one yesterday, thought I got my thoughts in but guess I didn't.

Anyway, only seen two of these; Aqui Espantan! and the original Hasta el viento. Agree with your assessments on each one: Espantan is goofy comedy the way I like it, almost more to the point of dropping the horror completely but it still works well, and despite a weak middle that drops the horror completely, Hasta is pure class all the way through and is surprisingly fun for a film that could've gone the sleaze route, but it's classiness keeps it enjoyable pretty much all the way through.

[Fenril]

A small update; this weekend I saw:

- Morgana (2012). A young woman tries to cope with the depression that always haunts her on the anniversary of her mother's suicide. This year, however, she's got more than emotional problems to deal with --namely, there is a malevolent spirit following her steps and stalking her friends and allies. But what does it want from her?

Not that bad a low-budget ghost movie. I was mainly interested in this because it's directed by Ramón Obón (he directed and / or wrote several good local movies such as "100 gritos de terror", "Santo vs. Las lobas" and "Terror y encajes negros"), and... it's a strange mix. The supernatural parts are very well done: effective jump scares, a reasonable use of special effects (without going overboard) and a climatic two-way exorcism scene that recalls the best of 70's mexi-horrors (meaning it's insane but fun --exactly what most local horror productions have been missing in the last six years or so). However, the characters are somewhat sketchy (in particular the lead character comes across as a bit of a cypher, which is rarely a good idea) and the dialogue is pretty flat at times [when Morgana lashes at her aunt accusing her of being a witch and / or trying to drive her crazy, said aunt's sole reaction is a half-hearted "You're so unfair!"].
Still, the movie is saved by the use of an atmopheric locale (Valle del Bravo, sort of a "Woman in black"-type marsh) and especially an emphasis on local folklore such as the twofold exorcism ceremony that combines christian and prehispanic elements.

All in all not excellent, but entertaining and certainly a step up from "Vienes de ánimas", which was in a very similar vein.

[slayrrr666]

Got another one done yesterday: The Gap (La brecha).

When several couples get stranded at a small, remote village in the Mexican countryside, they realize the truth about a legendary clock that will predict people's deaths is true and that a sinister figure is intent on forcing the issues to be true.

This was a mostly frustrating Mexican horror effort that is quite liberal with it's horror issues since they appear only at the film's bookends while the middle of the film is quite hard to be called a horror film. Those bookends, though, are quite fun and definitely worthwhile, with the opening offering a shadowy figure chasing frantic and scared individuals through a darkened, foggy forest that starts it off rather well, while the finale is the figure's attack on the couples in the house, and it works well with the house's layout to provide some fine scares, excitement and a few cool deaths in the whole experience. That said, the rest of the movie isn't that enjoyable other than the fact they get the hottest girl amongst the group in skin-tight tank-tops and body-hugging underwear that's always thrust into the camera at every opportunity, as it consists of endless scenes of the group arguing over their situation and how they'll get out, with an occasional attempt at scare-making only to wimp out with a shortened scene that's quite confusing overall. That these are where the film spends the majority of it's running time is where the film falters, since it's disproportionate how much horror/drama time there is in the film, and what ultimately causes the downfall.

The list now reads:

1. Grave Robbers
2. Cemetery of Terror
3. Fangs of the Werewolf
4. Don't Panic
5. Santo and Blue Demon in the Land of the Dead
6. Vacations of Terror
7. The Vampires of Coyoacan
8. Even the Wind is Afraid
9. Santo vs. The Zombies
10. Santo and Blue Demon vs. The Monsters
11. The Phantom in the Red House
12. The Mummies of Guanajuato
13. Santo vs. The She-Wolves
14. Here Espantan!
15. The Beast is Alive
16. Santo and Blue Demon vs. Dracula and The Wolfman
17. The Vengeance of the Vampire Women
18. Santo and The Vengeance of the Mummy
19. Capulina Against the Mummies (The Terror of Guanajuato)
20. Santo vs. Frankenstein's Daughter
21. Nostradamus and the Monster Destroyer
22. Capulina vs. The Monsters
23. Night of the Bloody Apes
24. The Return of the Monster
25. Killer Bees
26. Helena's Cry
27. The Resuscitated Monster
28. Hell's Trap
29. Angel of Light
30. El Fantastico vs. The Nahual
31. Night of a 1000 Cats
32. Tintorera!
33. Spritism
34. Marina: On the Other Side of Time
35. The Robot vs. The Aztec Mummy
36. A Woman Possessed
37. The Cursed II
38. The Raven's Mourn
39. Fangs of Fury
40. The Mansion of Madness
41. All of Them Witches
42. The Gap
43. The Man and the Beast
44. La Llorona (58)
45. Zone of Silence: Parallel 27
46. Santa Sangre

[Fenril]

And now: slashers, killer thrillers, cannibals --in short, horror movies with human monsters (some of these might have a supernatural twist here or there, but in all the emphasis is on human evil).

