Mark of the Dead Man (1961)

It has been a while since I checked out a Mexican Horror flick. Most folks immediately think a Santo or other masked wrestler flick when I say this and rightfully so. But there was also a tradition in the fifties and sixties to do more classic movies with vampires, ghosts, and in this case mad scientists. Mark of the Dead Man was a new to me, so I was excited to check it out. 

Dr. Malthus is a bad man. We know this because we watch as he stalks and kidnaps a woman apparently to drain her of blood for his evil experiments. We find out that he has lived for more than a century because of his mad scientist activities. Though this time the police stop him from finishing. That means even before he is executed he starts to show his age. He is eventually hanged and that is the end of the story, or is it?

I mean since that all happens in the first ten or so minutes obviously not. The movie then moves from the eighteen nineties to the nineteen sixties with all of it’s groovy music and fashions. There is a new Dr. Malthus who looks just like the old one. But it is a descendant of the evil fellow from earlier and not the same man. Though he does find his ancestor’s journal and digs him up to see if he can be revived. Sure enough with the “help” of a kidnapped maid the original Dr. Malthus is up and running his experiments again. This leads to more kidnappings, blood draining, and other such things. Though this all comes to a head when the new doctor stops the old doctor with fiery results. I mean all good mad scientist flicks need to end with the lab being destroyed by fire!

I sort of liked this movie. The pacing is quick, and the movie never lingers enough to notice the low budget or derivative storyline. Instead, something is always happening and while familiar it still entertained me. The movie has an odd mashup of creepy gothic vibe with the dark old house and laboratory while also feeling very much a product of the sixties with the clothing and groovy dancing/music. The story itself is a fun combination of mad scientist narrative with a bit of vampire (the doctor uses the blood of the young for his immortality) tossed in for fun. While I don’t feel the need to watch Mark of the Dead Man again it was still an amusing way to kill a hour and fifteen minutes. I mean I’ve seen a lot worse than this. 

The special effects are super simple. From the obvious bat on a wire gag to the rubber mask used to age the doctor when his formula starts to wear off we have seen this all done before. But you don’t have to reinvent the wheel and on their budget I thought it was solid work. The lab set is also simple but effective. I did notice that the machinery looked familiar and with a bit of digging looks like it was reused later in the decade for the miserable and much less enjoyable Madame Death which I’ve also covered for the site. Glad to see them getting their money out of the props. 

You can find this movie floating around the internet as I believe like many other Mexican productions has hit public domain. Be warned though that schlockmeister Jerry Warren got his hands on this and released it in sixty-four as Creature of the Walking Dead. His added footage and dubbing killed all the things I like about it. The titles are interchangeable so if you hear English dialogue stop right away. You are watching the wrong one. Here subtitles are your friend. 

© Copyright 2023 John Shatzer

Darker than Night (1976)

Doing another dive into the stacks of movies that I’ve collected but haven’t watched I stumbled over Darker than Night. This Mexican made movie bills itself as a haunted house/ghost story and quite frankly I was in the mood for one of those.

The movie opens with an elderly woman petting her black cat. We never get to see her face but do watch her tend the garden, knit, and dote on her feline friend. Though it ends when she has an attack of some sort and dies all while the cat watches traumatized. Then we meet what turns out to be our main characters. The four beautiful young women are Ofelia, Aurora, Marta, and Pilar. Turns out that Ofelia is the niece of the woman and has inherited the house as well as everything inside of it. So off they go to check it out.

When they arrive they are greeted with the creepy housekeeper, Sofia, who is clearly not pleased with the disrespect that they show towards the possessions of her former mistress (not in the creepy way but as in the long time employer way). The girls also don’t like the cat, but Ofelia is taking her aunt’s wishes that she takes care of it seriously and it does seem to grow on her. Weird stuff starts to happen though when they hear a voice calling for the cat at night in the garden as well as the house. This gets much creepier when the cat is accidentally locked in the basement and dies. Suddenly there is the apparition of the old woman, and the girls start to be scared to death.

