Museo del horror

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Pánico

Pánico

Directed by: Julián Soler

Horror, 1966

85min, Mexico

There’s something about anthology films that appeal to me on some sort of primal level. I love them, and I can’t get enough of them. Perhaps it’s the genetic heritage of Amicus movies, or the short form of Roald Dahl TV series The Tales of the Unexpected and The Twilight Zone re-runs, or perhaps George A Romero’s Creepshow, which was amongst the very first VHS tapes I bought in the eighties or the many horror anthology books I received throughout my childhood… Whatever it may be, there’s still something about the short brief story arcs all collected into one movie that I like, which obviously is great now when the anthology film has made something of a comeback with stuff like ABC’s of Death, V/H/S etc., etc.…  Also known as the Portmanteau movie, basically as the word Portmanteau refers to a word being made up of two other words, i.e. a movie made up of other shorter movies, one can trace the portmanteau film as far back as the 1919’s Germany where director Richard Oswald (born Richard W Ornstein) - who later fled the Nazis and ended up in the States, after a fantastic career in Fantasy and horror filmmaking – sorry, back to Oswald, yeah, back in 1919, when Oswald released Unhemliche Gesichten (Erie Tales), starring amongst others Conrad Veidt and Anita Berber and shot by Karl Hoffman, Fritz Lang’s patron saint of the cinematography. Eerie Tales tells five short stories, from the likes of Robert L Stephenson and Edgar Allan Poe, as told by the guests of the wraparound; the devil a prostitute and the death share tall tales with each other in a closed bookshop.

As a sub niche, the Anthology film has always been around; it’s always been something of a trustworthy source for quick fix of irony, the macabre and dark twisted horror. It’s during the 1960’s and early 70’s that the niche gained real renaissance as a platform for collections of cheap thrills and nasty scares. Not just retrained to the film industries of the US or England - where Amicus became masters of the portmanteau film, but even globally with fine entries such as Italy’s Mario Bava and his Il tre volti della paura (Black Sabbath) 1963, Japan’s Masaki Kobayashi and the two hour epic Kwaidan 1964, the French/Italian Fellini/Malle/Vadim sexy arty-horror vehicle Histories Extraordinaires (Spirits of the Dead) 1968, I’d even go as far as calling Jean Rollin’s debut feature Le Viol du Vampire (The Rape of the Vampire) 1968 something of an anthology film as it actually consists of two initially separate films.

Obviously Mexican filmmakers where getting in on the trend too, and why shouldn’t they, as directors like Ramón Obón, Chano Urueta, and Julián Soler tied together short form stories into some great anthology flicks. One such film being Pánico!

Director Julián Soler teamed up with Ramón Obón, although not the legendary Ramón Obón who wrote Fernando Mendez’s El Vampiro (The Vampire) 1957, Misterios de ultratumba (The Black Pit of Dr. M) or El grit de la muerte (The Living Coffin) both 1959, but his son, also named Ramón Obón, on his second feature based on his screenwriting.

Pánico tells three tales in chapters titled: Panic, Solitude, Anguish and it does this with all the traits of the portmanteau film: dark, macabre, ironic with EC horror twists waiting at the finale.

The titular episode Panic starts with the sound of a screaming baby and an empty crib before Maria [Ana Martín] finds herself running through the woods, chased by a screaming witch [Ofelia Guilmáin] Suddenly she’s in a city environment, amongst parked cars, confronted by a band of rough men. She’s dragged to the ground and raped before running through the woods again, first chased by the men, then the witch. Maria carries a doll with a fractured face, she walks with the doll into a small pond of blood, and then the chase is on again up to the point where the narrative is interrupted and the twist is explained. Back in 1966 I’m pretty sure that this was major intense stuff, as the entire fifteen minutes of Panic see’s Ana Maria running through the woods, screaming raving bloody murder. It’s immensely metaphorical and filled with symbolism that leads to that last moment twist.