- Bajo la sal (2008; aka Under the salt). Female corpses have been popping up in a salt mine bordertown, where a recently disgraced city detective is sent to investigate. Meanwhile, a teenager who likes to make surreal stop-motion gore shorts gets involved with a mysterious girl who holds the key to solving the mystery...

IMHO a pretty underrated serial-killer thriller with memorable characters, some dreamlike touches (the stop-motion entries and the discovery of the first corpse under a river) and a twist ending that actually made sense.

- Ladrones de tumbas (1990; aka Grave robbers). When a gang of teenagers desecrate the tomb of an executed serial killer (who also happened to be a monk), he rises from his grave to get back his stolen treasures --and hack up as many people as inhumanly possible.

An okay slasher with a supernatural killer (but unlike the similar "Cementerio del terror", this one puts emphasis on stalking and chopping, hence its' inclusion on this list); not much in the way of character development or suspense, but it does have a convincing enough killer (a demonic skeleton in a robe, armed with a huge scythe) and some nice kills.

- La noche de los mil gatos (1972 aka Night of a 1000 cats). A millionaire playboy likes to take all sort of sexy women to his beach mansion where after a wine and dine --he feeds them to his 1000 cats for his own sick amusement.

Fairly boring thriller IMHO, as while this has plenty of gore there isn't much in the way of story or characters (we are never told just where this guy's obsession started, he just does these things), and so even the payback ending falls flat. There is, however, a fairly surreal sequence involving one paticular victim who turns out to be something of a closet masochist.

- Santa sangre (1989; aka Holy blood). Traumatized as a child by seeing his father (a circus ringleader) commit suicide after chopping off his mother's arms (she was the fanatic leader of a bizarre cult), Felix is imprisoned in a mental asylum for ten years. Upon being released he reunites with Coral, his mother, who enlists him to become her arms --and the instrument of her bloody vengeance against the world.

Surreal slasher by Alexandro Jodorowsky (and yet, this is his most coherent film to date) punctuated by a couple memorable murder scenes, a dreamlike vision of the killer's victims rising from the grave and a transsexual version of Santo himself. Maybe not for all tastes, but certainly worth a look. Very, very loosely based on a real-life case.

- Somos lo que hay (2010 aka We are what we are). When his father passes away, gay teenager Alfredo must now provide sustenance for himself, his siblings and their mother --specifically, human prey for their weekly cannibalistic ritual.

One of the best latino horrors of recent years (IMHO, at least), with a pervasively seedy atmosphere troughout, a dining scene that doesn't show that much (it's creepier because of what you hear), and distinctly latinoamerican characters (to such a degree several american critics claimed to be puzzled by the characters' motivations; but this loyalty to family traditions even when they come in direct conflict with an individual's needs is a common social trait here). There is an american remake in the way.

- Terror y encajes negros (1985; aka Terror and black lace). While her domineering husband is away on a business trip, a rich woman decides to entertain herself with a new acquaintance --perhaps showing off her brand-new black lace lingerie. Too bad her downstairs neighbor has other plans --and he just happens to be that psychosexual murderer that's recently made the news...

Terrific war-of-the-sexes drama that turns into full-on slasher movie in the last act, with our sympathetic (and sexy!) lead trying every trick in the book to get away from a seemingly unstoppable maniac (the scene where he breaks through her glass doors with an ax while she tries to do the sensible thing and call the police is particularly hair-rising), culminating in an intense rooftop battle and a suprisingly poignant epilogue.

- Trampa infernal (1990; aka Hell's trap). A bear hunt grows even deadlier than expected when a group of young hunters step into the territory of Jesse, a demented war veteran with a uncanny knack for building deadly traps...

