I cannot yet claim to be an expert on Mexican Horror films, but I'm becoming more and more of a fan of the country's Horror output with every movie I see. Personally I'm a fan of the classic Mexican Gothic Horror tales such as the masterpieces MISTERIOS DE ULTRATUMBA (aka. THE BLACK PIT OF DR. M, 1959) or LA MALDICION DE LA LLORANA (CURSE OF THE CRYING WOMAN, 1963), as well as the weird Exploitation flicks of the 70s such as Juan Lopez Moctezuma's bizarre cult flick ALUCARDA, LA HIJA DE LAS TIENEBLAS (1978).
Carlos Enrique Tabadoa's Haunted House flick MAS NEGRO QUE LA NOCHE (BLACKER THAN THE NIGHT) of 1975 is yet a completely different style of Mexican Horror film. As opposed to any of the aforementioned representative films, this film is rather slow-paced, and furthermore very sleaze- and gore-less for a mid-70s Horror film. This is not to say that MAS NEGRO QUE LA NOCHE is not recommended, however: the beautifully shot movie oozes creepy atmosphere from the beginning to the end, continually getting eerier and more tense.
After a mysterious old lady has passed away, her niece inherits her eerie mansion and moves in with a bunch of other young women. They disregard the aunt's will that the house belongs to her true heir, her black cat, and strange things begin to happen. When the cat gets killed, hell breaks loose...
MAS NEGRO QUE LA NOCHE is a classic Haunted House flick in which many of the Horror remains unseen. In her essay ON THE SUPERNATURAL IN POETRY, the famous English Gothic writer Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823) once distinguished between the terms Terror and Horror in that Terror is the obscure, the anticipation of something horrible that is about to happen, whereas Horror is the actual experience of the horrible. MAS NEGRO QUE LA NOCHE is doubtlessly a film that mainly (though not merely) lives off the Terror according to Radcliffe's definition. The events in the film are not surprising, but somewhat predictable (in a positive sense), the tension being built up through their anticipation. The film's strongest point is the thick, truly creepy atmosphere, a lot of which is built up by the super-eerie mansion setting and creepy set-pieces, great camera work and a fantastic usage of different colors of darkness. Set pieces such as the portrait of the old lady alone build up an incredibly gloomy mood.
Even though it is very slow-paced in the beginning MAS NEGRO QUE LA NOCHE is highly recommendable film. Fans of rather suggestive Haunted House flicks such as THE HAUNTING (1963) should love this one.
Carlos Enrique Tabadoa's Haunted House flick MAS NEGRO QUE LA NOCHE (BLACKER THAN THE NIGHT) of 1975 is yet a completely different style of Mexican Horror film. As opposed to any of the aforementioned representative films, this film is rather slow-paced, and furthermore very sleaze- and gore-less for a mid-70s Horror film. This is not to say that MAS NEGRO QUE LA NOCHE is not recommended, however: the beautifully shot movie oozes creepy atmosphere from the beginning to the end, continually getting eerier and more tense.
After a mysterious old lady has passed away, her niece inherits her eerie mansion and moves in with a bunch of other young women. They disregard the aunt's will that the house belongs to her true heir, her black cat, and strange things begin to happen. When the cat gets killed, hell breaks loose...
MAS NEGRO QUE LA NOCHE is a classic Haunted House flick in which many of the Horror remains unseen. In her essay ON THE SUPERNATURAL IN POETRY, the famous English Gothic writer Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823) once distinguished between the terms Terror and Horror in that Terror is the obscure, the anticipation of something horrible that is about to happen, whereas Horror is the actual experience of the horrible. MAS NEGRO QUE LA NOCHE is doubtlessly a film that mainly (though not merely) lives off the Terror according to Radcliffe's definition. The events in the film are not surprising, but somewhat predictable (in a positive sense), the tension being built up through their anticipation. The film's strongest point is the thick, truly creepy atmosphere, a lot of which is built up by the super-eerie mansion setting and creepy set-pieces, great camera work and a fantastic usage of different colors of darkness. Set pieces such as the portrait of the old lady alone build up an incredibly gloomy mood.
Even though it is very slow-paced in the beginning MAS NEGRO QUE LA NOCHE is highly recommendable film. Fans of rather suggestive Haunted House flicks such as THE HAUNTING (1963) should love this one.