Hasta el viento tiene miedo

Nowadays, I am rather bored with the same movies about spiteful little ghosts of teenage girls or resentful children who want to give someone a message or simply punish their murderers. Especially if we are talking about those Asian movies that always have a similar ending. Don't get the wrong idea about me, I am not trying to be rude or offensive, but horror movies nowadays tend to be way too similar when it comes to the whole "vindictive ghost" subject matter. Obviously, it is almost impossible not to base a movie on prior ideas and that is not the blameworthy thing I'm trying to point out. Basically what really annoys me about contemporary ghost flicks, is that they try so hard to shock the audience or provide something new, that they usually end up messing it up and worst of all, the ending is still predictable. At least that is my humble opinion. Fortunately, we can always rely on a good horror gem from many years ago and that is the case of "Hasta el viento tiene miedo". A simple and yet stylish horror movie that provides all the necessary elements, without trying so desperately to fill an hour and a half. It may be a little bit predictable in a way, but at least it's highly enjoyable and it doesn't try to mislead the audience with pitiful and superfluous situations.

In "Hasta el viento tiene miedo", a group of boarding school girls suffer from the torments of a authoritarian and conniving headmistress called Bernarda, who seems to unload of all her anger on the girls. In contrast, Lucia, the vice-headmistress, tries to be as easy-going as possible to make up for Bernarda's unkind behavior, earning that way, the girls' friendliness One night, Claudia, a student from the boarding school, suffers from a nightmare, in which she hears a ghostly voice that calls her name from the heights of a tower that is situated in the school garden. When she goes in and walks up the stairs, she opens a red door and finds the body of a blonde girl hanging from the ceiling. Claudia's classmates become so fascinated with that dreadful nightmare that they all go together to the tower to reveal the mystery, even though Mrs. Bernarda had forbidden the girls to go up there. Before they can reveal any mysteries, the headmistress arrives and catches the girls who were trying to disobey her rules. As a consequence, all the girls are punished and forced to spend their winter vacations at the boarding school. Furious with their headmistress, all the girls complain about their vacations, without realizing that something even more awful is about to happen. There's a ghost seeking for revenge and one of them is going to be chosen as a messenger and living avenger.

"Hasta el viento tiene miedo", is a well made Gothic horror gem, that not only frightens more than once, but also offers a lot of amusing scenes that work as some kind of humorous relief, without turning the whole movie into a comedy. Naughty winks and yet naïve situations that probably caused a little bit of controversy back in the 60s, when the film came out. For example, the scene in which the ill-disciplined and naughty student named Kitty performs a striptease for her classmates and teaches them how to do it, I think that's one of my favorites. Not so much because of the striptease itself, but mostly, because the other girls look at her as if she was killing someone right in front of their eyes. There's also the scene in which all the girls force the prude girl to dance along with them and then jump all over her, like barbarians and take off her clothes as a way of revenge for being such a gossipy. The chemistry between actresses who played the schoolgirls (some of them were almost in their 30s) was simply flawless. Marga Lopez, as the evil headmistress, probably offered one of the best performances in this film. Her character, Mrs. Bernarda, reminded me of those days when I used to go to school and I would feel a shiver up from down my spine, every time I saw an intimidating teacher or headmistress. Definitely not a pleasant feeling, which means she did a good job. The well known Mexican composer Armando Manzanero was in charge of the music, which is also an extra point. His work, is also one of the main elements that contributes to make this film so atmospheric. "Hasta el viento tiene miedo" probably even delivers a hidden message regarding the severity of school authorities back then and the fact that violence can only produce more violence. Now, the question is: is there really a hidden message or am I just overreacting and giving the film more credit than it deserves?. I suppose that's up to each one to decide. Either way, hidden message or not, I highly recommend this film.

While not as prolific as the USA, UK and Italy; Mexico is responsible for many great horror films; with the sixties in particular being something of a goldmine for the horror fan. Carlos Enrique Taboada's Hasta el viento tiene miedo has a great reputation amongst those who have seen it; and after having finally tracked the film down myself, I have to say that its reputation is completely deserved! The title translates into English as 'Even the Wind is Afraid' and as you would expect from a film with such a title; this is a macabre treat! Like the classics The House That Screamed and Suspiria, this film focuses on an all-girl boarding house. After a group of girls sneak into a restricted part of the school and are caught; their punishment (doled out by the head teacher nicknamed 'The Witch') is that they have to stay behind during the summer break! Naturally the girls are not too pleased, and things take a turn for the worse when a long dead student is sighted during the heavy winds, and seems to be after a student named Claudia...