Another pastiche of several american slashers (especifically: Friday the 13th; The Final terror (the one with the killer that can perfectly blend in with the forest, not the Friday movie with Corey Feldman); The zero boys...) that is nevertheless fairly entertaining because it delivers exactly what it promises: gory deaths, an okay masked killer (with a blank mask and a claw as a weapon of choice --not the least bit original, but it gets the job done), a final girl who has to use her wits to survive and even a pretty startling unmasking scene (through the killer's origin really should have been shown in flashback instead of being offhandledly narrated early in the movie).

- 24 cuadros de terror (2008). A film editor stuck on dead-end jobs is unknowingly hired by a serial killer to edit his homemade snuff movies.

Zero budget crap, plain and simple. On top of that, this is one of those incompetent movies whose director and / or scriptwriter seems convinced he's making a deep art film --apparently not quite noticing the amount of clichés (poorly exectued clichés, at that) the movie incurs in.

Other serial-killer and / or human monster movies not included in the list (because they are more drama or mistery than horror) but which I thought at least worth a mention: Canoa (very gory and disturbing, but as I said, more of a drama), El profeta Mimí, El castillo de la pureza, Aro Tolbukhin: en la mente del asesino, Días de combate, Ensayo de un crimen.

[slayrrr666]

Lot to say here, so:

Got another one done yesterday: The Man in White (El hombre de blanco).

After accidentally witnessing a serial killer's brutal murder of a policeman, she must race to get herself and her daughter out of the killer's path before his bloodsoaked rampage includes them as well.

This was a really disjointed horror/thriller that doesn't have a whole lot going for it at all. Despite an incredibly rousing opening about the Mexican Day of the Dead celebrations that are quite colorful and provide a unique look at the celebration, but after that isn't quite so exciting since the majority of the film deals with the chasing down of the lone witnesses to the detriment of all other happenings, so there's going to be a lot wrong with this. The first one is that the lack of victims means there's very little blood or gore, despite the initial murder sequence being one of the more bloody ones shown. There's also the fact that the film is incredibly one note, detailing her merely escaping and hiding only to repeat the process ad nauseam until the movie's over which is quite boring after a while and really leaves this one without anything going on in the middle parts of the movie with the same set-up repeating over-and-over. It's got a couple good chases, but not a whole lot else.

The list now reads:

1. Grave Robbers
2. Cemetery of Terror
3. Fangs of the Werewolf
4. Don't Panic
5. Santo and Blue Demon in the Land of the Dead
6. Vacations of Terror
7. The Vampires of Coyoacan
8. Even the Wind is Afraid
9. Santo vs. The Zombies
10. Santo and Blue Demon vs. The Monsters
11. The Phantom in the Red House
12. The Mummies of Guanajuato
13. Santo vs. The She-Wolves
14. Here Espantan!
15. The Beast is Alive
16. Santo and Blue Demon vs. Dracula and The Wolfman
17. The Vengeance of the Vampire Women
18. Santo and The Vengeance of the Mummy
19. Capulina Against the Mummies (The Terror of Guanajuato)
20. Santo vs. Frankenstein's Daughter
21. Nostradamus and the Monster Destroyer
22. Capulina vs. The Monsters
23. Night of the Bloody Apes
24. The Return of the Monster
25. Killer Bees
26. Helena's Cry
27. The Resuscitated Monster
28. Hell's Trap
29. Angel of Light
30. El Fantastico vs. The Nahual
31. Night of a 1000 Cats
32. Tintorera!
33. Spritism
34. Marina: On the Other Side of Time
35. The Robot vs. The Aztec Mummy
36. A Woman Possessed
37. The Cursed II
38. The Raven's Mourn
39. Fangs of Fury
40. The Mansion of Madness
41. All of Them Witches
42. The Gap
43. The Man and the Beast
44. La Llorona (58)
45. Zone of Silence: Parallel 27
46. The Man in White
47. Santa Sangre

As for your list:

I still have Ladrondes taking the top overall spot on my Mexican horror list with it's great mix of stellar suspense scenes, great gore, generous amounts of action and a truly fantastic set-up that makes me feel right at home with it despite the lack of English-speaking in it.

Trampa infernal is pretty much right on with how I feel about it, as is La noche de los mil gatos which took me two turns to get through it it's lack of horror was so apparent.

Santa sangre is another one that I have a hard time trying to find the horror aspects to, but I still found it to be enjoyable enough when it counted and don't have too many hard feelings towards it, just not a real horror film in my eyes.

