La maldición de Nostradamus

The Curse of Nostradamus was the first of four films to be compiled from episodes of a Mexican serial by American producer K. Gordon Murray; I watched it because I am a horror movie completist, but I'm secretly hoping that I can't find the other three films - because this one is that bad!

Germán Robles plays vampire Ericson, the son of Nostradamus (or the son of the son of Nostradamus - it's not very clear which), who wants Professor Durán (Domingo Soler), esteemed debunker of superstitions, to help vindicate the name of his infamous ancestor. When Durán refuses, Ericson attempts to change the professor's mind by threatening to kill thirteen people; he could probably bore them to death by talking to them, but opts for more elaborate methods.

The film is slow, overly-talky, and shoddily edited, with terrible dubbing. Robles hams it up as the vampire, occasionally turning into a rubber bat on a string when confronted by a cross (or The Cross of Antioch, to be more precise); his loyal sidekick is that horror cliché, the drooling hunchback. In a slight deviation from the norm, the best way to kill the vampire is to shoot it with platinum bullets, which sounds expensive, especially the way that trigger-happy hero Tony (Julio Alemán) fires wildly at the bloodsucker.

"The Curse of Nostradamus" is an unjustly and sadly forgotten Mexican curio from the early 60s, and actually a lot more intelligent and atmospheric than you would automatically assume, judging by its cheap look & feel and its status of obscurity. The first thing that attracted my interest was, obviously, the unusual name in the title. Did these silly Mexicans seriously intend to portray the famous historical doctor/clairvoyant Nostradamus as a horror monster, or did they simply want to lure unwary viewers with a familiar-sounding name (like the Italians did around the same time with "The Horrible Dr. Hitchcock")? Fact remains that the plot does revolve around the one and only Nostradamus! Well, actually, the plot revolves around his son; - a purely evil vampire who wants to wreak havoc against a literate scientist and his entourage for continuously denying the existence of supernatural forces (or something).

Nostradamus Jr. appears to be your average and prototypical cinematic vampire. He's almost half a century old, wears a cloak, has a hunchbacked servant, transforms into a bat, fears the cross and doesn't have a reflection in the mirror. There's one peculiarity, however, that makes him one of the most uncommon vampires ever. Junior kills for fun and to make a statement, but he seemingly doesn't need to drain the blood from his victims' necks to survive. Instead, his methods for murder are inventively playful and extremely sadist, which is exactly what makes "The Curse of Nostradamus" worth discovering. Via hypnotism, he causes for someone to be buried alive (still the most horrifying way to die, if you ask me) and for another person to become a guilt-ridden murderer himself. These sequences, including the extended and uncanny build-up, are genuinely powerful and excellent examples of spooky Gothic horror. I was enjoying this film immensely, but then unfortunately came the downright clumsy and abrupt ending, and it ruined a lot. Apparently there exist three more "Nostradamus" films, but I have little hope of ever finding those. The picture quality and the English dubbing of my copy (and old "Something Weird Video" bootleg) is extremely poor, but I'm not complaining too much about that, since it's already exceptional for a cheap 60-year-old Mexican horror film to be available anyways.

A Mexican serial, 'La maldición de Nostradamus', was shown in cinemas in 12 25-minute episodes during 1959-60. Never one to miss an opportunity in exporting cheap, badly-dubbed Mexican fare to US shores, producer K. Gordon Murray - he of 'Santa Claus' (1959) fame – edited the series into four separate movies in order to fleece four separate audiences.

The films became 'Curse of Nostradamus', 'Monsters Demolisher' (sic), 'Genii of Darkness' and 'Blood of Nostradamus'. As so much of the first film is plot establishment, it's difficult watching the sequels without seeing this first entry.

The son of Nostradamus (Germán Robles) is a vampire who wants to clear the reputation of his esteem father. In case you're unaware, one thing that history tells us about Nostradamus is that he was a hated villain. Well, according to this film anyway.

In order to clear daddy's rep, junior attempts to get the head of The Society to Abolish Superstitions (!!!), Prof. Duran (Domingo Soler) to publicly restore Nostradamus' good-standing, and while he's at it, to admit that vampires do exist.

Naturally, this doesn't go now with a man who spends his days trying to discredit fear of the unproven, so he refuses. Nostradamus Jr. then promises to commit various murders and crimes until the Professor yields. The Prof instead sets out, with good friend Julio Alemán to bring the vampire and his hunchback servant down.

Not only is Junior a bloodsucker, he has also inherited his father's gift, meaning his vengeful prophecies often include elements that haven't happen yet. An amusing example of this is the predicted death of a police office, before he becomes a police officer. I say amusing, because one day the guy is unemployed, the next, he is a police officer on a covert operation! Yessss.

There is a great idea here – a killer with the ability to predict events before they happen. However, making the killer a vampire seems a little redundant, and comes across as an attempt to cash in on the Mexican hits like 'The Vampire' (1957) and 'The Vampire's Coffin' (1958).

Of course, any promising material that isn't ruined by director Federico Curiel is left for Murray to wreck, with bad dubbing and editing. Obviously it's best to see the original Mexican serial, but good luck with finding that. It's as rare as prophetic vampire bat droppings.

If you do opt for the films, make sure you watch them in the right order. They do follow on directly from each other. The correct order is as listed in the second paragraph of this review.

Back in 1959 a 12 part serial was filmed for Mexican movie goers under the title of The Curse Of Nostradamus.It ran in 12 twentyfive minute installments.K Gordon Murray spent a few pesos for it and cut it into 4 movies for release to some theatres and American tv.The titles were Curse Of Nostradamus, The Monster Demolisher, The Genie Of Darkness and Blood Of Nostradamus.German Robles played the vampire Nostradamus.

Nostradamus is either the son or the grandson of the famous Nostradamus.He refers to himself as both the son of and son of the son.He feels that Nostradamus was slighted and wants to reestablish a cult following.To do this he seeks the aid of noted Professor Dolan, the head of some sort of society to abolish superstition.(Sounds like Government tax dollars at work to old evilskip).

Nostradmaus appears at Dolan's house and informs him of his demands.Dolan politely tells him to blow it out his nose.The vampire then declares he will kill 13 prominent citizens until Dolan agrees.He will start by burying a man alive.Dolan, being a fool, doesn't humor the vampire until he can drive a stake in his arse because 1) he doesn't believe him 2) we would have no movie.

The vampire indeed does have a seemingly dead man buried alive in a creepy little scene.He also kills two more citizens while Dolan the dolt blindly refuses to give in.

The movie ends very abruptly, especially if you don't know the history of it and the fact that there are 3 more movies to follow.

This isn't the best of the series but it does lay some important groundwork.Not a bad time waster.With more and more of the Mexican horror movies being released on dvd we can hope this series will end up released this way.