O Morcego

My first time seeing this solid Mexican horror film properly in its original language, as intended. It's certainly one of the finest of its genre, with German Robles in good form as Count Lavud, the Vampire. A pretty young woman travels to the eerie mansion of her ancestors, accompanied by a doctor (Abel Salazar). Something is not quite right when she learns that one of her aunts has just mysteriously died, and another aunt seems rather strange and exceptionally young. It turns out that the blood-sucking Lavud is behind it all, and Salazar has to take on the role of hero. I was very impressed with the consistency in set design, production values, and all-around creepiness and foggy atmosphere that helps make this winner a classic of its kind. Abel Salazar produced this himself, reportedly very keen on following in the step of the old Universals, and it pays off handsomely. *** out of ****

The Mexican horror film, "The Vampire" was followed by "The Vampire's Coffin". Of the two, "The Vampire" is a significantly better film and is still pretty watchable today--even if both films feature the crappiest looking wire effects in the history of vampire films!

A woman's aunt has died and she's traveled for the funeral. However, what she doesn't know is that she's walking into a trap by the vampire, Count Lavud (also known as Duval). It's up to her new male friend to help her--as well as very unlikely help from beyond the grave!

While I'd never call this film especially good, it's quite atmospheric and worth seeing if you like the genre. But, you have to ignore all the obvious wires supporting the bats as well as the wire on the sword that Lavud tries to use on our hero near the end. And, like the sequel, this vampire is no Dracula. Drac was incredibly strong and rather smart-- this one is neither, though he does have style. And, he tells everyone he comes from the land of Baconia....ummm...bacon!!

I have just seen El vampiro during a Latin American Film festival held in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, where its protagonist German Robles was present as guest of honour.

El vampiro is imaginative rather than talkative and has imagery no American fifties vampire flick can match. The story, of course, is lame and predictable, and, as Latin movies go, there is a lot of supernatural hokum coming with it. The overriding presence of Robles, together with the humor and the menacing, beautiful atmosphere, make up for it.

Vampiric action is kept to a bare minimum and the man-to-bat-metamorphosis (and vice versa) challenges in no way the 1932 standard. Nevertheless, it is one of the classics of the genre.

If you want to know how a vampire lady looks when she tries very hard to look like a vampire lady - well, the film gives you ample chance. One last thing: the soundtrack, however primitive, is a revelation: good vampire music and sound effects culminate in the humorous ending, when the leading man's words are drowned by the departing train's whistle. Nearly perfect.

Another film I have watched as part of my Halloween marathon was EL VAMPIRO/THE VAMPIRE (1957), recently released by Mondo Macabro on R0 (PAL) DVD. As I have already written in an earlier post in this thread, I was not familiar with this title outside of Carlos Clarens' book on horror movies; the very positive 'Monsters At Play' online review, then, was the factor which drove me to purchase it - and I am glad I did!

Perhaps the most influential aspect of the film is that it presents us with what is probably the screen's first fanged vampire. I have no idea whether anyone at Hammer had watched this prior to making Dracula (1958) - Terence Fisher certainly said he deliberately avoided watching the Browning/Lugosi version so as not to let himself be influenced by it - but it's rather regrettable that the later film is given all the credit for it, when it is clearly not the case.

As a matter of fact, EL VAMPIRO was a bit like the bridge which lead the genre away from the Universal style and towards Hammer horror - the look of the film was certainly inspired by the former but here we have no cutaways during vital moments (one attack by the vampire on a small boy [!] is particularly vicious), while the busy climax (a' la Hammer's Dracula) only disappoints because Count Lavud is dispatched in the conventional manner typified by the Universal films!

The plot of the film offers no surprises and even incorporates a Poe-inspired subplot, involving a premature burial, for good measure. The special effects (the vampire turning into a bat or materializing out of nowhere, only to vanish into thin air again) are well done in spite of the modest budget, providing a few undeniably effective frissons. Despite its deliberate pace (not unusual with horror films dependent on atmosphere), the film is never boring; in fact, it is quite a treat. German Robles cuts a dashing figure (much like Christopher Lee, as opposed to the likes of Max Schreck or even Lugosi) but is appropriately menacing when the moment calls for it. He makes a perfect vampire count, though his screen-time is relatively brief; producer/actor Abel Salazar (a bumbling Van Helsing-type role) is no Cushing, however, but the film does not really suffer for it. The ladies are decorative if nothing more and, thankfully, very little footage is devoted to frightened villagers or sinister-looking acolytes. If I had to classify the film in comparison to other vampire movies, I would say that EL VAMPIRO is just a few notches below the 1931 Spanish Dracula (which is appropriate as it's the one I was most reminded of when watching it).

The film's presentation on DVD is unfortunately less-than-stellar: there is a constant hiss on the soundtrack which can become annoying and the print, while far from pristine, is certainly watchable; the 22-minute Documentary on Mexican horror films was quite interesting, although I suspect few of the films mentioned are really worth looking into apart from curiosity value (THE BRAINIAC, anyone?); the film's sequel, THE VAMPIRE'S COFFIN (1958) - presented in the form of a photonovel (a nice touch) - looks a bit contrived but is, perhaps, a reasonably adequate follow-up to the original.

The other Mondo Macabro titles on DVD are even more obscure: ALUCARDA (1975), at least, looks intriguing - reminiscent of Alejandro Jodorowsky's work (it was in fact directed by Juan Lopez Moctezuma, producer of FANDO & LIS and EL TOPO) which, in view of the adult nature of the film, would probably not go past the local censors (!); AWAKENING OF THE BEAST (1970) - one of the 'Coffin Joe' films; BLOOD OF THE VIRGINS (1967); and DR. JEKYLL VERSUS THE WEREWOLF (1972) - one of the 'Waldemar Daninsky' films written by and starring Paul Naschy.

This is probably the best Mexican vampire movie. The sets are great(Azteca Studio).The atmosphere is dank with swirling fog and mist. A young girl returns to her childhood home with a doctor she met on a train. The doctor holds a secret. The girl's family has an aunt under the spell of the vampire. The Count sets his sights on Marta and plans to resurrect his long dead brother. The mood and the music are fantastic. Only thing keeping this from a 10 is the cheesy dubbed dialogue. Hard to find but well worth it.