[Fenril]

Satanic thrillers:

- Alucarda, la hija de las tinieblas (1979; aka Alucarda). Two young friends at a convent, Alucarda and Justine (get it?) accidentally unleash a demonic force at a cementery, triggering the wrath of their not-quite-sane caretakers. But as the forces of both evil and good keep raising the stakes, the real question might be which one is crazier...

Crazy supernatural film that somehow makes its' many excesses (gore, nudity, satanism) work, and remains director Juan Lopez Moctezuma's most famous movie to date.

For an in-depth look at this movie, the director, and the cult that build around both, the documentary: "Alucardos, retrato de un vampiro" is thoroughly recommended.

- Ángeluz, ángel o demonio (1998). Trying to pass off as a normal teenager, a fallen angel finds himself slipping back to his demonic ways as his (human) friends are kidnapped by a gang. Meanwhile, a goverment scientist (and the reincarnation of a Holy Inquisition enemy of Angeluz) is hot on his trail.

Fairly strange movie that goes from dark fantasy to straight horror to comedy to straight fantasy in roughly two hours, but it's just weird enough to warrant at least one look.

- Cañitas (2007 aka Presencia). A family suspects that their house is haunted and so call a famous tv paranormal detective for help. However, he discovers that the problem is much bigger than anticipated --their house isn't so much haunted as inhabited by the devil itself.

Based on a famous real-life case, and one of the most boring horror films ever made, mostly due to the director's seeming inability to muster suspense even with the help of actually pretty good special effects (case in point: the demons are actually pretty creepy, but you'd have to use frame-by-frame to even see them, thanks to the machine-gun editing used for their scenes).

- Satánico Pandemónium (1975 aka La sexorcista). A young nun is repeteadly tempted by Satan himself until she decides to unleash all of her repressed vices, culminating in one delirious orgy of blood and psychedelic trips.

Amazing film that can be seen both as a straightforward supernatural thriller and the illustration of a repressed nun's increasingly distrubing fever dreams. The climatic bacchanale alone makes this a must-see (same for a few brief yet quite effective gore setpieces).

[slayrrr666]

Only saw one of those, Angeluz (with your help in figuring out what was going on) and still feel our talks got it out quite clearly on my end, with it being really two films in one and should've been split up as so to allow the convoluted story-telling more room to grow with it's series of back-and-forth time-shifts and continual references to the past. Still enjoyable enough, though.

And just for kicks, I've heard of Cañitas before but nowhere can I find any info on it. What's the translation into English for that one so I can put it into my notes?

[Fenril]

Apr 3, 2013 10:50:59 GMT -5 slayrrr666 said:

And just for kicks, I've heard of Cañitas before but nowhere can I find any info on it. What's the translation into English for that one so I can put it into my notes?

"Cañitas" is the name of a street, so the title would probably stay the same. It literally means "Small reeds". "Presencia" means "presence". In any case, trying to look up information on this will probably get you to the book by Carlos Trejo (that's the supposed real-life ghost hunter).

The thing is that the book is a perennial best-seller here (sort of our "Amityville horror", only much more poorly written), so the movie was realeased to great fanfare. But then everybody saw the actual movie and it was promptly shoved under the rug as far as anybody associated with it is concerned.

Here's some basic information (in spanish, but it has the credits): es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ca%C3%B1itas_(pel%C3%ADcula)

And the poster, just because: tvnotiblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/poster-canitas.jpg

[slayrrr666]

Okay, great. Thanks so much. Just leaving it as 'Cañitas: La Presencia' will be fine then, as indeed everything I tried to look up took me to the book because I don't recognize that poster at all so that's indeed a big help.

[Fenril]

And finally... the rest; a couple "Mad scientist" entries that aren't Creature Features themselves and a lot that just don't fit anywhere else:

- El ángel exterminador (1962 aka The exterminating angel). The guests at an upscale party find themselves mysteriously unable to leave the house they are in (as in, they physically can't leave, even with no visible barriers anywhere).

One of those surreal art films that nevertheless border on horror because of its' often disturbing imagery (check out the scene where a woman is assailed by a disembodied hand!), with an ironic twist ending.

-La cámara del terror (1968 aka Fear chamber). A group of scientists discover what appears to be a prehistoric monster embedded in a rock, which needs adrenaline-soaked hormones in order to subsist. Soon the group is abducting young virgins to feed to their new lord and master.
...or at least that's what I could piece together from this mess of a film.

