The Invisible Man in Mexico (1958)

I do love these Mexican made horror movies. This one isn’t exactly a remake of Universal’s Invisible Man, but it is sort of close. A man named Charles is framed for murder. He is convicted and sentenced to prison. But his scientist brother has invented an invisibility formula that allows him to escape with the help of his fiancé. Initially he wants to prove his innocence but then eventually just decides to leave. His brother is looking for the cure to the invisibility formula so Charles can join the visible again. Yeah he used the experimental drug on him before knowing if he could reverse it! That seems bad. 

Much like the more famous movie one of the side effects of the formula is that Charles is slowly going insane. So much so that instead of leaving town or allowing himself to be made visible again he says that the “creator” has told him to kill everyone in the city! He tries to do this by contaminating the water supply. Luckily the police are able to stop him and his invisibility is reversed so that everyone can live happily ever after… except for the dead people. Hey man its just a movie, right?

Let me begin with I know that this isn’t a good movie. After a very quick start the action slows down to a crawl. The last hour is a chore to get thru as we mostly hear Charles ranting and raving about the world as he slowly goes batty. There is also a lack of action as for long stretches nothing happens to move the story along. We also have some odd narrative choices like the police figuring out that Charles is invisible! That seems like an odd leap of logic. Then again this is also a world where people keep handy bullwhips in their living rooms, so I guess that is plausible. Yeah, you know not so much. Slow and filled with plot holes the script leaves a lot to be desired. 

SCIENCE!!!

I did like the old school effects they used to bring the invisible man to the screen. Doors rigged to open by themselves, some of the cast pantomiming their interactions with an actor that wasn’t there, and items rigged with wires lifting them in the air. It might seem cheesy, but this is done very well, and I liked it. The dubbing is silly and doesn’t match well but as a fan of that sort of thing it put a smile on my face. On some level I was enjoying The Invisible Man in Mexico.

Can I recommend the movie? That is a complicated question. While I enjoyed some of the goofier stuff, I can see that the pacing is going to be a deal breaker for many, and rightfully so. This can be at best recommended as an oddity for those who enjoy either the Mexican sub-genre of horror or just want to see all the fifties horror and sci-fi there is. I’m afraid that anyone else might be bored by it. 

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