Hasta el viento tiene miedo

It's been over thirty years since I've seen "Hasta el Viento Tiene Miedo" but I still think it is the best thriller movie ever...I can still picture some of the scenes. If you want to be scared without being grossed out, this is the film to see. When I saw it, I thought it would be the usual campy type scare film. But, instead, it turned out to be one of the best I've ever seen. The suspense builds throughout the film and brings to mind the thrillers by Hitchcock. The actors were wonderfully natural, not the usual "kid" actors and the scenery was frightfully eerie. The sound effects were also good, you could feel the wind blowing throughout. I would love to see it again...does anyone know where I could buy a copy?

"Hasta el viento tiene miedo" is a good offering of Mexican horror. It takes place in a boarding school for girls. Five years ago a girl that studied there committed suicide. At night, when the wind whistles.....

This film is a horror film with touches of comedy and it manages to create a good supernatural atmosphere (night, the wind blowing, the leaves trembling, the tower..). It reminded me somehow of "Werewolf in a Girls' Dormitory" an Italo-Austrian film made in 1961, that also took place in a girls boarding school. But "Hasta el viento tiene miedo" is the better film.

"Hasta el viento.." tells the story in a very straightforward way, no room for ambiguity is left, so it becomes predictable and this takes away some of the film's edge. The girls, though, are very charming and add eye candy to the film.

You can't compare it to the Italian Gothic films ( by Bava, Margheriti, Freda, Caiano..) with their visual grandeur (lighting, decors, camera work ..), and their magnificent soundtracks.

Anyway "Hasta el viento...." is an interesting film - I think that it won't scare the modern viewer, but it offers in return a well-crafted atmosphere, with touches of suspense and comedy. It is charmingly naive and romantic. It was released in Mexico in 30 May 1968. Some months later a hard wind blew and even the wind was afraid.

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!

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!)