This is one of those movies that felt victim to so many rewrites, editings and added footage that it's impossible to tell what the original intent was, through some fairly entertaining sequences survive here and there. This is also one of those movies Boris Karloff probably wished he had never agreed to star in.

- Ciclón (1978, aka Cyclone). The survivors from the titular natural disaster (this includes passengers on a luxurious yatch, an oversea flight and a fishing boat) converge on a tour boat. They find themselves starving, dehydrated, and feeling increasingly cannibalistic. And *then* the sharks arrive...

Survival drama with enough horror tones to qualify (the director´s "Sobrevivientes de los Andes" is another example), the highlight being the climatic shark fenzy that feels strangely naturalistic (mostly because they used real sharks).
Another mexican shark film (which is a bit closer to a traditional horror thriller) is "Tintorera", short of a "Jaws" meets lots of 60's beach movies.

- El esqueleto de la señora Morales (1960, aka The skeleton of Mrs. Morales). Where did taxidermist Mr. Morales get such a realistic replica of a human skeleton that he's proudly displaying in his shop's window? And why has no one seen his self-righteous wife in so long?

Dark comedy (loosely based on a story by Arthur Machen) which alternates between horror and mystery. Capped by one hell of a double twist ending.

-Misterios de ultratumba (1959, aka The black pit of Dr. M). Two doctors in an insane asylum establish a very unusual pact: whoever of the two dies first shall return to inform the other of what the afterlife is like. And that's just the beginning of a series of increasingly bizarre occurences that seem to imply --sometimes, life can be more of a fever dream than anything in heaven and hell.

Gothic cult film from the director of "El vampiro" (I liked that movie better than this one, frankly), with a storyline that becomes wackier and denser as it advances, adding prophecies, murderous madwomen, prophetic dreams and even zombies into the mix.
Think of an earlier (and arguiably more horror-oriented) version of "La mansión de la locura" (aka Mansión of madness).

- Orlak, el infierno de Frankenstein (1960 aka Frankenstein's hell). An imprisoned robber escapes with the help of a mad doctor who used to be his cellmate in exchange for finding the doctor's last creation and use it to realize both men's revenge --a super-strong golem.

Gothic drama that goes into sci-fi and horror in it's third act. The highlight here is the monster, who is usually presented as an ordinary, charming man --until his master activates a remote control device that turns him into an unstoppable creation.
This was written by Carlos Enrique Taboada (director of "Hasta el viento tiene miedo"), and I really, really wish he had been the director for this one, too. As it is, Rafael Baledón (himself helmer of "La mansión de la llorona" and other memorable Mexican gothic films) sacrifices mystery for explicit scares (the entire story with the monster's masters should have been a suprise reserved for the finale, instead of taking up the entire first act, IMHO), through this is still worth a look.

[slayrrr666]

So, got another one done last night, but not a true Mexican horror, as it was the US/Mexico co-production 'The Beast of Hollow Mountain.' Therefore, I'm not going to do a traditional write-up or include it in the rankings but I'll give a little blurb instead. While it is pretty flawed in a lot of respects (some, like the inaccurate dinosaur behavior, are excused while others, like the shoddy animation or the cliche story, aren't) and the Western-esque elements do take a lot of getting used to since it doesn't play them for action, there's still some fun here. The dinosaur takes center-stage when it appears the way it should, the battles are quite fun resulting in a fine last half and the film does get somewhat enjoyable when the feud really starts getting heated. Not bad, but the remake is a lot better.

[Fenril]

- La llorona (1933). An upscale family celebrate their firstborn's fifth birthday; as they wait for one of the uncles (unaware that he has been killed by supernatural forces), the patriarch takes the boy's father to his studio to narrate two stories linked to their family --that of an ancestor whose mistress killed their children and that of the founder's tryst with the infamous Malinche. It seems the family has been haunted for centuries by a spirit known as "La llorona", who regularly possesses women in their vicinity and makes them slaughter their children. And indeed, the spirit is closer than they imagine, presiding over the birthday party going on outside the studio, with a ceremonial knife ready...

Finallly saw the first local movie appearance of this famous character. This movie appears to be a template for pretty much all the versions that followed, setting several basic plot threads that would appear in other versions: the family curse on the firstborns (Llorona 58), the family party interrupted by the llorona (Santo version), the spirit possessing women and turning them into murderers (Las lloronas), and so on. The best scene is the climatic fight in a subterranean Aztec altar, with the revelation of the murderer and the ghosts' final surprise.

