Feb 2, 2024
La maldición de la Llorona (The Curse of the Crying Woman, 1963)
"Only a few hours to go, Amelia. At midnight sharp, the bell will ring announcing the life... and death of our dynasty."
#la maldición de la llorona#the curse of the crying woman#horror imagery#eye trauma#eye horror#rafael baledón#mexican cinema#horror film#fernando galiana#rosita arenas#abel salazar#rita macedo#carlos lópez moctezuma#enrique lucero#mario sevilla#julissa#roy fletcher#beatriz bustamante#arturo corona#armando acosta#victorio blanco#opens on one of THE great first images of a film; pre titles‚ no company logos or anything‚ just an immediate open on the eyeless face#of a wailing woman‚ two wild dogs held by a chain in her hand. it's an incomparable mission statement‚ a promise that this film is about to#go very hard; and very hard it does go. delving deeper into themes and ideas and philosophy here and you'd probably be a little#disappointed; this isn't Rollin style deep meditation phantasmagoria; but for sheer visceral thrills and aesthetic grotesque you'd be hard#pressed to find a contemporary rival. some wonderful fantasy images (the forest of eyes in particular) and a rugged commitment to throwing#everything at the screen: there are threads from Universal's horrors here‚ as well as Hammer and euro competitors but it's all stirred up#and mixed about into a stew of heady gothic ingredients. a wholesome gumbo of rotting corpses and torture dungeons and multiple murders#that draws together all of the ideas present in the other three films in Indicator's Mexico Macabre set. i had a great time with this