Solitude starts with two men praying over a freshly dug grave. As they travel the backwater river through the swamp, the backstory comes to haunts them… Both men where involved with the woman they just buried. She, [Susana Salvat] was married to Abel [José Gàlvez] but was having an affair with Carlos [Joaquín Cordero who also starred in Ramón Obón Snr’s anthology horror Cien gritos de terror (100 Cries of Terror) and who also held the titular role in Miguel Morayta’s seminal work Doctor Satán 1966] Their boat crashes on the rapids and they are forced to makeshift camp in the dark damp swamp. Trapped in the jungle their frustrations, ill conscious and guilt surface to keep them company.

The final tale Anguish, clearly based on Edgar Allen Poe’s The Premature Burial, holds something of a dark comedic tone. Scientist Tiberius [Aldo Monti, who starred as Dracula in René Cardona’s Santo en El Tesoro de Drácula (Santo and Dracula’s Treasure) 1969, and Miguel M. Delgado’s Santo y Blue Demon vs Drácula y el Hombre Lobo (Santo and Blue Demon versus Dracula and the Wolf man) 1973) discovers a spanking new and highly powerful sedative that can be used in surgeries… But before he can celebrate, his damned cat accidentally knocks over the potion, killing them both on the spot… or at least so it seems. In fact Tiberius is alive inside his body even if all vital signs are missing. His wife Melody [Alma Delia Fuentes] cries at his bed as the doctors declare him dead and set about planning his funeral. Tiberius screams inside his head, that he’s alive and will be well in the morning, his deathlike appearance merely the effect of his magnificent drug! The only thing that Tiberius can control are his eyelids which gives a couple of darkly comedic moments as doctors, undertakers and family try to close his eyelids only to see them pop open again. Just like the previous entries into this wonderful anthology, Anguish ends with a shocking ironic twist.

Pánico is a solid anthology flick with plenty of atmosphere and a lot of strong emotions going on. After all this is horror, and horror deals with topics of guilt, redemption, sex and death and it works just as well in short form as it does in long form!

Las luchadoras contra la momia [The Wrestling Women Vs. The Aztec Mummy]

The Wrestling Women Vs. The Aztec Mummy

Original title: Las luchadoras contra la momia     

Directed by: Rene Cardona

Mexico, 1964

Horror/Lucha libre

After the success of crime busting Luchadoras Gloria Venus [Mexploitation royalty, Lorena Velázquez] and Golden Rubí [Elizabeth Campbell] in Las luchadoras contra el medico asesino (Doctor of Doom) 1963, the dynamic duo where bought back for anther great collaboration between René Cardona and Alfredo Salazar (with co-writer Guillermo Calderón too); The Wrestling Women Vs. The Aztec Mummy a charming piece of Mexploitation!

Just as most of the movies in the Lucha libre/horror/crime/sci-fi niche, there’s an opening initial attack. It’s often the introduction of the mad scientist or the fiendish foe or just one in a string of strange murders… The Wrestling Women Vs. The Aztec Mummy starts with the dumping of a male body as a car swooshes’ by, ditching the lifeless corpse on the road without slowing down. A fast edit later and exposition through newspaper headline, to bring us up to speed, Doctor Van Dyne has a dagger rammed into his heart by the fiendish Fu-Manchu look-a-like, Black Dragon [Ramón Bugarini]! 

Time to introduce our leading ladies, the Golden Girls of the ring, Gloria Venus and Golden Rubí. I really love this opening fight because Lorena Velázquez and Elizabeth Campbell are fab. I love how Velázquez character Gloria Venus is in such torment as Rubí is struggling with her unfair opponent, but at the same time – in her state of frustration tossing herself against the ropes – Gloria Venus is such a fair fighter that she won’t take to the same unjust tricks and get in there. She simply waits for Rubí to get out of trouble and make the by the book, tag-slap- handover before taking part in the action.  That’s how you write a stern and fair Luchadora character! And it’s always great to see Campbell wrestle opponents, as she was always a good foot taller than all her adversaries.