Another bit worth noting --unlike the 58 version, here the child characters actually are in mortal peril, and don't all survive to the end.

[Fenril]

- El edificio. Fleeing her abusive husband and his controlling sister, a young woman rents an apartment in an old building. She tries to reconstruct her life and relationship with her estranged parents, while befriending a handful of fellow tenants. Why, though, does her phone keep transferring calls clearly meant for other people? And what's with that little boy who seems to appear at will in the hallways and in her living room?

This haunted house movie was a lot better than I expected. In classic ghost story style, this starts out more as a character-driven drama, with the supernatural at first kept low-key and gradually increasing until the appropriately devastating conclusion. The main draw here is lead Miranda, a complex character whose main objective in life is to escape the influence assorted men have on her life --a difficult task, once it becomes clear that: a. Her problems with men reach far deeper than her marriage, b. She mostly faces her problems by running away from them --naturally, where the supernatural comes into play is in that she's finally stumbled into a situation she won't be able to escape from. Of course, this makes the scares slightly muted; without revealing too much, this is the kind of movie where several characters are eventually revealed to have been ghosts all along, but by the time that revelation comes it's much more sad than scary, as you realize just how lonely these people are. On the other hand, the final sequence is chilling as we also realize what the titular building actually is and its true purpose.

Another plus is the convincing recreation of 90's Mexico (the story takes place in 1995), mixed in with echoes of a real-life tragedy --the 1985 earthquake.

The downside is a couple ill-conceived jump scares that employ very obvious computer-generated effects, and which don't quite mesh with the understated tone the rest of the movie has.

[slayrrr666]

So, since I've been gone through Halloween, I managed to get another one done: The Curse of the Crying Woman (La maldición de la Llorona).

After she arrives at her family's estate in the countryside, a woman begins to suspect something sinister about her newly-arrived cousin who seems to fit the local of a murderous, wailing woman all too well and tries to stop her nefarious plans.

This was a really enjoyable and entertaining effort that gets a lot right. One of the biggest pluses here is the extraordinary Gothic atmosphere at play, where the majority of the film takes place on a multilevel hacienda full of secret passage-ways, cobweb-infested tunnels, staircases into the other levels and so much more here that there's plenty of creepiness to get hooked on before adding in the dungeons full of rotting corpses with mashed-up faces, stringy hair and a loss of general bodily form that look effectively decayed and rotting away with sickly skin and just a look of complete and utter mess, effectively making for a great look here overall when placed into the setting of the house. As well, the look of the swamp where the creature appears is absolutely chilling and really sets off the opening ambush well with it's fog-laden surroundings, feeling of unease and general design that seems to make escape impossible. When combined with a large amount of action, from an opening ambush in the swamp, the journey through the hidden mirror in the bedroom and the encounter with the reanimated servant all conspire to give this a spectacular feel where it doesn't really slow down the pace at all. The fact that this still features a ton of jump scares is impressive, with images disappearing in front of a mirror and the unaffected still interacting with with real-time person who's not giving a reflection, hands emerging behind unsuspecting victims and even the work in the finale, where three separate brawls break out around the crumbling villa and a mad dash erupts to get out alive. While all this stuff works well, the fact that the rubber snakes in here look quite lame and really unconvincing, part of the whole special effects work that just looks really cheesy and fake and definitely looks really bad at times but not enough to detract from the more important matters.

The list now reads:

1. Grave Robbers
2. Cemetery of Terror
3. The Curse of the Crying Woman
4. Fangs of the Werewolf
5. Don't Panic
6. Santo and Blue Demon in the Land of the Dead
7. Vacations of Terror
8. The Vampires of Coyoacan
9. Even the Wind is Afraid
10. Santo vs. The Zombies
11. Santo and Blue Demon vs. The Monsters
12. The Phantom in the Red House
13. The Mummies of Guanajuato
14. Santo vs. The She-Wolves
15. Here Espantan!
16. The Beast is Alive
17. Santo and Blue Demon vs. Dracula and The Wolfman
18. The Vengeance of the Vampire Women
19. Santo and The Vengeance of the Mummy
20. Capulina Against the Mummies (The Terror of Guanajuato)
21. Santo vs. Frankenstein's Daughter
22. Nostradamus and the Monster Destroyer
23. Capulina vs. The Monsters
24. Night of the Bloody Apes
25. The Return of the Monster
26. Killer Bees
27. Helena's Cry
28. The Resuscitated Monster
29. Hell's Trap
30. Angel of Light
31. El Fantastico vs. The Nahual
32. Night of a 1000 Cats
33. Tintorera!
34. Spritism
35. Marina: On the Other Side of Time
36. The Robot vs. The Aztec Mummy
37. A Woman Possessed
38. The Cursed II
39. The Raven's Mourn
40. Fangs of Fury
41. The Mansion of Madness
42. All of Them Witches
43. The Gap
44. The Man and the Beast
45. La Llorona (58)
46. Zone of Silence: Parallel 27
47. The Man in White
48. Santa Sangre

