El libro de piedra

Can I make a bit of gratuitous and shameless promotion? "Evil Seeds", put together and edited by Vanessa Morgan, is a must-have book in case you are even slightly fascinated by horror movies featuring evil children! The obvious titles are included, (like "Children of the Corn"), the guilty pleasures ("The Children of Ravensbeck"), and the less-obvious foreign masterpieces ("Who Can Kill a Child?"). But the book also contains essays on several films that are completely obscure and unknown, but worth seeking out, like the Mexican sleeper gem "The Book of Stone".

Many reviewers around here state it's one of the scariest and most unsettling movies they've ever seen. I wouldn't go so far, but it's definitely a great example of a slow (better make that VERY slow-) brooding and 200% atmosphere-driven tale, with the emphasis on meticulous character development and plot accuracy, and not nearly on fake-scares, ghostly apparitions, or special effects. Writer/director Carlos Enrique Taboada found for sure inspiration in the legendary story of "The Tale of the Screw", and for the ambience he rivals Jack Clayton's "The Innocents" (also an adaptation of that same tale). The tale of a young child and her unusual friendship with a boy named Hugo, and her good-hearted governess attempting to get through to her is elegant and mature, but you must be in a certain mood/mindset to watch it. It's not exactly a very cheerful or relaxing thriller.

I swear this has to be the scariest movie I´ve ever seen in my entire life, and I´ve seen plenty, but the whole aura that is involved in the facts that surrounds the goth horror in El libro de piedra (The stone book), it´s real frightening. Maybe I should say that I watched the movie on TV when I was nine or ten, and of course left me full of chills the whole evening; and in days after. I couldn´t look at the curtains in my room at night, or to a rear view mirror. If you can see the movie sometime, you´ll understand what I'm talkin' about. The fact is that I catched again the film like four years ago; I haven't seen it in a long time, and it happened the same: I was so thrilled about the experience, that I got scared again like the very first time, and maybe even more because I was chillin' on anticipation for what I knew it was coming. And I was already on my late 20's.

Director´s Taboada, as far as I know, it´s better known outside México for some of his horror movies. Hasta el viento tiene miedo (Even the wind's scared 1968) and Más negro que la noche (Blacker than the night 75-76), are some of his finest efforts in the horror ground. And I´ve seen those two -on tv also-, but it's El libro... the greatest of them all. Of course there are some flaws in the screenplay, in the acting and in direction matters, but on the other hand, it has some of the very best tricks to create fear without the effects that has been used and abused nowadays. This movie has the magic of the psychological tease that has inspired some of Guillermo del Toro works -just see the liquid footprints on El espinazo del diablo- and all around the ghost seeking revenge theme.

Another high point of El libro... i'ts that the ending it's not your cliché finale. It's so powerful and unexpected, that instead of getting a feel of relief -you may know what I mean-, it leaves you more than shocked and horrified. Taboada was a master on this matters, and if you're ever able to check his other works, you may enjoy it as well. The first half of Hasta el viento tiene miedo it's brilliant too, and Más negro... it's good just as reference. But if you can, try another mexican horror movies like Ladrón de cadáveres (Thief of corpses), and El escapulario.

I saw this movie when I was 9 years old. To this day I don't understand how they allowed children into the movie theatre in Mexico to watch this type of movie. I still remember bits and pieces of it and they all come together to recreate the nightmares I had after watching this movie. Without giving away the ending, the movie is about a rich man who moves into a huge old mansion in the middle of the country with his new young wife and the daughter he had with his first wife. Along with them comes a woman who plays the role of nanny and governess for the young girl. In the enormous backyard, which is mostly covered with weeds and bordered by the woods, the young girls discovers a grave guarded over by the statue of an angel that holds open a huge stone book in his arms. Sometime in the first part of the movie, the young girls confesses to her nanny that she has found a secret playmate, a young boy, but nobody pays attention to her until very mysterious things start to happen and tragedy strikes the new household. I only wish that someday the Mexican Institute of Film would help recover and releases to the general public this and other gems of the Mexican cinema.

After years of looking for this film that is recognized as a forgotten gem of mexican oldstyle horror cinema i found it in a place where i least expected it, now it´s part of my vast collection of hard to find horror and cult films.

This classic film tells the story about a little girl Silvya (Lucy Buj) that because of her behaviour is required to be nursed by a special teacher Julia (Marga López) at home,This teacher is experienced in the field and starts looking after the child´s behavior and her friendship with Hugo,a statue of a little boy with a book that dates 10,000 years old and supposedly talks to her and make her do things, Her wealthy father Eugenio Rubalcaba (Joaquin Cordero) is very disturbed about his daughters way´s and his new wife Mariana (Norma Lazareno) is trying to cope with her step daugters ideas but fears of the statue.

All this characters play their parts well and the atmosphere in this movie is so thick that you can cut it with a knife, locations are well used and the fright factor is there all the time, This is a timeless piece of art that should be taken seriously now a days for next wave horror movie creators. It´s a must see.

Growing up in Milwaukee in the early 80s meant one Spanish channels for my parents and every Friday night was our family night. Unlike your typical family night our idea of family night meant making popcorn and jumping into bed with mom to watch "Noche de pelicula". During Halloween they showed many scary movies and this one along with "Hasta el viento tiene miedo" are engraved in my mind like GEMS in a pile of dirt. This movie is a MUST SEE! I would put this and the before named movie up their with "The Exorcist" and "The Amityville Horror" just for its raw FEAR. Many new horror movies are based on visual effects to produce fear where these classics use plain atmosphere to create a natural fear.