La mansión del terror (1989)

... aka: Hasta que la muerte nos separe (Till Death Do Us Part)

... aka: Mansion of Terror, The

Directed by:

Ramón Obón

Hugo Stiglitz (in a ridiculous poofy wig that doesn't match his beard) stars as Orlando, a well-to-do, turn-of-the-century pianist obsessed with a theater actress named Griselda (Luz María Jerez). Griselda's recently been cast as the female lead in a small production of Othello. Orlando makes sure to attend every single one of her showings (where he gets to see her being strangled on stage every night), sends her flowers nightly and makes his romantic intentions pretty obvious as he intently watches her from his balcony seat. Late one night at a trolley station, he approaches Griselda and, despite his intense and persistent nature (and the fact he initially creeped her out), charms her into having dinner with him. He then invites her to attend one of his performances. The two develop a mutual admiration for each other's talent and become lovers. Soon enough, Orlando is presenting her with expensive jewelry and asking her to become his wife. Griselda is initially apprehensive and has no interest in giving up her career for marriage and family. However, she ends up caving in and the two have an impromptu wedding on the theater stage in the presence of Griselda's friend / roommate Emilia (Lizetta Romo) and the rest of the Othello cast.

Orlando takes Griselda to his home, a secluded but well-kept mansion, located deep within the desert. She almost immediately regrets her decision as the ice cold maid Tencha (Dacia González) gives her dirty looks, almost completely refuses to acknowledge her and clearly doesn't want her to be there. Not just that, but she hears voices coming from the cellar, hears Orlando arguing with someone upstairs and then has a vision of a blonde woman being strangled by someone wearing a wedding gown while she's in the middle of trying to make love to her new hubby. Was it a ghost? A hallucination, perhaps? The next morning, she finally meets Orlando's mother, Eloisa (Rosita Quintana), who's surprisingly bubbly and friendly and eases her mind by letting her know that the mansion is now also her home. She gives her a tour of the estate, including of her beloved greenhouse.

The relief doesn't last long, however, as Eloisa casually reveals that Orlando was previously married, something he never bothered telling her. The family may even keep a portrait of her on the wall and a weird shrine for the dead woman, with her wedding gown as the centerpiece, in the home, though it's also claimed that the woman is a relative. According to Eloisa, the woman in the portrait is her sister, she went crazy and then had to be locked up in an institution. She also looks an awful lot like Orlando's new wife. When Griselda confronts her hubby about her, he shouts at her, clutches his head as weird sci-fi sounding music plays, almost strikes her with a lash and then storms off. Griselda then begins seeing a wedding gown-clad figure lurking around the mansion grounds, which leads her to an abandoned, overgrown old church filled with creepy religious statues that's unfortunately never used again after this one brief scene.

While she's in the bathroom washing her hair, our heroine is vicious attacked by the bride. She pulls her hair, wrestles her to the floor and slices her up with a wire before Griselda's able to lock her out of the room. Meanwhile, Orlando starts mentally deteriorating into a piano key-pounding, migraine-suffering maniac and the two older ladies are both harboring their own dark secrets. There are character revelations, black-and-white flashbacks, nightmares and ghostly visions, plus a corpse hidden under the floorboards in the cellar.

By late 80s genre standards, this is incredibly tame, old-school, talky, slow-paced and non-exploitative. In other words, it's something that could conceivably be shown on television with just a few minor trims. It's also one of those movies that doesn't quite have the budget to effectively realize its period setting (though effort is at least made with the costumes, hair, vehicles, sets, etc.) nor is it fully able to achieve much in the way of gloomy Gothic atmosphere because the bulk of it takes place in a pristine, brightly white, sparsely decorated house. That said, this is competently directed, written and shot. There's decent camerawork, stylish touches using colors and lens flares and, most importantly as this is a dialogue-driven film, a strong cast who's able to sell it. Jerez is strong in the lead and gets solid support from veterans Quintana and González. Top-billed Stiglitz is OK but gets overshadowed by all three of his female co-stars.

This was the directorial debut of Costa Rican-born Obón, who had previously written or co-written around 100 (!) other films, including The Empire of Dracula (1967), MADAME DEATH (1969), The Perverse Doll (1969), PANICO (1970), The Whip Against Satan (1979) and a number of Santo adventures. He was clearly heavily-inspired by a number of Hitchcock films here, most notably Rebecca (1940). There's also a bit of Flowers in the Attic in here, especially at the end.

I'm not sure what the original release title for this one was. It's listed on most websites as Hasta que la muerte nos separe ("Till Death Do Us Part"), though I was only able to track down a later VHS release utilizing that title. The original theatrical lobby card calls it La mansión del terror ("The Mansion of Terror") so that's the title I'll be using here. Like many other late 80s Mexican films, this has never been available in English.