So, is it a ghost or is there something else going on at the house? Also, what is up with the cat’s death? There are many questions that get answered before this one ends and I’m not going to spoil it here in this review. Why? Because I liked this movie quite a bit but the guessing as to what is going on is part of the fun. The guessing game as to if things are supernatural or if it a more mundane and corporeal threat killing off the girls is kept vague until the very end. Sofia at times seems suspicious and it becomes clear that she is taking blame for things that she may not be responsible for. Is she protecting someone? If so, who could it be? I like the mysterious aspects to the plot as it kept me engaged with both the characters and story.

The above is key because I’m sure many horror fans might be annoyed by how long it takes for the movie to get rolling. I will warn you that this is a slow burn to start with not much happening for the first half hour as the characters and situation is setup. After that we get a lot of sneaking around the spooky house building atmosphere before things really kick into gear. But when it does there are plenty of weird noises, moaning, and crying echoing in the darkness to set the mood. This is at times a very creepy movie and I appreciated that they filmmakers leaned into this sort of stuff rather than cheap jump scares. But then again this was the seventies when people put effort into trying to scare the audience so that isn’t too much of a surprise.

To sum things up I did really like Darker than Night. It meanders a bit in the first half, but it makes up for it by keeping us guessing as to what the hell is actually going on. There is the previously mentioned atmosphere as well as a solid ending that mostly answers all the questions we the audience have. It is worth checking this one out. I believe that Vinegar Syndrome just put it out on Blu-Ray, so it isn’t too hard to locate.

 

© Copyright 2023 John Shatzer

La Loba aka. The She Wolf (1965)

I keep finding odd movies in my “to watch” pile and this is yet another of them. It turns out that this is a Mexican made horror flick about a lady werewolf. It was made during the Santo and other wrestlers vs. monster fad that lasted until the early eighties, but there isn’t a luchador to be seen in this bad boy. What do we get? Might as well pop it in and see.

The opening scene is very cool with the camera starting on a cross and pulling back to reveal a cemetery. A furry hand pushes back the stone from a tomb and a full on werewolf creature climbs out. We don’t see the face of the creature but do get to see it go on a rampage and murder three folks. This is all in the first ten minutes of the movie, which also has not a bit of dialogue but is just the creature moving around the woods jumping and slinking like an animal. Very cool stuff.

Then things go a bit of the rails. After the creature crawls back into the grave we see that it isn’t a grave at all but is a tunnel that leads to a nearby house. The werewolf is a woman named Clarissa and she is one of two daughters who live there with there mother and father, Professor Fernandez. Once the characters start speaking the movie grinds to a halt. Clarissa’s secret fiancé, Dr. Bernstein, shows up to ask her father for her hand in marriage. Here is where we realize that the professor knows what his daughter is. He is experimenting with freezing things in an effort to cure her affliction. They never explain how this will help, but it is what he is doing.

On the subject of not explaining things, we find out that Dr. Bernstein is also a werewolf. Did he infect her, or did she infect him? Don’t worry about that since we never find out. He wolfs out and goes into the woods to stalk a deaf girl. Then a man with a dog shows up and the dog damn near kills the werewolf. The man is a hunter who is looking for lycanthropes… the fancy name for werewolves. Is he tracking Bernstein or is it the girl? Don’t worry about that since we never find out. After more talking the pair of monsters are dispatched by the dog and an ivory knife. Why ivory? Do you really have to ask?

Clearly this movie isn’t very good. The plot is all over the place and never takes the time to explain the rules to these creatures. It also has characters appear and disappear for long stretches without explanation. It makes for a choppy and confusing watch. This is very disappointing because the first ten minutes with the lady werewolf running around was establishing an interesting and engaging story. Again, I remind you they did this without a line of dialogue. It seems that all their creativity must have been expended in this brief opening bit because it is all downhill from there.

Much like the plot the movie teases the audience with the appearance of the first werewolf. Initially seen only from the back the actor appears to be wearing a body suit with some fur on it and amusingly a large tail. That is a first for me I think. The way that they move around the woods and stalk the victims as well as the way the attacks are staged really sell the creature and how animalistic it is. But eventually we get to see her face and realize that it is nothing more than the actress with some whiskers and pointy teeth. It looks downright silly. The male werewolf is running around with some fur pasted to the actor’s chest while still wearing his suit pants. So not much to speak about there. Again, I wish they had carried the early creativity throughout the entire movie because they were onto something. We also get a couple old school transformation scenes that I’ll admit worked well enough.