The story is very much of the slow burn variety and while we do get plenty of horror; the film focuses more on building the characters, their relationships and the central situation. The horror is brought forward more through atmosphere and while the locations used are not as Gothic as those seen in similar Italian films; the film does deliver a great air of creepiness and the way that the wind is used provides one of the main highlights. The acting is very good, with adult performers Marga López and Maricruz Olivier delivering the standout performances as the two teachers. The younger performers are all very nice looking and while the acting is sometimes a bit cheesy; it doesn't harm the film too much. The plot does move slowly but it's always interesting and the film builds tension as we get closer to the end, with the film taking a rather unexpected twist half way through. It all boils down to an engaging and original (for the time) climax and overall; Hasta el viento tiene miedo may not be one of the best known horror films ever made, but it will certainly be of interest to horror fans. Recommended!

A prolific horror writer and filmmaker as well, Taboada left an indelible mark in the Mexican cinema industry. Even without being aware of it, because many of us, as merely spectators -at least me and some other persons I've spoken to-, didn't realize for many years that El libro de piedra (1968) and Más negro que la noche (1975), were part of Taboada's film history.

Though i dig more El libro de piedra to a level as considering it his masterpiece, Hasta el viento tiene miedo (Even the wind's scared) it's such a powerful ghost story, that happens in a boarding school for girls. Since the beginning, the film warns you about what you're going to see because of a creepy start, that involves a sleepwalking girl on the outside in a windy night, attending a call made by another girl from the bell tower of the school's chappel. She starts climbing upstairs and the next thing you see, it's a pair of hanging feet and the sleepwalker awakening in a scream. Even on these days, the memories of the voice chanting like wind "Claudia, Claudia" in a whispering full of anguish, gives me the creeps. The first half of this story is told in such a brilliant way, that can only be surpassed by El libro de piedra in a whole; with good acting by names like Marga López, Norma Lazareno and Maricruz Olivier, Hasta el viento... moves around a girl whose dead, a bunch of brat student girls, and a mean school director. As I said before, the first half is brilliant in many ways. Taboada surely knew the sources of primal fear and took them to cinema extends, making you jump with scenes that has the ability to caught unaware, or leading tension into almost unbearable levels. Hope you can see it some time because it's well worth the feelings of anguish and fear caused by the sense of terror that we're led into while watching. Unfortunately, the second half falls on it's lap as a formulaic chain of events that leads to a cliché ending.

Even so, most of Hasta el viento... it's a live picture of Taboada's art. He knew how to grab you by the neck and never let go. With his movies, you can feel the greatest fear running all over the body and you don't want to stop watching anyway. That was and still is magic; it was great cinema that depended only on the subconscious manipulation of terror. In fact, I owe Taboadas some of the greatest fears from my childhood, like never watching at the curtain's end at night, or to a window when there's a storm.

Hasta el Viento Tiene Miedo, show us the story of a group of young ladies, that as a punishment, they have to stay in the boarding school for vacations. The ghost of a death schoolmate makes her appearance to unwrap a story with the most pure terror style. The movie it's great and although it follows the typical pattern of movies made during those times, it stills being frightening. It also shows a great perspective of the Mexican society and with the scene of the striptease, I believe that it goes a little beyond the times when it was released. Whether you like Mexican movies or not this movie proves that although the lack of resources which it was made, at least we can say that we have a great horror ancient film, a genre that isn't common at all in this industry.

This movie is a very good one, you have to check out Mr.Taboada´s directing,It´s ageless and even if its mexican oldstyle movie making, you can still feel the scary vibes he was aiming for. The movie centers around a group of girls that because of disobeying some orders stay stranded in their college all summer long, one of them starts having some weird dreams and theres a ghost rounding that college with a dark past. There´s a strip tease scene that can show some lesbian shadows on the girls, you have to see it yourself, spine tingling and horror at it´s best on this 70´s horror story.