MEXICAN HORROR MOVIES

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Throughout the 50's and the 60's the mexican film industry turned out many schlock horror films. Many of these had atmosphere and copy the mood of the old Universal horror films of the 40's but the plots were often weird. Many of these films were dubbed into english and released into the United States during the 60's and later release to TV. This webpage will review many of those imports.

ATTACK OF THE MAYAN MUMMY(1963)(LA MOMIA AZTECA and LA MOMIA 1957)

Hack film producer/director Jerry Warren re edited THE AZTEC MUMMY and made a mess of it. The film begins with a shot in the United States scene of a reporter talking to an editor. The whole film becomes a flashback. Warren did not bother to use all of THE AZTEC MUMMY. This film ends with the monster being hit by a car. THE FACE OF THE SCREAMING WEREWOLF another film by Warren would use a shorten version of this movie for a subplot. LA MOMIA AZTECA Directed by Rafael Portillo. Written by Guillermo Calderon (AKA William C. Stell)and Alfredo Salazar. With Rosita Arenas and Ramon Gay. American scenes directed by Jerry Warren. with Bruno VeSota.

THE ROBOT VS. THE AZTEC MUMMY (LA MOMIA AZTECA CONTRA EL ROBOT HUMANO 1957)

This is a talky fallow up to THE AZTEC MUMMY. In flashback footage you see the orginial endding to THE AZTEC MUMMY that Warren did not use in his version. The Aztec mummy was blown up with a stick of TNT. In this film a mad scienist called the Bat seeks revenge against the aztec mummy. So he builds a big junky looking robot with a human head to fight the aztec monster in a crypt at an old graveyard where the mummy is hiding out. The aztec mummy wins the battle and returns to his aztec tomb after killing the Bat and his henchman. Directed by Rafael Portillo. Written by Guillermo Calderon from a story by Alfredo Salazar. With Rosita Arenas and Ramon Gay.

THE CURSE OF THE AZTEC MUMMY (LA MALDICION DE LA MOMIA AZTECA 1959)

Directed by Rafael Portillo. Written by Guillermo Calderon and Afredo Salazar. With-Ramon Gay and Rosita Arenas.

WRESTLING WOMEN VS. THE AZTEC MUMMY(1965)(LAS LUCHADORAS CONTRA LA MOMIA AZTECA)

This was the last of the aztec mummy movies. This english dubbed version was later re cut and sold on video with a rock and roll soundtrack as ROCK AND ROLL WRESTLING WOMEN VS. THE AZTEC MUMMY. Directed by Rene Cardona. Written by Guillermo Calderon and Alfredo Salazar.

ROCK AND ROLL WRESTLING WOMEN VS. THE AZTEC MUMMY(LAS LUCHADORAS CONTRA LA MOMIA AZTECA 1964)

This film was released in the United States under the title WRESTLING WOMEN VS. THE AZTEC MUMMY. Rhino Video took that dubbed version and cut it down to one hour. They then added to the soundtrack funny rewritten versions of old rock and roll classics from the fifties. These songs played for the most part over the wrestling scenes.

DOCTOR OF DOOM(LAS LACHADORAS CONTRA EL MEDICO ASESINO 1962)

Wrestling women fight against a mad scientist. The english dub version is also known as ROCK AND ROLL WRESTLING WOMEN VS. THE AZTEC APE. Directed by Rene Cardona. Written by Alfredo Salazar.

SAMSON VS. THE VAMPIRE WOMEN(SANTO CONTRA LAS MUJERES VAMPIROS(1962)

One of the most famous masked wrestlers in Mexico is El Santo. He wears a silver mask and had a long career in mexican wrestling circles. Aside from his career in the wrestling ring he often appeared in horror/action movies playing himself as a crimefighter. This is a weird vampire movie. It has a great looking old fashion black and white atmosphere that is ruinned everytime El Santo appears in the movie. A highlight is a scene inwhich El Santo is in the wrestling ring fighting another masked wrestler who was switched with one of the vampire women's henchmen. El Santo unmask the man and he has the face of a werewolf. Not a whole head but just the front of the actor's face is made up. When El Santo and the police surround the werewolf he turns into a bat and escape them. At the film's end el Santo set fire to the coffins of the vampire women. El Santo's name was redubed as Samson in the english dub version of this movie. Directed by Alfonso Corona Blake. Written by Alfonso Corona Blake. Story by Rafael Garcia Travesi, Antonio Orellana, Fernando Oses.

INVASION OF THE ZOMBIES(SANTO CONTRA LA ZOMBIES 1961)

El Santo the wrestler is featured in this movie. Directed by Benito Alazraki. Written by Benito Alazraki. Story by Antonio Orellana and Fernando Oses.

SAMSON IN THE WAX MUSEUM(SANTO EN EL MUSEO DE CERA 1962)

Mexican wrestler El Santo (Once again his more famous name re dubbed as Samson) battles a mad scientist in a wax museum. The mad scientist keeps a group of zombies under his control and have them pose as waxwork monsters in his wax museum chamber of horrors.Directed by Alfredo Corona Blake. Written by Fernando Galiana and Julio Porter.