La Loba is an interesting movie that as a nerd for Mexican horror I’m glad to have checked out. But unless you have the same need to watch all examples of a subgenre, I don’t think that this flick has much to offer. I know that I’ll never need to check it out again. I suppose you can consider this a non-recommendation.

 

© Copyright 2023 John Shatzer

Even the Wind is Afraid (1968)

A girl wakes up and finds a woman hanging above her bed. I mean like hanging from the neck. She screams and we see that it was a nightmare. The next scene has a doctor and a teacher, Lucia, talking about her condition. The headmistress later states that Claudia, the girl with the nightmare, will not get special treatment and must attend classes. Well, she isn’t a nice lady, I’m sure that won’t be important later. Spoilers… it will be!

Later Claudia and her friends find the forbidden tower door unlocked. They know that they shouldn’t go inside, but Claudia recognizes it from her nightmare and decides to investigate and her friends don’t let her go alone. They get caught and the headmistress decides that their punishment is to spend vacation on campus and attending special classes. Yep, she is a real peach. That means they are on campus all alone when spooky stuff starts to happen.

The nightmare and the hanging girl are tied to the death of a former student five years earlier. Seems that the headmistress was mean to her as well. It all leads up to a rather shocking twist that is compounded by yet another one. Though in the end I suppose it can be considered a happy resolution, unless you were a fan of the headmistress that is!

Captain Kangaroo uniforms!

I can’t say much about Even the Wind is Afraid without some spoilers. If you don’t like that sort of thing, you can stop reading right now and skip to the last paragraph for my conclusions. Okay with that out of the way lets get to the good stuff. The movie is very interesting but does cover familiar ground. You have normal haunting tropes like the doors that open themselves, the storm that blows in every night, folks sneaking around in the dark, a jump scare with a cat, and of course the classic face at the window. The execution of these gags is decent, though I never found them scary but maybe just creepy. Still the movie does build some atmosphere and checked enough boxes that I was happy with it.

Where the movie excels is in the way it is plotted out. Our lead character is Claudia so when she dies with a half hour left to go, I was shocked. Her body is laid out in the church and the headmistress seems genuinely distressed by the turn of events and questions her actions. Though when Claudia miraculously wakes up she does go right back to being unpleasant. Yeah, Claudia isn’t dead after all… or is she? The movie establishes that her behavior has changed and using discussions about the dead girl from earlier it is clear who really came back. If you guessed that the big twist is the ghost coming back in her body to get some revenge, then you are correct. I honestly didn’t see this twist coming and I really dug it.

Muy Spooky!

A couple more things that I liked were the music and lighting. We do get some odd sixties music along with dancing that didn’t seem to fit, but when it is trying to be spooky the music kicks up the tension a notch. I also loved how well the movie is shot with the shadows playing out on the background. We also get a couple neat reveals as shadows on the wall that I thought were fun. Other than a stretch in the middle with the unsupervised girl shenanigans that felt a lot like padding the pacing is mostly good.

All in all, Even the Wind is Afraid was a pleasant watch and one that I can recommend. I had never heard of this movie before. I’m guessing that is because it is a Mexican production and if the subtitles (which feel like a fan project) are any indication it hasn’t been released officially in English. It can be difficult to find a copy, but if you can I think it is worth the effort. I did hear that there is a dubbed version in English, but I can’t speak to it’s quality as I couldn’t find it myself.

Note: I found it on TUBI but there are no subtitles, so I hope you speak Spanish.

 

© Copyright 2023 John Shatzer

Madame Death (1969)

Dr. Favel is a mad scientist conducting experiments that involve the deaths of young women. We know this because the “star” John Carradine, who plays Dr. Favel, has a monologue before the action starts. Yep, he is talking right to the audience.

