In an opening sequence reminiscent of (and indeed homage to) Mario Bava’s La Maschera del Demonio, we see a coach ride into remote mist laden woodland, carrying two elder gentlemen and a young woman passenger (Julissa del Llano – later seen alongside Karloff in La Muerte Viviente and The Fear Chamber). The coach is met in the road by the eerie figure of a hollow eyed, raven haired woman, swathed in black and flanked by three large Great Dane hounds.
As the coach comes to a halt, the woman, Selma (Rita Macedo), orders her accompanying henchman, Juan (Carlos López Moctezuma later seen in La Horripilante Bestia Humana), to kill the coach driver and sets loose the hounds to ravage the passengers, the runaway coach crushing the female passenger under wheel.
We soon learn that Selma has summoned her niece, Amelia (Rosita Arenas from the earlier El Espejo de la Bruja) to visit her home to collect an inheritance. Arriving at Selma’s broken down, countryside hacienda with her newly wed husband, Jaime (Mexican cinema star, Abel Salazar best known to a wider audience for El Barón del Terror aka Brainiac), Amelia finds things clearly not quite as they should be, especially when the couple hear the haunting cries of an unknown woman coming from an attic room in the dead of night.
It quickly becomes apparent that Amelia has been lured to her aunts home under false pretences, not in fact for an inheritance but to play her part in a family curse and bring the long dead and rotting corpse of the witch La Llorana back to life!
As is maybe obvious from the films original Mexican title, as with several Mexi-horrors, The Curse of the Crying Woman is very loosely based upon the Mexican folklore tale of La Llorana, a betrayed ghostly woman who drowns her children in revenge against her estranged husband.
Not often seen outside of Mexico in it’s original language version, during the mid 1960’s the film was distributed along with several other Mexican horrors of the era including El Hombre y El Monstruo, El Ataúd del Vampiro and La Momia Azteca Contra el Robot Humano in North America by K. Gordon Murray in a badly dubbed and edited version, loosing the impact of the original film.
If you thought Mexican horror was summed up by the kitsch wrestling flicks of El Santo et al, think again! Without a doubt, The Curse of the Crying Woman is a classic slice of gothic horror cinema. Although very slightly flawed in places, it has some of the classic ingredients of the genre; a witch being revived from the dead, a clubbed foot henchman, a deranged and malformed relative kept under lock & key, bats, rats, cobwebs, spooky mist laden set pieces, a crumbling gothic looking family home all set off with an atmospheric score and solid acting from all of the cast involved.
Often over looked by many genre fans, it should be viewed with as much high regard as the noted classics by Italian gothic masters Mario Bava, Riccardo Freda and Antonio Margheriti, Britain’s Hammer and Amicus Studios or of course America’s early Universal monsters or Roger Corman’s Poe / Price movies.
Along with some of CasaNegra’s other recent releases, Brainiac, The Witch’s Mirror, The Black Pit of Dr. M, The Vampire and The Vampire’s Coffin (all of which I intend to review at some stage soon), The Curse of the Crying Woman is some of the most fun viewing I’ve had in quite a while and obviously a film I would highly recommend to fans of classic gothic and B&W horror.
CasaNegra couldn’t have done a more pleasing job with this release. Presented in crisp 1:33 full frame as originally shot, fully restored from original vault elements, this looks close to flawless and is how fans want to see films treated. You have the option of the (advised) original Spanish audio in mono or the dubbed English launguage track which some viewers will be more familar with.
Extra features include:
* Audio Commentary by Mexican Cinema Expert Michael Liuzza
* Full Color Booklet: The Legend of Llorona by Entertainment Weekly’s Peter Landau
* Exclusive CasaNegra Loteria Game Card
* Essay on Legendary Actor, Filmmaker Rafael Baledón by noted film historian David Wilt
* Cast Biographies
* Poster and Stills Gallery
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Review by All the Colours of the Dark.
