Hasta el viento tiene miedo

After hearing from neighbors and friends about a Mexican movie that sure will scare you, and also that the story was happening in a school, i was waiting for Televisa to show this movie, without any luck i had to wait about 7 years to find this movie on DVD and finally Watch, i would say the wait was worth it , sure is a 60's movie and the image, picture and sound is not that great, but the way the history is deliver will make you watch until the end. The film despite having a simple script, captivates and put the viewer in the story, and has been blamed for taking out dreams to two generations that followed and saw on television more than films. With an exceptional cast and successful, the film is full of subtle horror, fine and perhaps therefore highly effective, unlike anything he had done before.

Creepy and colourful ghost tale from Mexico and set in a girls school. The girls, in their bright red blazers are administered by a rather officious headmistress and a more sympathetic assistant. Tensions mount and it becomes clear that something terrible happened in the past that is affecting the present. What this film does particularly well is make us feel uneasy about a particular character that we previously saw as perfectly normal. Being Mexican there was always going to be something slightly different here and for me that something is the most extraordinary striptease sequence that comes out of nowhere and is a weird mixture of excitement and embarrassment. An assured ghost story with some great scenes. Recommended. (One amusing aspect of the subtitles on my print is that on several occasions, the rather prim and proper headmistress is ticking off her girls and telling them that this or that is 'nonsense' but this is translated as 'bollocks' which seems a little harsh!)

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.

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!