(1960)
Overall: MEH
Actor-turned-director Rafael Baledón had as prolific of a career behind the screen as he did in front of it and his Universal monster throwback The Hell of Frankenstein, (Orlak, El Infierno de Frankenstein, Orlak, the Hell of Frankenstein, El monstruo infernal), is better than one would expect despite its occasionally repetitive shortcomings. Presented as four chapters more like a television serial, such a tactic is narratively unnecessary as the breaks come at arbitrary times and were presumably done to ward off censors that were more strict with theatrically released products. In any event, the story concerning a vengeful criminal and a mad scientist baring the Frankenstein name, (both teaming up for logically flimsy reasons), plays out predictably with cockamamie "science" that allows for the monster to be controlled first by remote control and then by telepathic reading glasses. Said monster is a doppelgänger of said criminal for some reason, which allows him to murder all of those that he feels had wrongfully accused him while simultaneously having the perfect alibi by actually being somewhere else at the time. Armando Calvo makes both a solid, slimy villain and a dead-faced killing machine, plus many of the plot points are silly enough to enjoy, even with Baledón handling the whole affair in a deadly serious manner.
(1961)
Overall: MEH
Though atmospheric and well sprinkled with an acceptable amount of macabre visuals, (a woman with swollen blackened eyes, vicious dog attacks, a creepy mansion, a deformed prisoner, a vampiress staked to a wheel), unfortunately the spooky and gruesome window dressing is the only thing The Curse of the Crying Woman, (La maldición de la llorona), has to offer. It is amazing that a film spending so many scenes repetitively explaining its own lore ends up making so little sense. Cliched things happen like a family curse that only works as such when the script needs it to and of course the castle collapsing upon itself for the finale since it was practically impossible to get a Gothic horror movie green-lit at the time without that being part of your ending. Characters do and say things, (usually the exact same things over and over again), just to do and say them and while this is all fine and silly, it is a shame that the movie is so mind-numbingly tedious. The atmospherics are in proper tow and José Ortiz Ramos' cinematography is fitting for the sinister material, but the drab pacing only hinders matters as it reaches its climactic finish.
(1964)
Overall: MEH
A Mexican House of Wax, Museo del horror, (Museum of Horror), features some striking cinematography courtesy of Raúl Martínez Solares and fans of south of the border genre offerings will appreciate Joaquín Cordero playing the mad, murderous wax sculptor. Sadly, these are the only elements here that are worth the price of admission as the film is slow on its feet and horrendously boring in the process. First of all, it centers around a typical scenario where the police are trying to track down several disappearances, yet the audience is fully aware of exactly who is committing said body snatching so that there is no mystery to be invested in. Watching Cordero, (or presumably a stunt double), run around in a black trench-coat and with a mummified face as a disguise is fun up until a point, but his grand scheme of pouring boiling hot wax on his victims and then displaying them for the public so that they can be easily identified is only half as stupid as the fact that no one does identify them for so long. Also, a Burke and Hare-styled subplot proves pointless as it only seems to be there to excuse a couple of fog-lit cemetery scenes, but at least these moments and several shots of barren streets at night convey the right type of sinister atmosphere.
(1965)
Overall: MEH
La Loba, (The She-Wolf), is a charming bet it flawed, super low-budget offering from actor/producer/director Rafael Baledón. Throwing mad scientists, musclebound mute servants, and werewolves all into the mix with insufficient production funds to achieve any convincing cinematic effects, it is easy to laugh at a movie like this while still being able to enjoy how seriously everyone is taking it. The day for night scenes are some of the "best" examples of how NOT to do them, hardly any character behaves rationally, and the werewolf design looks more like a hippy crossed with a caveman vampire. The opening scene where a wolf lady crawls out of a tomb and leaps around murdering several people and the ending where nearly every character is brutally mangled to death are fun though. Likewise, the addition of a mysterious werewolf hunter and his faithful dog is a nice touch even if said character does not end up accomplishing much of anything. As strange as Mexican horror could be from the country's golden period, there is enough here to make it watchable, even if it is still technically poorly done.
(1969)
Overall: MEH
Director Rafael Baledón's last film of the 1960s as well as his final work in the horror genre, La muñeca perversa, (The Perverse Doll), is an old dark house thriller that is centered on a dysfunctional wealthy family who shack up uneasily on the eve of their mother's funeral. There are poisonings, stabbings, drownings, an annoying kid being tormented, a house being burned down, and double-crosses committed because why would there not be? Norma Lazareno is quickly proved to be behind such unwholesome shenanigans so that there is no mystery to be solved. Because of this, (and despite its demented plot points and macabre tone), the script by Baledón and Ramón Obón meanders more than it chills and the pacing lags in the process. Baledón and cinematographer Fernando Colin at least visually get the most out of the proceedings though with some flashy camerawork and atmospheric lighting when the situation calls for such things. Besides Lazareno who was in Carlos Enrique Taboada's The Book of Stone and Even the Wind is Afraid amongst others, the cast has other familiar genre faces, most notably Dr. Satán himself Joaquín Cordero whose filmography is over two-hundred titles deep.
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