La momia azteca

When I first saw this I was 6 years old and it scared the hell out of me! Even though the trilogy ended a few months later (in 1958) I remember I was disappointed with the "human robot" ending of the Aztec mummy trilogy. I still think that this mummy could have been better exploited in films, but I guess that even for the producers it was such a discovery that when they realized what they had in hand, they had already blown it apart, with the lowest budgets and the retelling with minimum variations of the same story in parts 2 and 3 ("The Curse of the Aztec Mummy", and the awful "The Aztec Mummy Against the Humanoid Robot"). Maybe the reason is that its main writer, Alfredo Salazar (brother of producer-actor Abel Salazar, the man behind Fernando Méndez' 1957 classic "The Vampire") was marginally interested in horror films. Even if he also has to his credited the original script for Benito Alazraki's "Devil Doll Men" (1961), most of the movies Alfredo wrote were about wrestling stars, fighting the occasional monster. As frequent in Mexican horror films, there is also a mystery here: nobody seems to know the name of the little girl who played Dr. Almada's daughter.

While giving a speech at a conference "Dr. Eduardo Almada" (Ramon Gay) is greeted with skepticism concerning his work with using hypnosis to facilitate the possibility of reincarnation. To help prove his point his fiancé, "Flor Sepulveda" (Rosa Arenas) agrees to undergo an experiment which results in her remembering a past life in which she was a virgin by the name of Xochi being prepared for sacrifice to the Aztec god Tezkatlipoka. She further recalled that an Aztec warrior by the name of "Popoca" (Angel Di Stefani) was madly in love with her and wanted her to run away with him. Unfortunately, both Xochi and Popoca were caught in a forbidden embrace and apprehended. He was then cursed by the high priest to remain in the burial chamber for eternity while Xochi was subsequently sacrificed. It is at this time that Flor is awakened and although she is badly shaken up Dr. Almada refuses to listen to her plea not to venture into the Aztec pyramid to retrieve the breastplate that Xochi was wearing when she died. Not only is he ambivalent to a curse placed upon anybody who retrieves it but he is also unaware that a mysterious burglar by the name of "the Bat" has been listening in to this entire conversation and plans on stealing it once Dr. Almada obtains it. But "the Bat" isn't the only thing that Dr. Almada needs to worry about. Now, rather than disclose any more of this film and possibly ruin it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this was a decent clone to similar movies on this topic made in the past. Additionally, while the movie I saw was recorded in Spanish with English subtitles I still found it to be a fairly entertaining grade-B movie. I rate it as about average.

I didn't quite know what to expect from the "Aztec Mummy" trilogy, a typically wacky Mexican variant on a classic horror theme. This first entry proved quite a surprise: a highly entertaining confection which, apart from delving into ancient Aztec lore, also incorporates elements of science-fiction and gangster dramas into the fray!

The distinctive Aztec temples and (overstretced) rituals seen here provide an exotic alternative to the Egyptian examples we'd seen in previous Mummy movies. The background to the curse is still the same, however – a girl intended for sacrifice (played by Rosita Arenas, whose other Mexi-horror titles include starring roles in classics such as THE WITCH'S MIRROR [1960] and THE CURSE OF THE CRYING WOMAN [1961]) is caught in the arms of a warrior, for which he's condemned to be buried alive; centuries later, when his lover's tomb is desecrated, he awakens to eliminate those responsible.

The sci-fi trappings are put across with a good deal of persuasion (since they involve reincarnation, this section bears a striking resemblance to Roger Corman's contemporaneous THE UNDEAD [1957]), while the crime-lord involved is a masked figure referred to as "The Bat" (most probably inspired by the 1926 Roland West film of that name or its sound remake, THE BAT WHISPERS [1930]) – his presence is initially intriguing, but the ultimate revelation of his identity beggars belief. Among the secondary characters, then, are a cowardly medical student who acts as comedy relief and is quite amusing (even so, the very need for it betrays the fact that the Mexican horror film was still in its infancy at this point in time), and a kid – ostensibly the hero's (much) younger brother – who brings absolutely nothing to the table except that he's always being scolded by his elders for following them around!

Unfortunately, my enthusiasm for the film was considerably dissipated by the dire quality of the print included on BCI/Eclipse's 3-Disc Set. I didn't mind so much the softness of the image, the rather low audio or the occasional missing frame – but, then, I was intensely annoyed by scenes that were set in complete darkness where it was virtually impossible to tell what was going on. Considering that these include the exploration of the tomb, all the footage of the rampaging mummy and the climax, it felt like I only watched half a film…without even the benefit of getting a good look at the titular creature!!

Pretty damn good and without question the best of the Aztec Mummy series. Like all monster movies, you wish there was more of the namesake mummy. If the translations presented here are accurate (I speak some Spanish, but I'm not fluent) then the dialogue in this film comes across as more intellectual than the average low budget horror movie. The story of the Bat stealing the Aztec treasure is carried throughout all three films. The scenes with the Aztec ceremony and the hypnosis would definitely be considered "padding" within this plot line. That's the main problem with many horror films of the era is that they occasionally commit the cardinal sin of boredom. Regardless, overall the score is excellent and the mummy looks great so I would consider this an above average film.

Momia Azteca, La (1957)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Mexican horror film about a scientist (Raymond Gay) who uses hypnosis to look into people's past lives. He experiments on his girlfriend and learns she was a sacrificed princess who was buried with a golden breastplate. The scientist decides to go looking for it and eventually runs into the title character as well as a master thief known as The Bat. Here's a good idea to all future filmmakers if you're going to make a movie called The Aztec Mummy. Make sure the mummy is in the picture for more than three minutes. Technically speaking this is a fairly well made film but one can't help but be letdown since the title character hardly gets any screen time.