CREATURE OF THE WALKING DEAD(1965)(LA MARCA DEL MUERTO 1960)

This was a movie re edited by Jerry Warren who also added new scenes. In this film a mad scienist kills people to steal their blood for his experiments which prolong his life. Years later after he is hung for his crimes his look a like grandson who is also a doctor brings him back to life. The mad scientist then returns to killing people for blood experiments. All ends with the lab going up in a fire. Directed and written by Fernando Cortes. Story by Jose Maria Fernandez Unsain. American scenes directed by Jerry Warren. With Bruno VeSota.

THE VAMPIRE(EL VAMPIRO 1957)

Directed By Fernand Mendez. Written by Ramon Obon. With German Robles and Abel Salazar Note:Around the same time this movie was made a another movie entitled THE VAMPIRE (AKA:Mark of the Vampire) was released. It was a mad scientist movie and some film books confuse the two movies.

THE VAMPIRE'S COFFIN(EL ATAUD DEL VAMPIRO 1958)

This is one of those mexican movies that try to recreat the look of old Universal horror films. The vampire is dressed in the sort of tux Bela Lugosi wore in Dracula. The Universal atmosphere is ruin by cut rate stop motion special effects. This was the kind of effects used on the TV show BEWITCHED. The vampire often appeared and disappeared in a stop motion effect and like wise would suddenly turn into a rubberly bat the same way. At the films end the vampire in bat form circles around the hero. The hero throws a spear at the bat and pins it to the wall. This was a fallow up to THE VAMPIRE.Directed by Fernando Mendez. Written by Ramon Obon. Story by Raul Zenteno. With-German Robles and Abel Salazar

NEUTRON AND THE BLACK MASK (NEUTRON EL ENMASCARADO NEGRO 1961)

A really badly shot feature about a crimefighter who wears a black overhead mask in the style of mexican wrestlers. No one knows who he is but there is three men to choose from. In this film he fights a mad scienist who is hiding out in a secret room of his home. The secret door to the room he is hiding in doesn't really match the rest of the wall. Only the screenplay keeps people from seeing the secret door. At the film's end Neutron reveal himself to his friends. His friends forget all about it the fallowing movies. The title is sometimes mistakenly listed as NEUTRON VS. THE BLACK MASK. Directed by Federico Curiel. Written by Alfredo Ruanova. With-Armando Silvestre, Wolf Rubinski, Julio Aleman, Rosita Arenas, Claudio Brook.

NEUTRON AGAINST THE DEATH ROBOTS(LOS AUTOMATAS DE LA MUERTE 1961)

Neutron fights a white masked mad scientist and his badly made up zombies. The mad scientist has a drawf helper who help the zombies kill people for blood the mad scientist is using to keep some brains alives. This film was as badly shot as NEUTRON AND THE BLACK MASK. Directed by Federico Curiel. Written by Alfredo Ruanova. With-Wolf Rubinski, Julio Aleman, Rosita Arenas, Claudio Brook, Armando Silvestre.

NEUTRON VS. THE MANIAC(1961)

The series must of been doing good because this one looks like it had a decent budget and is better made than the other two. In this film a killer makes movies of his murders. Neutron goes undercover in a mental hospital to try and find the killer. Don't bother to try to figure out who the killer is among the suspects. In the end it is reveal that all the suspects are working together. What a cheat. Directed by Alfredo B. Crevenna. With-Wolf Rubinski, Gina Romand, Julio Aleman, Rosita Arenas, Claudio Brook,Armando Silvestre.

NEUTRON VS. THE AMAZING DR. CARONTE(NEUTRON CONTRA EL DR. CARONTE 1962)

Directed by Federico Curiel. Written by Alfredo Ruanova. With-Wolf Rubinski, Armando Silvestre, Julio Aleman, Rosita Arenas.

THE BRAINIAC (EL BARON DEL TERROR 1961)

This is one of those truely weird mexican monster movies. It is the story of a man who places a curse on the decendants of those who burned him at the stake for witchcraft. A few hundred years later an odd shape meteor lands on Earth and a monster with a rubberly looking head and old clothes come out of the meteor. The monster turns into a human looking man who hunts down the decendants of those who burned him at the stake. The monster mask in this film is very silly looking. The head is comical and a large fork tongue keeps coming out of the monster's mouth. He uses this tongue to drill holes in his victims heads and suck out the brains. This is done off scene. The monster also keeps a plate of his victims brains around to snack on between meals. The silly looking creature is destroyed by the police with some flamethrowers at the film's end. After I saw this movie I wondered if the mexican police often kept flamethrowers around. The detective on the case told his sidekick that they had to stop by the station to get one. Directed by Chano Urueta. Written by Federico Curiel, Antonio Orellana, Alfredo Torres Portillo. With-Abel Salazar and German Robles.

THE CURSE OF THE CRYING WOMAN(LA MALADICION DE LA LLORONA 1961)

This is a spooky movie about a woman who goes to visit her aunt who lives in a creepy house with a deform henchman. The aunt turns out to be an evil witch who is trying to bring back to life the body of the infamous Crying Woman. The Crying Woman is a famous Mexican ghost of folklore who wanders the night looking for her dead children. The ghost has been the subject of other movies. Directed by Rafael Baledon. Written by Rafael Baledon and Fernando Galiana. With-Abel Salazar.

