Mexican horror

[Fenril]

First of all, I'm really sorry it took me so long to reply. Been having problems with my account, I'm afraid.

I've also been busy with several real-life things...

So, on topic, it's not uncommon for Mexican films (of all genres) to be cut like that for international releases. Many Santo films exist in two versions: a mainstream one and a porno one. The latter are hard to find and considered genuine collector's items.

As for Tintorera (or "Killer Shark") I had forgotten that it's very 70's, hence the long beach scenes; I guess I simply liked the bloody attacks, the corny yet charming atmosphere (at least I found it charming) and especially the fact that the shark has these little remoras swimming around him, which I thought make him seem very realistic (in fact they used an actual shark, I think).

As for the box set:

VACATION OF TERROR (VACACIONES DE TERROR), VACATION OF TERROR 2 (VACACIONES DE TERROR 2). Haunted house movies, one of them with a killer doll (I forget which one); entertaining, but be ready for some truly stilted acting.

HELL’S TRAP (TRAMPA INFERNAL)

CEMETERY OF TERROR (CEMENTERIO DEL TERROR)

GRAVE ROBBERS (LADRONES DE TUMBAS)

THE DEMON RAT (LA RATA MALDITA)

I barely remember these ones (in fact I don't think I've ever seen the last one --I thought "La rata maldita" was simply what "Ben" was called here), except they are very much like "Dimensiones Ocultas", which you've already seen: very much in the spirit of american genre movies, and definitely made with an international public in mind.

So, gotten around to see Alucarda yet?

[slayrrr666]

I did some checking online during that read-up on it, and it seems that the movie runs over two hours before being cut up, so I can only imagine how much is cut out to be able to fit it into a two-hour broadcast that includes commercials. It sounds mainly like it's sex and nudity, and that isn't a bad thing.

Stilted acting isn't a problem, as I don't know the difference. It's one of my failings as a horror viewer: I don't know the difference.

As for Alucarda: no store I've been too stocks it, and no one knows how to get in touch with the company or even what the company is to find it. I know I can get it online, but there's too much untrustworthiness about it for me to try it. I'm trying to stumble across it, as it would make it feel a lot more worthy when I find it.

[slayrrr666]

Knocked off another one you had posted earlier, Santa Sangre, and have to say that I didn't really care for it.

The opening murder, where the tattooed woman got slashed up incredibly viciously, with the repeated hacks and slashes, was done in the best Italian spirit, the story had potential and it has some halfway decent moments (especially the destruction of the church at the beginning) but this one really needed some horror to keep me interested. There was hardly any in it, despite the one murder scene. This seemed like five movies or so spun together: the family drama at the circus, the man in the insane asylum coping with the problem, his journey through the world once he's released, and the killer lurking about, but that last one should've been made a priority (at least to me, I've seen a lot of positive remarks online that hype up areas that I don't look for in my films) as I can't really sit through 40+ minutes without anything happening. Watchable if you're into that kind of thing, but not so much if you're in the mood for straigh-out horror.

And yes, I'm still looking for Alucarda.

[Fenril]

...Good point.

I'd argue that compared to the rest of Jodorowsky's works, this is actually pretty straightforward. Which makes me think you probably wouldn't like anything else by him, either.

I liked this one a lot, but then I liked it because of its weirdness and the ghiallo / wrestler touches (a transexual version of Santo!).

[slayrrr666]

There was potential there, as I said the story was good, there was some entertaining moments and it did get pretty weird at times. However, I was looking at it as a straight-forward horror tale, which is why I didn't think much of it. I've looked online at some of the other stuff Jodorowsky has done and nothing really appeals to me by what they say, but at least I saw one to judge for myself.

[slayrrr666]

Picked up one more over the weekend, The Robot vs The Aztec Mummy.

Being that it's barely an hour long and certainly filled with cheese, this one wasn't that bad. It's apparently part of a series of films of which this is the only one I know of (I would assume based on the quality of the flashbacks to what are supposedly the others that there's at least two more) allow for a somewhat enjoyable time. The Gothic atmosphere is quite creepy at times, especially within the tomb during the mummy's initial resurrection and the cemetery sequences. The two big action scenes, the creature's attack on a hideout dispatching a series of gangsters and the final brawl between the title characters, are nice if somewhat short, especially in the later case, which is even more apparent due to the utterly crappy-looking look of the robot as it's one of the worst looking ones in the history of robots on film. Sure, the length is an issue, but it's not all that bad either way.

[slayrrr666]

Ah, finally found out the other two based on the flashback scenes: The Aztec Mummy and Curse of the Aztec Mummy. Good to know, at least.

[slayrrr666]

Picked off one more over the weekend: Cemetery of Terror (Cementerio del Terror).

Quite frankly, this is my new favorite Mexican horror film. First half is an immensely entertaining slasher, very few faults at all. Creepy set-pieces, great stalking scenes, loads upon loads of atmosphere and brutal, gory deaths all grouped together, and with an expert pace, it kept the attention going nicely and never really dulled down.

Then, as if that wasn't enough, it went up about nine spots with perhaps some of the absolute best zombie scenes I've ever seen. The shots of them emerging from their crypts, punching through their stone monuments or just plain old emerging from the ground, complete with that rotting zombie look I just love so much, turned the whole thing around and I just fell in love with it.