When the movie starts we are introduced to Marlene who is married to a man that can’t stop talking about death. In fact, they are rolling around in bed and he is still all mopey about his impending doom. Brother that is a pretty lady right there, get your head in the game! Anyhow he has some sort of episode, and he tells her to call Dr. Favel. She doesn’t want to because the doctor has been dismissed due to his theories and actions. But he insists so she does. Then we see them in the laboratory with Dr. Favel and his hunchbacked assistant (not much of one but it is there depending on the scene). He announces a terminal cancer diagnosis and offers a special treatment that immediately kills the husband.

But lucky for Marlene he offers to bring him back to life if she gives him all of her blood. So the next night she tries to do just that, but it fails and she is horribly scarred. But then the doctor tells her he can fix that and cure her husband being dead if she brings him the blood of other young women. Okay Marlene should have figured by this point that he was a bad doctor, but instead she starts to kill folks and drain their blood. For some reason this also temporarily cures her scars. I mean she doesn’t take a shot or have some formula from the doctor… it just happens. Eventually the police figure it out, she runs back to the lab, the doctor reveals that it was his plan all along for her to get sick and die so he could do another experiment. And the hunchback blows the lab up. The end.

This movie makes no sense. The story is a muddled mess that has no logical plot at all. Why does killing make her scars go away? Why does she keep trusting the doctor after he repeatedly screws up? How does she go from nice to murderous monster in a hot minute? Toss in odd choices like her just showing up at wax museum to throw acid on a guy so she can then lure her actual victim there for what seems to be the sole purpose of guillotining her after draining her of blood! That seems overly complicated and pointless. But that is pretty much how I’d describe the plot of Madame Death, so I suppose that makes some sense.

The “star” John Carradine is barely in the movie. They must have only had him a day because all his scenes are on the same set with just three of the other characters. This is an early example of what I like to call “stunt casting”. Basically putting someone in the movie so you can feature them on the poster when they have hardly anything to do with the proceedings. Being a production in Mexico featuring a cast entirely of Spanish speaking stars I’m guessing this was done to sell it to an American audience. Not a bad business idea but it doesn’t help the movie as entertainment.

I did like a few things about the movie. The soundtrack has a groovy late sixties vibe. The makeup when Marlene “monsters” out is a very simple appliance, but it looks decent and gets the job done. We also get a mad scientist lab done on a budget that looks cool. But other than these I can’t find a lot of positives about Madame Death. I had some hope for the movie as I’ve seen a lot of great Mexican horror from the fifties and sixties but this one isn’t among them. I can’t recommend it.

 

© Copyright 2023 John Shatzer

Doctor of Doom (1963)

When we think about the subgenre of Mexican masked luchador horror movies obviously most of us go to Santo or the Blue Demon. But there was a less successful attempt to do lady luchador movies as well. Doctor of Doom is one of those and I have to say I dug it. But I’m getting ahead of myself here.

An evil scientist is terrorizing “the city” by kidnapping beautiful young women for his hideous brain transplant experiments. We know this because after some wrasslin’ inserts we see him operating and a lady dying on the table. He theorizes that his experiments fail because he needs a smarter lady to transplant the brain into… because of science reasons and whatnot. So he ends up kidnapping the sister of the champion wrestler lady Gloria. When Gloria’s sister also dies on the table, she swears that he will be brought to justice! With the help of Golden Ruby, a new to town lady wrestler, she gets kidnapped by and slaps the bad guys around.

Eventually the mad doctor/scientist gets really mad (she did toss acid on his face!) and builds a special killer lady wrestler to kill Gloria in the ring. But fear not my friends as she and Golden Ruby are able to fight the killer off and eventually both the doctor and his creation meet their ends at the end of a rifle and fall off a water tower. It was truly beauty that killed the beast… or something like that anyways.

These movies, whether it is a Santo entry or one of the many copies/clones like Doctor of Doom, are an acquired taste. Some folks get annoyed with the padding out of the short runtime with a couple of extended shots of luchadores doing their thing in the ring. Personally, I kind of dig this myself and find it entertaining. As far as padding goes it can be a lot worse then watching acrobatic jumps and hip tosses. Clocking in at only seventy seven minutes long it is paced well and never lingers long enough to lose the audience. There is enough humor mixed in with the action to make you chuckle here and there and overall, I had no complaints. It is cheesy and harmless fun that is entertaining.