THE BLOODY VAMPIRE(EL VAMPIRO SANGRIENTO 1962)

Written and Directed By Miguel Morayta.With Carlos Agosti.

INVASION OF THE VAMPIRES(LA INVASION DE LOS VAMPIROS 1961)

Directed and written by Miguel Morayta. With- Carlos Agosti and Bertha Moss.

BRING ME A VAMPIRE(ECHENME AL VAMPIRO 1959)

Directed by Alfredo B. Crevenna. With Maria San Martin, Hector Godoy and Joaquin Vargas.

THE NOSTRADAMUS MOVIES.

The Nostradamus series of vampire movies were at first produced as a ten part horror serial. The various chapers were later spliced together into four movies. German Robles plays the vampire Nostradamus in all four movies.

THE CURSE OF NOSTRADAMUS (LA MALDICION DE NOSTRADAMUS 1961)

Directed by Federico Curiel. Written by Alfredo Ruanova and Carlos Enrique Taboaba.

THE MONSTER DEMOLISHER (EL DESTRUCTOR DE MONSTRUOS 1961)

Directed by Federico Curiel. Written by Alfredo Ruanova and Carlos Enrique Taboaba.

GENIE OF DARKNESS (NOSTRADAMUS, EL GENIO DE LAS TINIEBLAS 1961)

Directed by Federico Curiel. Written by Alfredo Ruanova and Carlos Enrique Taboaba.

BLOOD OF NOSTRADAMUS (LA SANGRE DE NOSTRADAMUS 1961)

Directed by Federico Curiel. Written by Alfredo Ruanova and Carlos Enrique Taboaba.

CURSE OF THE DOLL PEOPLE(MUNECOS INFERNALES 1961)

Another really strange one. A voodoo wizard uses dwarf zombies to carry out murders for him. He also has one full size one on hand. Directed by Benito Alazraki. Written by Alfredo Salazar.

FACE OF THE SCREAMING WEREWOLF(1965)(LA CASA DEL TERROR 1960)

This is another Jerry Warren butcher job. In it's orginal form this was a horror comedy with comic Tin Tan and Lon Chaney Jr as a mummy who is brought to life and turns out to be the mummy of a werewolf. Warren cut out all of the humor and most of Tin Tan's role and sold it as a straight horror film. So much of the orginial film was cut out that Warren added scenes from the film THE AZTEC MUMMY and used it as an added subplot about a mummy like creature found in the aztec tomb with Lon Chaney Jr's mummy. Like in ATTACK OF THE MAYAN MUMMY this second mummy is killed by a car.

THE LIVING COFFIN(1958)

A film about a woman who have a fear of being buried alive.with-Gaston Santos and Mary Duval.

THE LIVING HEAD(1959)

The head of an aztec warrior is entomb. Hundreds of years later a group of scientist remove the head and the mummy of a man buried with it. The head comes to life and sends the now living mummy to murder the scienist. The mummy looks like a regular man and is nothing like the aztec mummy of the aztec mummy series. This film is a bit slow moving.With-Abel Salazar and German Robles.

THE MAN AND THE MONSTER(1958)

A pianist sells his soul to the Devil and becomes a werewolf-like madman whenever he plays or hear a certain tune on the piano. He's not too sane when he not a monster either. He keeps the body of a woman he murdered around and talks to it. The madman's mother is very unhappy with all this.With-Abel Salazar and Martha Roth.

THE NEW INVISIBLE MAN(1958)

With-Arturo De Cordova, Raul Meraz, Augusto Benedico, and Ana Luisa Peluffo.

100 CRIES OF TERROR(1964)

With-George Martinez and Joaquin Cordero.

In 1968 Boris Karloff even though he was past 80 and ill made a deal to appear in four Mexican movies. He was too sick to go to Mexico so all the scenes for the four films were shot in the United States and spliced into the movies back in Mexico. The four movies were THE FEAR CHAMBER (aka THE CHAMBER OF FEAR, LA CAMARA DEL TERROR, TORTURE CHAMBER, TORTURE ZONE) HOUSE OF EVIL(aka DANCE OF DEATH, MACABRE SERENADE) THE INCREDIBLE INVASTION(aka ALIEN TERROR, INVASION SINIESTRA, SINISTER INVASION) ISLE OF THE SNAKE PEOPLE (AKA: CULT OF THE DEAD, ISLE OF THE LIVING DEAD, LA MUERTE VIVIENTE,THE SNAKE PEOPLE)

SPIRITISM(1960)

With-Carmen Gonzales and Jose Jiminez.

THE WITCH'S MIRROR(1960)

A man tries to restore his wife's face with the skin from corpses.With-Rosita Arenas and Armando Calvo.

WORLD OF THE VAMPIRE(1960)

With-Mauricio Garces and Silvia Fournier.

Updated Sept 16, 2000.

Copyright 1999 by Teel.

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