Darker Than Night

I have only seen two of director Taboada's movies, the other one being Veneno para las hadas, and both are very macabre. Mas negro que la noche is very scary because we not only hear strange sounds on a very creepy house inherited by four female relatives of the deceased old woman, but we also get to see her and I must say it's one of the scariest ghosts I have ever seen in movies. The reasons of her apparitions are related to her calling of her dear black cat who died shortly after she died. After some gruesome deaths, the ending is shocking but justifiable for people who love black cats.

After inheriting her grandmother's house in the countryside, a woman and her friends stay there to help sort out matters but grow increasingly convinced something is living in the house with them and try to get to the bottom of the mystery.

This turned out to be quite an enjoyable effort with a lot to really like here. One of the biggest pluses here is the fact that this one really manages to get the look and feel of the Gothic/Victorian style house here which is quite expertly handled and gets a lot of mileage out of. Filled with the grand layouts, spacious designs of the rooms and the twisting labyrinth of walkways and passages throughout, it fits the bill quite nicely with this one keeping up appearances quite well in addition to the fact that the last half of the film takes place in the secret rooms of the house. Using the underground library and the garden outside as the main locations in these sections makes for a rather chilling time with the multitude of encounters throughout there and how the earlier scenes set-up these encounters by focusing on the actions of the ghostly housekeeper and her cat. These are handled well enough for the rather impressive finale to feel like a continuation of these scenes which is where the fun of these come from while also accounting for the chilling nature of such encounters. While there's a lot to like here, it also has a few flaws in the incredibly clichéd and contrived set-up involving her and her friends moving into the house she has just inherited which really has no point here in generating any kind of originality or credibility in forcing them onto the property to begin with. As well, the fact that the girls' stay there includes the visitation by their boyfriends who are left alive by the disturbing lack of deaths here does make their intrusion seem pointless and drags out the running time in the middle when they're featured, yet this still manages a lot more good than bad points.

Rated Unrated/R: Violence, Language, Nudity and violence-against-animals.

I really enjoyed this. It is paced a little leisurely and is not full of startling action but it is colourful and engaging with a gentle but relentless move towards the inevitable bad ending. A fairly simple, 'Old Dark House' tale featuring four good looking young women who go to live in the aforementioned mansion. They are disrespectful from the start of the building and its 'junk' contents and the elderly Sofia, the housekeeper, magnificently played with complete eeriness by Alicia Palacios, and the film makers seem to wreak their own revenge to some extent by allowing the girls to make such asses of themselves. Also, deliberate or not the many and varied 70s outfits they sport seem to get progressively worse as the film continues. One or two moments of half baked 'soapy' melodrama, usually featuring preposterous plump and mustachioed 'boyfriends but for the most part a creepy fully focused and unusual horror that is well worth a watch. I must also mention the cat. Featuring heavily in the great opening credits, this black cat does not put a paw wrong and is caught on camera looking as mysterious and fearsome as is possible. He also features in the fine original poster.

My favorite of the Taboada trilogy of horror...I don't think Veneno Para las Hadas counts as a horror movie. The soundtrack is really good for a horror movie- harpsichord, varied themes and styles. With a low budget, Taboada managed to convey fright, something that is hard to do. It has a classic vibe to it, a la "The Haunting" (the original one...no the hot mess from the late 90s). I have to admit, it's rather cheesy, but as a child, it captivated me. What I loved also, now that I'm an adult and have read my share of books, is the nod to Edgar Alla Poe's "The Black Cat." Film-making wise, I think Taboada was an unappreciated genius. I hope Guillermo del Toro honors him by remaking one of the three.

Moderately paced and highly atmospheric 'Hunted house' flick from Mexico. This film is mostly about the mood and the overall look (of the house and the girls) , fortunately there is almost no 'gore'. Four beautiful ladies move into an old house, but they are not safe. Maybe if they had shown a bit more tolerance and understanding towards a certain cat, all would have gone well, but alas. I have rarely seen a spooky mansion so well utilized- winding staircases, spacious open rooms, an impressive color scheme - all this combined so well with the camera work and dialogue , a wonderful blend designed to led one gradually, step by step, into a state of paranoias, fear and dread. 7.6 stars.