Even the Wind Is Afraid

"Hasta el viento tiene miedo" is a good offering of Mexican horror. It takes place in a boarding school for girls. Five years ago a girl that studied there committed suicide. At night, when the wind whistles.....

This film is a horror film with touches of comedy and it manages to create a good supernatural atmosphere (night, the wind blowing, the leaves trembling, the tower..). It reminded me somehow of "Werewolf in a Girls' Dormitory" an Italo-Austrian film made in 1961, that also took place in a girls boarding school. But "Hasta el viento tiene miedo" is the better film.

"Hasta el viento.." tells the story in a very straightforward way, no room for ambiguity is left, so it becomes predictable and this takes away some of the film's edge. The girls, though, are very charming and add eye candy to the film.

You can't compare it to the Italian Gothic films ( by Bava, Margheriti, Freda, Caiano..) with their visual grandeur (lighting, decors, camera work ..), and their magnificent soundtracks.

Anyway "Hasta el viento...." is an interesting film - I think that it won't scare the modern viewer, but it offers in return a well-crafted atmosphere, with touches of suspense and comedy. It is charmingly naive and romantic. It was released in Mexico in 30 May 1968. Some months later a hard wind blew and even the wind was afraid.

It'd seem to be a cliche -haunted school, scared girls in uniforms... but 'Hasta el viento tiene miedo' is more than that. With some good actresses, but more than that, a smart script and a clever direction, it has unexpected moments and really scaring scenes. Highly recommended!

This movie is a very good one, you have to check out Mr.Taboada´s directing,It´s ageless and even if its mexican oldstyle movie making, you can still feel the scary vibes he was aiming for. The movie centers around a group of girls that because of disobeying some orders stay stranded in their college all summer long, one of them starts having some weird dreams and theres a ghost rounding that college with a dark past. There´s a strip tease scene that can show some lesbian shadows on the girls, you have to see it yourself, spine tingling and horror at it´s best on this 70´s horror story.

After hearing from neighbors and friends about a Mexican movie that sure will scare you, and also that the story was happening in a school, i was waiting for Televisa to show this movie, without any luck i had to wait about 7 years to find this movie on DVD and finally Watch, i would say the wait was worth it , sure is a 60's movie and the image, picture and sound is not that great, but the way the history is deliver will make you watch until the end. The film despite having a simple script, captivates and put the viewer in the story, and has been blamed for taking out dreams to two generations that followed and saw on television more than films. With an exceptional cast and successful, the film is full of subtle horror, fine and perhaps therefore highly effective, unlike anything he had done before.

Creepy and colourful ghost tale from Mexico and set in a girls school. The girls, in their bright red blazers are administered by a rather officious headmistress and a more sympathetic assistant. Tensions mount and it becomes clear that something terrible happened in the past that is affecting the present. What this film does particularly well is make us feel uneasy about a particular character that we previously saw as perfectly normal. Being Mexican there was always going to be something slightly different here and for me that something is the most extraordinary striptease sequence that comes out of nowhere and is a weird mixture of excitement and embarrassment. An assured ghost story with some great scenes. Recommended. (One amusing aspect of the subtitles on my print is that on several occasions, the rather prim and proper headmistress is ticking off her girls and telling them that this or that is 'nonsense' but this is translated as 'bollocks' which seems a little harsh!)