Black Dragon is searching for a secret codex, unfortunately split into several parts, that has been discovered in a pre-camber of an ancient Aztec tomb recently opened nearby by a team of archaeologists… Black Dragon’s method has been to assassinate the archaeologists, one by on, in his search for the one with the secret codec to open the ancient tomb. Inside the tomb, a suit of armour awaits. A suit of armour, which allows the bearer to conquer the world – as magic ancient armours always do.

Setting up the scenario, Dr. Miguel Sorva [Julío de Meriche] lurks around Gloria Venus and Golden Rubí’s dressing room after the initial wrestling bout. They notice him, confront him, and just as they are about to whoop his ass for being a kinky peeping tom, he explains that he’s really there to talk to Gloria Venus fiancée Detective Rios [Armando Silvestre]. Just as he's finished explaining the backstory of Black Dragon and the threat he poses to the team of archaeologists, he’s shot in the neck with a deadly arrow laced with deadly poison. 

With no time to waste, the foursome (now with comedic reliever Chucho Gomez [Chucho Salinas] back as Rios colleague detective) pay a visit to Professor Luis Trelles [Victor Velázquez, also the father of Lorena Velázquez], who explains further the mystery and secret of the codec pieces and introduces Charla, [María Eugenia San Martín], daughter of one of the murdered archaeologists. Professor Luis asks the luchadoras and detectives to each take part of the codex as to keep them safe. Rubí and Venus accept, as this would give them a great opportunity to expose and defeat Black Dragon and his gang of Hench men. Detective Rios wraps it all up with the smart and cunning plan that they all live together until the mystery is solved. Locked and loaded, let’s go!

 Charla is kidnapped by Black Dragon’s goons, taken to his lair, hypnotized, and programmed to be his ears and eyes in the house that they all live in, perhaps completely unnecessary as he also has cameras hidden in the house, from which he observes them secretly upon a large monitor in his hidden lair. If you where wondering where the “mad professor/surgeon” scenario was, well here you go. Albeit a blood free operation, Black Dragon operates on Charla whilst his band of misfits look on and applaud his work. He sends her back to the apartment with an assignment of injecting Professor Trelles with a drug that will have him expose the location of the final pieces to the codex. This results in a great scene where she first stabs the Professor and then is interrupted by Rubí and Venus! Slam down!

Becoming fed-up with Rubí and Venus constant interference Black Dragon proposes his female fighters to take out Rubí and Gloria Venus in a bout of strength in the ring. "We’ll tear them to pieces in three minutes!", say the sisters of martial arts. The plot, now something of a cat-and-mouse race against the clock to find where Professor Trelles has hidden the pieces before Black Dragon get’s them… but remember, he’s got Chala hypnotized and hidden cameras in the apartment, comes to a spectacular Mexican standoff (no pun intended) for the codex pieces… the solution, a very gentlemanlike agreement where Black Dragon’s judo experts are to take on the Luchadoras Rubí and Venus in a fierce battle at the Arena Nacíonal! The winning team of combatants get’s to take all the pieces of the Codex! I know, it’s somewhat ridiculous – especially as the women talk tactics in their changing room - but at the same time a great way to get the opponents into the wrestling ring. Don’t forget that initial bout, where I discussed Gloria Venus sense of sportsmanship, because nothing could have prepared them for the unjust fight that Black Dragon’s martial arts ladies have in store for them.

We’re half way though, and still we haven’t seen Black Dragon’s female fighters beat the living daylights out of Rios and Chucho. Black Dragon still has to layout his delicate plan to swipe the armour from under the good-guys noses, and the climactic trip to the excavation site and entering of the burial chamber, and the realization of the curse… the curse which see’s the Aztec Mummy walk once again!