The Lady Wrasslers!

The fact that this movie is made as well as it was shouldn’t come as a surprise. It was directed by the prolific Rene Cardona who had a hundred and forty seven directing credits over his forty plus year career. The guy made a lot of low budget gold including some Santo flicks, so he was familiar with this genre and how to make it work. There was a formula, and he knew how to execute it.

I realize that I had forgotten to mention that the mad doctor has a monster in the basement that he uses to help capture his victims. The monster is called Gomar and is basically a guy with some latex slapped on his face. While simple it is effective and along with the post acid splash scarring is decent enough for the budget and overall goofy vibe.

Doctor of Doom is a fun way to kill some time and well worth checking out. As of the writing of this review you can find the movie on YouTube as well as several other places. It is easy to find and at the low low cost of free! Give it a chance.

 

© Copyright 2023 John Shatzer

Don’t Panic (1987)

Recently I have discovered the movies of Mexican director Ruben Galindo Jr. Specifically the three that were dubbed and released in the US. I have already watched Cemetery of Terror and Grave Robbers, so I only had Don’t Panic to check out. I’m glad that I waited to watch this one until last because while I loved the first two this one has issues.

Michael has just moved to Mexico City and is celebrating his birthday with some school friends. After they leave some of them sneak back and convince him to play with a Ouija board. He wants nothing to do with it, but there is a cute girl, so he caves and has a go. Immediately he starts having nightmares of someone killing the other people at the party. But these aren’t just bad dreams as the bodies start to pile up. Clearly something evil is afoot and it is up to Michael to try and save them as well as defeating the evil. Who is the killer and why is this happening? Okay there are some spoilers coming up so if you don’t like that stop reading now. 

For a bit we are led to believe that it is Michael who is possessed. But it turns out that his best friend who brough the board and contacted the spirits is the one who has a demon hanging out in his noggin. Though they are somehow connected so Michael dreams while the other guy kills. This all leads to a big showdown between the pair where no one wins. Yeah, it finishes on a downer. 

Dinosaur PJs... okay I guess

Don’t Panic suffers from some serious pacing issues. While I suppose that they were trying to build some tension and mystery with the story it comes off as confused and disjointed. Sure, we find out what is happening in the final act, but by that time I didn’t really care. The characters aren’t interesting, the story moves along at a glacial pace, and the payoff feels rushed and pointless. It also doesn’t help that the acting isn’t very good with a lead actor and actress that I didn’t care about at all. The worst bit though was the possessed friend, Tony, who doesn’t have enough screen time nor presence to make for a compelling or interesting bad guy. I wasn’t interested in either the story or characters. 

Gore wise there is one highlight with a knife thru the chin that looks decent. The rest of the gore is mediocre and nothing memorable. Almost all of it is backloaded in the last third of the movie which again doesn’t help with the pacing. This is a movie that needed to follow the formula closer and give us boobs or blood every few minutes. 

Let me recommend Cemetery of Terror and Grave Robbers from this same director. As I’ve already mentioned these are great, but Don’t Panic not so much. If you have already watched this one and dismissed the other two trust me, you need to go back and check them out. Not much else to say here. 

© Copyright 2022 John Shatzer

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. 

© Copyright 2022 John Shatzer

The Curse of Nostradamus (1961)

I’ve had some success with Mexican horror movies in the past. Mostly those Santo flicks, but they made some other fun stuff as well. I saw this one and thought I’d take a chance. Before I jump in, I did want to say that this is the movie made by distributors from what was I think a serial that ran in theaters in Mexico. It has been cut up and dubbed for the U.S. television market. If my experience with this sort of thing is correct, I doubt it resembles the original story. Okay with that out of the way let’s get to it. 

This can get confusing so stick with me. The son of Nostradamus is a vampire who has been angry that people have been criticizing his famous father. The son is also named Nostradamus, but also goes by Ericson. He has been waiting four hundred years to get revenge on the men who were enemies of this father. Though I suppose they are all dead so instead he focuses on a Professor Duran. He just had a big conference where he debunked the supernatural and superstition. Our vampire visits him and picks some random mail off Duran’s desk. Seeing the name and address he promises to kill that man. A promise that he fulfills. 

