"The Curse of Nostradamus" is an unjustly and sadly forgotten Mexican curio from the early 60s, and actually a lot more intelligent and atmospheric than you would automatically assume, judging by its cheap look & feel and its status of obscurity. The first thing that attracted my interest was, obviously, the unusual name in the title. Did these silly Mexicans seriously intend to portray the famous historical doctor/clairvoyant Nostradamus as a horror monster, or did they simply want to lure unwary viewers with a familiar-sounding name (like the Italians did around the same time with "The Horrible Dr. Hitchcock")? Fact remains that the plot does revolve around the one and only Nostradamus! Well, actually, the plot revolves around his son; - a purely evil vampire who wants to wreak havoc against a literate scientist and his entourage for continuously denying the existence of supernatural forces (or something).
Nostradamus Jr. appears to be your average and prototypical cinematic vampire. He's almost half a century old, wears a cloak, has a hunchbacked servant, transforms into a bat, fears the cross and doesn't have a reflection in the mirror. There's one peculiarity, however, that makes him one of the most uncommon vampires ever. Junior kills for fun and to make a statement, but he seemingly doesn't need to drain the blood from his victims' necks to survive. Instead, his methods for murder are inventively playful and extremely sadist, which is exactly what makes "The Curse of Nostradamus" worth discovering. Via hypnotism, he causes for someone to be buried alive (still the most horrifying way to die, if you ask me) and for another person to become a guilt-ridden murderer himself. These sequences, including the extended and uncanny build-up, are genuinely powerful and excellent examples of spooky Gothic horror. I was enjoying this film immensely, but then unfortunately came the downright clumsy and abrupt ending, and it ruined a lot. Apparently there exist three more "Nostradamus" films, but I have little hope of ever finding those. The picture quality and the English dubbing of my copy (and old "Something Weird Video" bootleg) is extremely poor, but I'm not complaining too much about that, since it's already exceptional for a cheap 60-year-old Mexican horror film to be available anyways.
