(1961)
Dir - Julián Soler
Overall: WOOF
A dopey mad scientist "comedy" romp from director Julián Soler, Locura de terror, (Madness from Terror), sees Germán "Tin-Tan" Valdés playing a man who fakes his insanity in order to get away from his mother in law, as one is wont to do. One of a handful of movies from comedic actor Valdés' filmography that mix in horror elements, the tonal inconsistencies are astonishing as it bounces between macabre set pieces involving abducted children, live cats being thrown into acid, and mutated human science experiments, to lighthearted musical numbers and wretchedly unfunny nyuck-nyucks set to wacky sound effects, googly-eyed faces, sped-up gags, pratfalls, reverse photography, cartoon logic, and jittery music. The first half is particularly insufferable as it cannot be overstated how not funny Valdés and his real life brother Manuel are as they painfully run around like buffoons while both every other actor and the audience stares at them with a combination of indifference and befuddlement. Thus can be said about the entire film which goes for mix-matching high-jinks while instead delivering something equally dull and confused that is too stupid for its own good.
(1963)
Dir - Carlos Toussaint
Overall: MEH
Usual production designer Carlos Toussaint directed a handful of films over a two decade period, El beso de ultratumba, (The Kiss from Beyond the Grave), being the only one to fall into the horror genre. Unfortunately, it is an aggravating bore up until the last twenty minutes. This largely stems from the completely loathsome character that Sergio Jurado plays who unabashedly goes after a woman who he believes to be a wealthy heiress, only to end up broke and then berating, manipulating, and terrorizing her for the entire film. The fact that Ana Berta Lepe's character not only puts up with every disrespectful whim that suites his fancy, but apologizes to him for the absolutely nothing that she ever did wrong all makes for a particularly annoying bit of spousal manipulation where the audience will be begging for Jurardo's scumbag husband to get his comeuppance. When this does eventually transpire, it is handled in a deliberate and eerie fashion by Toussaint from behind the lens and it nearly makes up for the hour of almost non-existent supernatural atmosphere that came before it. So for those that can deal with the miserable scenario and tedious nature of the plot, it might be rewarding in its final moments.
(1968)
Dir - Emilio Gómez Muriel
Overall: WOOF
A noticeably small-budgeted, cliche-adherent Gothic horror outing from prolific director Emilio Gómez Muriel, La endemoniada, (La Endemoniada: De la serie historias de amor y aventuras, The Possessed: In a Series of Love and Adventure Stories, The Possessed, The Possessed Woman, A Woman Possessed), also serves as a dopey staring vehicle for Argentinian bombshell Libertad Leblanc. The minimalist production means that properly macabre atmosphere is non-existent, since almost the entire film is shot with all of the lights on in contemporary dwellings. When they do venture into cobwebbed, stone pillar locales, it is nothing that has not been seen hundreds of times before and much better than here. The script by Alfredo Ruanova is a lazy rehash of Mario Bava's seminal Black Sunday except a visually stagnant one, though Leblanc makes a tantalizing impression in a dual role of sorts which is also narratively confusing. Much more problematic is the inadequate pacing though, which is a frequent problem with such low-level cheapies such as this. The stationary camera lingers on scenes after they have already finished and it is heavy on bland dialog while keeping the kills and titillation to a bare minimum. Vampires, a condemned and horny murderess, doppelgängers, a police force that can only afford a single desk; it all makes for a derivative experience that is borderline embarrassing.
No comments:
Post a Comment