[slayrrr666]

I managed to get another one done: The Incredible Professor Zovek (El increíble profesor Zovek).

Brought in by the government, a master fighter with psychic powers and his assistant find their assignment to bring down a criminal mastermind far more dangerous than initially figured when they find his released deformed, mutated beings are put under control and forcing them to deal with all them as well as the initial target.

There's some pretty big problems with this one and really hinder it from generating all that it really could've with this story. That in itself is the main problem, that it really doesn't exploit it's fine premise more than it could've, as this one seems to be ripe with the potential of featuring all sorts of confrontations with the mutated beings in different conflagrations against the hero as he locks up against them on his path to stop the creator at the center of it, yet instead this one decides to make the psychic powers and physical prowess he can demonstrate far more often than what really should be necessary. Even starting off with a ten-minute long session among governmental agents to prove his powers are indeed true makes for a rather convoluted and completely draining experience to start off with that really takes the life out of the movie before it even starts, and then throughout the film as it's filled with all sorts of double-crosses and spy-movie machinations as he attempts to escape the trap-filled lair rather than fight the creatures to finally get free. Perhaps it's for the best, though, with the laughable and hardly intimidating make-up on the creatures with over-sized denture-fangs and artificial drool to complete the demented look yet just comes off as amateurish and laughable when compared to other, better jobs at the same time. These here really ruin what could've been a fun entry with plenty of cheesiness to fill this one, with stuff like the continuous usage of his psychic powers to overcome guards, move objects around and generally make everyone else look like a goof for his benefit after having ample evidence that he's capable of doing so with no further attempt to contain the powers, numerous brawls with the security guards and other agents to display some marginal martial arts skills and a fantastic brawl with the wildest creature during a classic burning-down-the-castle finale that offers up some nice action and stunt-work with the final resolution. This really could've been a lot of fun if it wasn't so flawed.

The list now reads:

1. Grave Robbers
2. Cemetery of Terror
3. The Curse of the Crying Woman
4. Fangs of the Werewolf
5. Don't Panic
6. Santo and Blue Demon in the Land of the Dead
7. Vacations of Terror
8. The Vampires of Coyoacan
9. Even the Wind is Afraid
10. Santo vs. The Zombies
11. Santo and Blue Demon vs. The Monsters
12. The Phantom in the Red House
13. The Mummies of Guanajuato
14. Santo vs. The She-Wolves
15. Here Espantan!
16. The Beast is Alive
17. Santo and Blue Demon vs. Dracula and The Wolfman
18. The Vengeance of the Vampire Women
19. Santo and The Vengeance of the Mummy
20. Capulina Against the Mummies (The Terror of Guanajuato)
21. Santo vs. Frankenstein's Daughter
22. Nostradamus and the Monster Destroyer
23. Capulina vs. The Monsters
24. Night of the Bloody Apes
25. The Return of the Monster
26. Killer Bees
27. Helena's Cry
28. The Resuscitated Monster
29. Hell's Trap
30. Angel of Light
31. El Fantastico vs. The Nahual
32. Night of a 1000 Cats
33. Tintorera!
34. Spritism
35. Marina: On the Other Side of Time
36. The Robot vs. The Aztec Mummy
37. A Woman Possessed
38. The Incredible Professor Zovek
39. The Cursed II
40. The Raven's Mourn
41. Fangs of Fury
42. The Mansion of Madness
43. All of Them Witches
44. The Gap
45. The Man and the Beast
46. La Llorona (58)
47. Zone of Silence: Parallel 27
48. The Man in White
49. Santa Sangre