He returns to the professor and shows his power. He won’t kill anyone else if the professor will just recant his position and admit that some superstition is real. Because there is a vampire in front of him that can do spooky stuff. He refuses and the vampire keeps on killing folks, each time asking for the professor to clear his father’s name by admitting the supernatural is fact. It all ends with a big showdown after Nostradamus gets mad and kidnaps Duran’s daughter intending to kill her. He ends up buried and everyone lives happily ever after. 

Of course, that is except for all the people that died because the professor wouldn’t admit what was in front of him! Seriously throw the vampire a bone! It isn’t like you are lying because you just saw a vampire killing people. That is the biggest issue that I have with The Curse of Nostradamus. Our supposed hero could have saved a lot of people if he had just swallowed his pride and admitted he was wrong. This really makes little sense and weighs down what is also a very slow movie with giant gaping plot holes. I’d like to think that the source material, the serial, made a bit more sense and it was whatever hack that reedited it which came up with this convoluted and downright dumb plot. 

On a positive note, the movie is very pretty. This black and white flick is gorgeous and shows that there was some skill behind the camera. Between the lighting and locations, it is pretty movie to watch. This is with me watching a beat-up old VHS rip. Not sure if there is a better copy or even if they original Mexican serials are out there somewhere. I certainly hope so. One of the highlights is a scene where the vampire steps out of the shadows seeming to appear from nowhere behind the professor. This is clearly all on set and in camera. I still can’t figure out how they managed it, but it was awesome. 

Sadly, I still can’t recommend this movie. The plot and pacing are so terrible that it was a chore to get thru. Though the fact that I found a new to me bit of Mexican horror after watching as many as I have gives me hope that there are more out there to find. Just not this one…

© Copyright 2021 John Shatzer

Grave Robbers (1989)

A movie like Grave Robbers is why I keep digging into stacks of stuff that I’ve never seen before. Occasionally you unearth a great flick that you haven’t seen before. Yeah, I know that this is a bit of a spoiler but damn it this was a good time! 

The story opens in the past with a Satanist trying to bring about the birth of the Antichrist thru a ritual and a virgin. He is interrupted by some monks who we find out later are with the inquisition. They chase him down and toss him on the rack to confess his sins. He refuses and gets an axe in the chest for his defiance. But before he dies, he warns them that the axe will eventually be pulled out and he will return to complete his ceremony. 

The action moves to present time or at least the late eighties when Grave Robbers was made. We see a group of girls going on a camping trip, one of whom is the daughter of the local police captain. There is also a truck full of grave robbers out to score some cash in the local cemetery. They of course find the body, pull the axe, and set the killer free. After retrieving his axe, which they took, he starts to chop his way thru the cast until finding the captain’s daughter who I guess must be a virgin because it is ceremony time again. The survivors head back to the cemetery to stop him before the world goes to hell… literally!

This movie is a blast. Much like his earlier flick, Cemetery of Terror, director/writer Ruben Galindo Jr. has made a movie that starts off with a bang and never lets up. The pacing is amazing and slows just long enough to establish the characters before jumping back into the mayhem. He juggles a few storylines perfectly eventually bringing them all together in the end. There are some characters that show up solely to be knocked off but being a slasher movie that is what I would expect. Oh, and unlike Cemetery of Terror which blended so many genres that I couldn’t call it a straight up slasher Grave Robbers easily falls into this category. And it is a damn good one at that!

Killer versus Uzi... who wins?

Since this is a slasher flick, we must talk about the kills. There are an impressive twelve of them in this movie. While some are off screen, we do see some fun stuff on the screen. There is an axe to the chest, neck, and face that are all decent. Necks get snapped, faces get jammed thru metal gates, and someone even gets drowned. Though my two favorite gags are a beheading with bouncing noggin’ and a chest bursting scene that I didn’t see coming but was bloody and featured some intestines. The fact that the director did the effects himself after spending a weekend in Los Angeles working with an FX guy is amazing. Is there anything that Galindo couldn’t do? 