Now imagine how much more I'm going to love this one once I see a copy in English and I can figure out what they're saying in here.

[slayrrr666]

Hey, Fenril I thought you might help with this:

Over the next couple days, several of the Spanish-speaking TV channels I have will be airing some Mexican-based horror and I don't recognize the titles. Could you offer a little help?

The ones in question are-
Colmillos, El Hombre Lobo
Abejas asesinas
El hombre y la bestia

I also recognized two others, Ladrones de Tumbas and La noche de los mil gatos. Is that going to be a good enough marathon of Mexican horror if I catch all of them?

[Fenril]

Oct 19, 2010 11:23:55 GMT -5 slayrrr666 said:

Hey, Fenril I thought you might help with this:

Over the next couple days, several of the Spanish-speaking TV channels I have will be airing some Mexican-based horror and I don't recognize the titles. Could you offer a little help?

The ones in question are-
Colmillos, El Hombre Lobo
Abejas asesinas
El hombre y la bestia

I also recognized two others, Ladrones de Tumbas and La noche de los mil gatos. Is that going to be a good enough marathon of Mexican horror if I catch all of them?

Glad to:

- Abejas asesinas (Killer bees). 1978, starring John Saxon (!), John Carradine (!) and Claudio Brook. Spoken in english, so bad dubbing shouldn't be a problem.

- El hombre y la bestia (The man and the beast). There are several spanish movies with this title, but this one is probably the 1973 movie starring Carlos López Moctezuma (brother of the director of Mansion of madness and Alucarda). A loose adaptation of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde".

- Comillos, el hombre lobo (Fangs, the werewolf ... some title) (1993). Directed by René Cardona III, master of mexican schlock. Never actually seen that one, but it should at least be some cheesy fun.

La noche de los gatos (Night of the cats) is also by Cardona and Ladrones de tumbas (Grave robbers) is a 90's slasher from the director of Don't panic, which you might also remember.

All in all, these should make a fun B-movie marathon.

[slayrrr666]

Great, man. Thanks a lot for the help. That is indeed the El hombre one that's on, you listed one of the actors that my guide is advertising is in it. I got Colmillos taped last night, Ladrones is on later today while I'm at work and El hombre is on tonight in Colmillos' time spot, with the others on either Friday or the weekend, so hopefully I'll have them all ready and done for a huge update on Monday.

[slayrrr666]

Well, time to report on these.

First off, Night of a 1000 Cats wasn't watched, my TV cut out during the showing and I saw all of maybe thirty minutes of the film, so after the fifth interruption waiting for a signal, I turned it off. I can't say anything about it.

The others, though, were actually a lot of fun.

Colmillos was a lot of fun, great stalking scenes, a cheesy style werewolf that was somewhat interesting in that it turned into a half-man/half-wolf look that still managed to crawl around on all-fours, so it was a unique take I greatly appreciated. The attacks are violent, the inclusion of some old-school Gothic imagery and concepts made for some atmospheric times and the ending was really good. Some minor editing issues aside, this one was actually quite fun.

Killer Bees was just exactly what I wanted, an exploitative and highly cheesy killer insect film that was just so cheesy it made me smile. The attacks are just outstanding, those were the high point simply due to their 70s American-Disaster Movie style of just throwing the actual things out there and filming the realistic reactions, which never gets old. Cheesy fun times here.

The Man and the Beast, though, was the lone downer amongst the marathon, being more of a period drama than actual horror film. He's out and exposed quite early, makes numerous appearances in public yet none of which are anything that drive up the fear of him, so when he finally turns, it's extremely late into the film and it's not all that impressive. The ending is quite fun, but it's just way too problematic beforehand.

Luckily, Grave Robbers redeemed that one and then some, man that movie was a blast. Atmospheric, suspenseful, gory, cheesy, entertaining, it had it all, and frankly, I could find no faults with this one. I find it to be a flawless film, that is what I think of it.

However, I should mention that there was a flaw throughout those four films, and on Cats when it was on as well: the inability of mine to understand Spanish, as frankly all of the films were shown on Mexican TV and were not subtitled, close-captioned, or even dubbed for an English speaking audience. I saw all of them in their original Spanish, with Killer Bees dubbed back into Spanish so it became an adventure trying to read their lips, but that should be mentioned, none of the films were in English.

[Fenril]

Glad you enjoyed these movies and glad that you managed to follow them even with the language barrier. I also checked your blurbs in the "Off the chest" section.

I'm pretty sure most of those movies are available either dubbed or subtitled (be in on DVD, youtube, blu-ray, whichever), if you want to know what these people were actually saying...

[slayrrr666]

Hmm, cool. I'll definitely be looking into that, especially with Man and The Beast since that one tended to look like there was a lot of talking in it, but as I'm a visual person anyway, it didn't really feel that bad watching them.

If you want a list to show how I've ranked them now that I've seen a fair bunch:

1. Grave Robbers
2. Cemetery of Terror
3. Fangs of the Werewolf
4. Don't Panic
5. Killer Bees
6. Tintorera!
7. The Robot vs. The Aztec Mummy
8. The Mansion of Madness
9. The Man and the Beast
10. Santa Sangre

[Fenril]

So now that you've seen enough movies to make a list, what do you think of mexican horror in general? Considering that your list includes a couple black and white films, and at least two (Mansion and Santa sangre) with a higher budget than the rest.