Más negro que la noche

I'm a fan of this original 70s film about a group of young women foiled by the spirit of an angsty ghost and her black cat, Bekker. I'm amused and mystified at the choice of name for the cat which is an apparent attempt and fail at an English-sounding name. It would be like me naming my cat Beccia to try to sound Spanish or Italian.

Funny linguistics aside, the OG version of Mas Negro Que La Noche is fantastically atmospheric and easily watchable time and again for your Day of the Dead or Cinco de Mayo festivities. It's worth noting that the plot is fairly divergent from the 2014 remake (of which I'm also a fan). I think I prefer the ending to the remake but you'll have to decide for yourself.

In Mexico, the young Ofelia Escudero (Claudia Islas) shares an apartment and expenses with her friends, the librarian Aurora (Susana Dosamantes); the newcomer Marta (Lucía Méndez), who is an unemployed model and actress; and the divorced Pilar (Helena Rojo). Out of the blue, a lawyer (Enrique Pontón) summons Ofelia to tell her that she has inherited a large real estate with an old house from her Aunt Susana (Tamara Garina) that Ofelia met once, since she is the last relative alive from her family. In her will, Aunt Susana begs only that Ofelia takes care of her beloved black cat Bequer. She moves to the house with her friends, where they meet the old housekeeper Sofia (Alicia Palacios), who lived her entire life in the house, and Bequer. Ofelia befriends Sofia, and treats Bequer, but her friends hate them both. Unexpectedly Bequer vanishes and one night, Ofelia is returning home with her fiancée Roberto (Pedro Armendáriz Jr.), her friends show her that Bequer was locked in the attic and has died of starvation. Sofia and Roberto bury the animal and soon strange and tragic things happen in the house.

"Más negro que la noche", a.k.a. "Darker Than Night" is a scary "haunted house" Mexican movie by the master of horror Carlos Enrique Taboada. The plot is very well built, with explanation for every event. The actresses are very beautiful and the screenplay is scary and creepy. It is amazing how Taboada uses the supernatural in an ambiguous way, and the story may be interpreted as Sofia impersonating Aunt Susana and the frightened women believing that Aunt Susana and Bequer are back from the beyond. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Mais Negro Que a Noite" ("Darker Than Night")

Moderately paced and highly atmospheric 'Hunted house' flick from Mexico. This film is mostly about the mood and the overall look (of the house and the girls) , fortunately there is almost no 'gore'. Four beautiful ladies move into an old house, but they are not safe. Maybe if they had shown a bit more tolerance and understanding towards a certain cat, all would have gone well, but alas. I have rarely seen a spooky mansion so well utilized- winding staircases, spacious open rooms, an impressive color scheme - all this combined so well with the camera work and dialogue , a wonderful blend designed to led one gradually, step by step, into a state of paranoias, fear and dread. 7.6 stars.

DARKER THAN NIGHT opens with the death of an elderly woman, witnessed only by her cat.

Ofelia (Claudia Islas) is the old woman's niece, and will inherit her enormous house, land, and fortune. The only stipulation is that Ofelia must keep the cat, named Bequer. Ofelia and three other women (Lucia Mendez, Helena Rojo, and Susana Dosamantes) move into the mansion right away.

The women are met by the stolid, sour-faced maid, Sofia (Alicia Palacios). When Bequer makes his appearance, he begins to act in an odd manner. Mysterious events soon occur- unexplained property damage, disembodied moans, etc.

With this movie it's all about the building atmosphere of gloom and uneasiness. Most of the true, more overt shocks happen toward the end.

The all-female cast is fantastic! Not only beautiful, but able to carry the film without a "leading man". This is pretty rare in the movies from the 1970's...

After inheriting her grandmother's house in the countryside, a woman and her friends stay there to help sort out matters but grow increasingly convinced something is living in the house with them and try to get to the bottom of the mystery.

This turned out to be quite an enjoyable effort with a lot to really like here. One of the biggest pluses here is the fact that this one really manages to get the look and feel of the Gothic/Victorian style house here which is quite expertly handled and gets a lot of mileage out of. Filled with the grand layouts, spacious designs of the rooms and the twisting labyrinth of walkways and passages throughout, it fits the bill quite nicely with this one keeping up appearances quite well in addition to the fact that the last half of the film takes place in the secret rooms of the house. Using the underground library and the garden outside as the main locations in these sections makes for a rather chilling time with the multitude of encounters throughout there and how the earlier scenes set-up these encounters by focusing on the actions of the ghostly housekeeper and her cat. These are handled well enough for the rather impressive finale to feel like a continuation of these scenes which is where the fun of these come from while also accounting for the chilling nature of such encounters. While there's a lot to like here, it also has a few flaws in the incredibly clichéd and contrived set-up involving her and her friends moving into the house she has just inherited which really has no point here in generating any kind of originality or credibility in forcing them onto the property to begin with. As well, the fact that the girls' stay there includes the visitation by their boyfriends who are left alive by the disturbing lack of deaths here does make their intrusion seem pointless and drags out the running time in the middle when they're featured, yet this still manages a lot more good than bad points.

Rated Unrated/R: Violence, Language, Nudity and violence-against-animals.