All right, in all honesty, Wrestling Women vs. The Aztec Mummy does have a kind of cheap matinée tone to it. (But don't they all, and would you want it any other way?) It takes some time to establish stuff before reaching the second half - where the Luchadoras take on the, Judo experts from the orient, in a lengthy all-stakes-on-one-card match which goes on for a whopping ten minutes! So despite the somewhat slow build-up, there is a reward coming. The second half also see’s a spectacular backstory of Aztec ritual, mixing stock footage and materials shot for the film, in an amazing segment that explains the Aztec armour, the curse of the Mummy. Mexican Boris Karloff, Gerardo Zepeda, has a decent amount of scenes where he actually get’s to portray the Aztec sorcerer Tezomoc as a living human and not disguised as one of the many brute, disfigured thugs or monster’s characters he portrayed in many of the Mexican shockers he starred in. But not to worry, if you read this far, then you already know who’s behind the hideous Aztec mummy mask.

Then there’s the final act. An act that makes up for any dubious thoughts about the movie up to here, because the last act has a wonderful string of twists – I’m not kidding, you will never see this coming! There’s also the Mummy who can shape-shift into a bat, bringing a Universal horror like vibe to the piece, and the delightful cheesy, cheap archaeology-action-mystery climax in the vein of  “Indiana Jones” complete with curses, creaking tombstones, cobwebs, skeletons, monsters and screaming protagonists!

La mujer murciélago [The Batwoman]

The Batwoman

Original title: La mujer murciélago

Directed by: Rene Cardona

Mexico, 1968

Lucha Libre/Horror/Sci-Fi, 80min

Many where the collaborations between Rene Cardona and producer, screenwriter, actor Alfredo Salazar, and many a great film did their many collaborations birth, movies that make up the cream of the crop of Mexican genre!

A passion for mixing and meshing luchadores and luchadoras against any monster conceivable, Salazar’s story for The Batwoman basically reuses the same plot as he’d used several times before (and would again)  - a mad scientist playing God, which becomes the enticing incident for our protagonists to get involved. Mexican lucha libre flicks had in the last couple of years been inspired by James Bond spy escapades and the success of William Dozier’s Batman TV series. Salazar had already proven that he had quite a talent for penning movies that featured strong female protagonists, Las luchadoras contra el medico asesino (Doctor of Doom) 1963, Las luchadoras contra la momia (Wrestling Woman vs. the Aztec Mummy) 1964, La mujer murciélago and later La horripilante  bestia humana (Night of the Bloody Apes) 1969 – all directed by Cardona Snr. All movies have in common that they lead is a strong female character, wrestling takes place both inside and outside of the ring, and villainous scientists with a fiendish plan to take over the world!  Oh and none of the women take any crap from any man.

Batwoman’s alter ego is rich society chick Gloria. Gloria’s secret is that she moonlights as a masked luchadora in the ring, but is also a renowned secret agent who hides her identify behind the mask of Batwoman. None other than the gorgeous Maura Monti plays Batwoman. Monti, another one of those fantastic women who made something of a micro career in Mexican movies, similar to that on Elizabeth Campbell, starred in more than thirty films before retiring when her husband asked her to. So even though she had a short and intensive career, the movies she left behind are great pieces of work.

A string of mysterious murders, leaving strong hefty athletes of Acapulco washed up on the shores, have the police left clueless. Detective Tony Roca [Cardona regular Armando Silvestre] has noted a series of similar crimes in Macao and Hong-Kong. Special agent FBI Mario Robles [Héctor Godoy] is also on the case and has brought in a secret weapon: Batwoman! [Monti] Swanky jazz flows over the soundtrack and a lengthy introduction to Batwoman is given showing her in various sport and physical activities such as horseback riding, and free diving, before she’s into the ring for a few shots of her fighting skills. Making a show stopping entrance only suitable of a secret agent, Batwoman parachutes into town in full outfit, cape, mask, and bikini…

With Batwoman presented, it is time to introduce the antagonists. On a boat called Reptilicus, Mad Surgeon Dr. Williams [Roberto Cañeda – certainly no stranger to playing mad scientists in Mexican genre pieces] complete with loony assistant called Igor, is busy at work trying to create a hideous Fish-Man hybrid! Failing miserably again, he sends out his minions to kidnap yet another athlete – because you kind of know that Dr. Williams is the murdering maniac responsible for all those dead athletes washing up on the shore. Tricking a wrestler known only as “Swedish” [Manuel Cappelito] out on a fishing trip, he’s kidnapped and strapped tightly to Dr. Williams operating table. Triumph at last – although we never see any of the operation, we do get to see the dodgy fish-man swimming along the ocean floor on a monitor as Dr. Williams laughs sardonically and proclaims his experiment a success!