★★1/2

La noche de la bestia (1988)

... aka: Night of the Beast

Directed by:
Gilberto de Anda

Five thirty-somethings, former high school pals whose lives have taken completely different paths, take a mini-vacation to the skankiest mountain cabin ever to go duck hunting at a nearby lake. There's Ramón (top-billed Sergio Goyri, who's also credited as coming up with the "original idea" for this one), an architect, ranchero and the most level-headed and normal of the group. Bonus point: Also the one with the most impressive mustache! Ronco (Jorge Reynoso) was a bully in school so it comes as no surprise he's now a short-tempered policeman and gun fanatic. He's also a little, well, "ronco" ("husky" in Spanish). Mario (Arsenio Campos) is a computer programmer and amateur musician. Alfredo (Arturo García Tenorio) has become a big time movie director and alcoholic bachelor first seen passed out surrounded by half a dozen starlets. And Willi (Hugo Stiglitz) is an unhappily-married surgeon with an insecure, yet large-breasted, wife (Abril Campillo) who pleads with him not to go because she's paranoid he's going to be unfaithful. Sick of being smothered by her, and not in the way he'd probably prefer, Willi confides to his buddies that he "can't stand that broad" and only keeps her around because, "Who's going to cook for me?"

On the way to their secluded destination they go through all the usual male bonding paces we always see in these kind of movies. You know, like, drinking beer, drinking whiskey, smoking, playing poker, farting, belching, making crude jokes, talking about women like they're dirt, playing around with a blow-up sex doll and discussing shit and turds more than anyone over the age of 13 ever should. That's capped off with a group hug, a mushy aside about how they're the best friends in the whole wide world and a drunken bedtime toast of "Till death do us part." That will be more appropriate than they realize.

The following morning, the men go through a hilariously Freudian pre-hunt ritual where they show each other their weapons, polish them, lovingly stroke them and act like they're about to get off at any given moment. Husky has decided to bring along his Kalashnikov AR-47 assault rifle and 44 Magnum cause, you know, those are just the kind of guns you need when you're heading out after Daffy, Thumper and other such dangerous prey. They hunt, fish, get drunk and swim. Ronco takes his semi-automatic to a rabbit while opting to kill a bear with his hunting knife (?!) I think this is supposed to be funny.

Nearby, a small team a scientists led by engineer Manuel Capetillo and working for the "Nuclear Energy Investigative Institute" are searching for uranium. They set off some explosives, which causes a sudden increase in radiation levels in the area. Later that night, the men's cabin is rocked by a loud explosion. When they go to investigate they see a stock footage shot of an A bomb cloud off in the distance. Only mildly concerned, they go back to sleep. The following day, injured female scientist Dr. Ana Martinez (Lina Santos) is chased to their camp by three other crazed and armed colleagues. A gun battle ensues. The bad scientists are shot dead. A couple of the hunters decide to check out the scientist's "encampment" and all they find are a bunch of bloody, dismembered human limbs.

Around the one hour mark of this 80 minute movie, Ana relates a flashback to her scientific team discovering a meteorite that's apparently been buried underground for 16 thousand years. Because of the prestige and money at stake, the team decided to keep their discovery a secret from the institute funding them, opting instead to conduct their own experiments. Further examination reveals it's made from an element not known on Earth and its color varies with the intensity of light. Whatever material it's made out of, it's concealing a capsule inside, which the team make the mistake of opening with a laser.

When there are just ten minutes remaining, two monsters finally show up at the cabin. The first is a small parasitic worm that enters victims through the mouth, controls them and makes them attack the others a la movies like Shivers and The Hidden. The second is a giant monster with a tentacle tongue (I think the mother of the little thing?) that pops up at the very end through the floorboards. It looks like something grade school kids would create if you gave them 20 dollars and told them to replicate a Tremors graboid out of papier-mâché. Needless to say, neither is adequate payoff for having to sit through the previous hour + testosterone-fest, though the finale tries in vain to make up for that and includes an axing, a stabbing, a leg pulled off, a body thrown through a window and one pretty good bit where Stiglitz gets possessed. This also boasts perhaps the wobbliest pan shot in motion picture history. Still not nearly enough to redeem the rest.

Director de Anda also made Cazador de demonios / "Demon Hunter" (1983) and the anthologies Un paso al más aca / "One Step Further" (1988), La zona del silencio / "The Zone of Silence" (1990) and Masacre nocturna / "Slaughter Night" (either 1990 or 1997). Beast has never been released in the U.S. There was a Spanish-language only 1993 VHS release by Arte Cinema Film Inc. in Mexico and (I believe) a DVD double feature release though I'm not sure of the company. A version with English fan subs is currently on Youtube, which surprisingly isn't bad quality.

★1/2