Hell, I haven’t even gotten to the look of the killer yet, which is cool. Imagine a pissed off satanic zombie stomping around in decayed robes, and you pretty much have it. I’ve always been a sucker for the older Mexican horror movies but somehow never knew that they were shooting stuff like this in the eighties. Though it seems like it was only Galindo who was making flicks like this. Still, I’m so happy to have seen this. I know he has a third flick called Don’t Panic that was shot between Cemetery of Terror and Grave Robbers. I must track down a copy of that as soon as possible. If it isn’t clear yet I’m highly recommending Grave Robbers. This is one of my favorite new to me movies of the year!

© Copyright 2021 John Shatzer

Cemetery of Terror (1985)

I was going to put this in my slasher movie marathon this summer, but I just couldn’t. There is a lot of the movie that is clearly in the slasher category, but this is one that switches gears partway thru. Normally that is a train wreck in the making but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t work here. More on that later on, time to get to the plot synopsis.

There is a bad guy named Devlon who killed a bunch of people and got gunned down by the police. He had a doctor named Cardan, played by Hugo Stiglitz, who knows he was evil and wants to get the body cremated right away. It seems Devlon was a Satanist and that he was promised eternal life or something like that by the Devil. No one else believes him but he persists and finally forges some paperwork to make that happen. Sadly, it is too late.

A bunch of older kids, high school or maybe college, go have a party at an old house by the cemetery. There they find Devlon’s book, and the guys decide to freak the girls out by stealing a body and reading from the book/casting a spell. Guess whose body they steal? As promised Devlon comes back to life and starts killing all over again. We also see a bunch of younger kids that decide to test their bravery by walking thru the cemetery. This is a bad day to do this. Did I mention yet this all takes place on Halloween night? That adds to the spooky fun and explains why the kids want to scare the hell out of themselves. Bodies pile up, children are threatened, and believe it or not Devlon raises a cemetery full of zombies to chase after the kids. This movie is tossing a ton of shit at the audience and somehow it all sticks.

Don't read the spooky book in the cemetery!

I can’t for the life of me figure out why this movie works. Normally when horror subgenres are mashed together like this you get an unfocused and unpleasant result. Here they mix the Satanist/supernatural plot with a slasher and add in a dash of zombie movie. To top it all off the last third of the movie are a bunch of kids being menaced by all sort of bad guys Goonies style. That is a dish that should taste like crap, but it doesn’t. Why does it work here?

After the first twenty minutes establishing characters and setting up the story the pacing picks up and the movie is always showing something fun on the screen. That helps keep your mind from wandering and even noticing the tonal changes. The movie also does a decent job exceling at what it is trying to do at the time. The kills are decent, and we get some guts ripped out and a respectable body count of seven. Don’t expect explicit gore but it is respectable. So, the slasher part of the story works. The supernatural part works equally as well. They don’t try any over the top stuff, but we do have a guy shuffling around who looks like a recently dead Satanist. They don’t get too silly by dressing him in robes or shit like that, he is just creepy looking guy in normal clothes. And when they get to the zombies those are also fun. Understand these are more Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things grey faced creations rather than Day of the Dead zombies. But I dig the old school look.

Note to self... Crosses work on zombies!

The actors, including the kids, are pretty good. Even the younger kids sell being scared very well. The most recognizable name to most genre fans is Hugo Stiglitz who is also pretty good here. Though he isn’t in as much of the movie as you would think. Though in a way his character connects the story and moves the things along, so his performance is important. Plus he is basically Mexican Doctor Loomis so that is awesome. There is also a strange vibe to the proceedings. While made by a Mexican company and director with a mostly Mexican cast it was shot across the border in Brownsville Texas. It feels like an American movie only with everyone speaking Spanish. I kind of liked that and think it gives Cemetery of Terror a unique feel.

Bottom line is this is a great flick. If you like eighties horror and are looking for something different that you haven’t seen before I bet that this will scratch that itch. I’m such a fan that I’m going to start looking for other movies made by this director, Ruben Galindo Jr. If this isn’t a one off from him then I might have stumbled onto a new favorite. I highly recommend Cemetery of Terror.

 

© Copyright 2021 John Shatzer