Gloria  - Batwoman to you and me - meets up with Tony Roca and Mario Robles who quite clumsily bring us up to speed – as if you didn’t get what you’d seen in the last ten minutes – and after realizing that they have come to a stand still, as prime suspect Dr. Williams, refuses to let them enter his boat, Batwoman has to don the mask and sneak onto the aquatic laboratory! Sneaking around the place, she just about discovers Dr. Williams’s secret lab and sees what she think might be a Fish-Man hybrid before she’s discovered. Is the end nigh? No my friends this is merely the end of act one, as Batwoman grabs a jug of acid and splashes it across Dr. Williams face and makes her escape as he, bleeding and in pain from his melting face, commands his men to catch her at any cost, she will be his piece de resistance – Fish Woman!

As far as the art of storytelling goes, The Batwoman is something of a delightful mess. It’s terribly straightforward and there’s never really any mystery, as we know from the start whom the villain is, and what his fiendish plan is. But at the end of the day, it’s not really the depth of the story you are here for – albeit extremely psychotronic indeed – you are here for the wild ride, the amazing fish-man experiments, the fiendish villains, the car chases, the quirky surf rock soundtrack and for Maura Monti!

Halfway in, Fish-Man finally makes his appearance, and it’s almost a cheap kaiju feeling to his presence, but by gosh does the action pick up, Fish-man fighting Batwoman underwater is fascinating and certainly rings Creature from the Black Lagoon. He may not have received the credit he was due, but Alfonso Bárcenas Fish-Man is rad, and without any doubt the centrepiece of the movie, along side Monti’s swanky Batwoman that is!

As the climax approaches, Roca, Robles and Batwoman all find themselves captured by Dr. Williams who seems to be getting away with his plan of using Batwoman to create a better Fish-human hybrid, and you’ll never guess who comes to the rescue...

The Batwoman is a butt-kicking funfest filled with some really fantastic moments of Salazar/Cardona madness. Swinging surf music, swirly scene transitions, speedy car chases, underwater action and loads of cheesy fights! Although I’m not sure that it’s Monti in the Batwoman suit during the actual Luchadora sequences, as body shape somewhat changes! Monti totally rocks the as the suave, sexy, tongue in cheek, ass whipping Batwoman, and she most certainly is one of Salazar’s strong female characters, although one odd detail closes the movie. A last minute gag, perhaps included to assure the male audience that they still had the upper hand, a sign that Batwoman has her weakness too… In the vein of classic horror, going for one last shock, Salazar and Cardona go for one last kick as Gloria (Batwoman out of suit) leisurely stands at a bar taking in a drink with the two leading men as they celebrate their victory (as in the male detectives, not Batwoman’s as they still don’t know Gloria is Batwoman) and suddenly Gloria belts out a high pitched scream queen scream at something off screen… you may think it’s Fish-Man coming for one last attack, but you are wrong. It’s a mouse. Contradicting everything that Salazar has built up with the strong female character, Gloria is in that last scene, reduced to nothing but a stereotypical woman, weak, needing the help of strong men, and terrified of mice.  I chose to read it as Gloria staying in character, sticking to the façade of her alternative persona, keeping the men in the dark, that underneath all that hair, makeup and chic designer dresses, she is THE BATWOMAN!

The Batwoman is top-notch Mexican psychotronica! A must for fans of hot chicks kicking ass, rubber-suited monster men and lucha libre! All hail Alfredo Salazar and Rene Cardona and the cinematic legacy they left behind for fans of wild and crazy cinema. Viva!