Morbo (1972)

... aka: Morbidness

Directed by:
Gonzalo Suárez

Hidden gem alert, folks! While this one isn't all that easy to find (it was never officially released in the U.S. or many other places outside of Spain) it's definitely worth the effort to track down, especially for fans of subtle, ambiguous horror. Immediately following their wedding, young newlyweds Diego (Víctor Manuel) and Alicia (Ana Belén) hit the road with their camper in search of some adventure and fun. Feeling liberated and free, she even strips off her wedding gown down to a mesh bikini at a gas station in full view of the attendant. They drive along and finally pull off the main highway onto a dirt road, ignoring a “Prohibido el Paso” sign as they do. Going deep into the woods, they finally pull over in an empty field and decide to camp there for a few days. They gorge themselves on food and wine, have sex, carve their names into a tree, play dodge ball, discuss their love and their fears and other strange things, blown up some inflatable chairs, sunbathe and decide to open all of their gifts; most of which they mock and nonchalantly toss on the ground. Well, except for a Mona Lisa painting. Alicia wants to hang that by the fireplace of her beautiful country home. Once Diego buys it for her, of course. But the honeymoon doesn't last forever as they say... though usually newlywed bliss lasts longer than a day!

All of the happiness, passion and optimism about the future quickly falls by the wayside in favor of boredom, insecurity, bickering and a curious sudden disconnect between the two. He's brought along his economics books to catch up on some work. She's not happy about it and has no idea what to do with herself. When he suggests she go on a walk, she accuses him of treating her like a child. What we've done here is basically fast-forwarded to the problems and hurdles most couples face years down the line in their relationship. In this case you have the working career man and the housewife. He immerses himself in his work, becomes complacent, stops being attentive to her basic needs (he even has to be nagged continually to get her some clean water) and adopts an almost condescending, resentful attitude toward her at times. She quickly becomes bored, feels unfulfilled in her role and starts becoming increasingly neurotic. All of this coincides with a strong gust of wind, which is just the beginning of the odd things that start going on in the natural world around them as their relationship suddenly starts crumbling.

Alicia starts growing more paranoid and begins to suspect not only that he husband is lying but also that the two of them are not alone. She constantly has a feeling she's being watching, most particularly when she's naked, sleeping or being intimate with her new husband. She steps on a hairpin outside on the ground... and she doesn't use hairpins. Somehow the windshield wipers on their car turn on, which coincides with her wedding gown (left in the backseat) disappearing. One of her pet hamsters eats the head off of its mate, survives their attempt to drown it in the sink and eventually has to be tossed outside in a plastic bag. Their wedding cake topper is found floating in a river with the eyes on the bride gouged out. Diego discovers a seemingly-abandoned home nearby and takes water from their well, but the jugs are found emptied later on. And there's a lot more weirdness where that comes from.

I couldn't help but feel a strong sense of deja vu as this one unfolded. That's probably because it shares more than a few things in common with the later and much more famous Australian film LONG WEEKEND (1978). That Colin Eggleston-directed / Everett De Roche-scripted effort centers around an unhappy, extremely unlikable couple on the verge of divorce who take their camper to a secluded area in a last ditch effort to save their doomed relationship. Their foulness of mouth and personality, and their complete disregard for the natural world around them, leads mother nature to strike out at them. Morbo is so similar in so many different ways that I refuse to believe the makers of Weekend didn't see this one beforehand. And while I did enjoy Eggleston's film quite a bit, this is the more sophisticated and multi-layered of the two.

Director Suárez, who worked on a number of other genre films I'm now excited to check out, isn't one to completely tie himself down with genre restrictions and does a very impressive job making much from little. Most of the film takes place on one plot of land and the surrounding forest, yet he's able to keep viewers fully immersed in the plot and intrigued about where things may be headed. Not only that, but he generates a good amount of suspense and is able to create effectively eerie, disquieting moments from things as simple as the rustling of trees in the wind. Juan Amorós' excellent cinematography and an outstandingly creepy music score from Jacques Denjean both also contribute heavily to the film's success. The leads, who are both famous singers in Spain, deserve kudos as well for solid performances and holding the whole thing together. Belén is especially good.

American character actor Michael J. Pollard, who is always weird but perhaps even weirder than usual here with a deep, dubbed voice, turns up at the end in an enigmatic role as a backwoods creep who lives in a crumbling old mill house with his blind, wheelchair-bound, disfigured wife (María Vico), who was burned up in a forest fire. The wife, who's suicidal and bitter to the point where she doesn't even want to be touched, and the husband, who's been so long without companionship (and sex) he's driven to some very creepy behavior, seem to be a grim reflection of where the young couple may be headed one day. However, the same can't be said for the two stars in real life. They fell in love while making this film, got married and remain together to this very day. Suárez used both of them again the following year in his adventure-fantasy Al diablo con amor (To Hell with Love).

★★★1/2

Terror, sexo y brujería (1968, 1984)

... aka: Cautivo del mas allá (Captives of the Beyond)
... aka: Narco Satánico
... aka: Terror, Sex and Witchcraft

Directed by:
Rafael Portillo

You know something screwy is up when I list a film as having been released in 1968 and in 1984. As is the case here, this Mexican production from the same guy who made the Aztec Mummy flicks just happened to have two completely different versions released at two completely different times. The first version was released in 1968 as Cautivo del mas allá ("Captives of the Beyond"), which was light on the violence and sex, heavy on the melodrama and mysticism and apparently no longer of much interest to anyone once sleazier elements became the genre norm in the 70s and 80s. A decade-and-a-half later, brand new footage featuring gory murders, gut-ripping zombies, cemetery-haunting ghosts, full frontal nudity and other things we all love was shot. That was combined with bits and pieces of the original and everything was haphazardly edited together to form the 1984 theatrical release Terror, sexo y brujería ("Terror, Sex and Witchcraft"). For the posters and lobby cards of this new version, they included bloody pictures of a man stabbed through the throat and a woman with a spike stuck in her head as well as sexy pictures of a smiling woman in a bra and a nude couple embracing in order to entice theater patrons. They were also thoughtful enough the scrawl out the original title in teeny tiny letters underneath the new title as not to trick audience members (at least those with really good vision) into seeing the same film twice. Though I have no real proof to back myself up here, I have few doubts in my mind that the 80s version promising "Terror" and "Sexo" probably fared better at the box office than the original cut.

So what became of the two films once the video era rolled around? Well, to make a long story short, the likely coherent Cautivo was cast aside in favor of the senseless yet more exploitative mishmash Terror. Apparently not thinking anyone would want to rent a straight-up horror film, they then whipped up a new poster featuring one of the original co-stars holding a machine gun so they could sell it as an action flick! It was given the brand new title Narco Satánico and released to video South-of-the-border on the Film-Mex label in 1988. "Narco Satánico" basically means "Satanic Narcotics Dealer" which not only doesn't roll off the tongue very well but also has nothing at all to do with anything that occurs in the movie, not even the new footage! I'm not even sure if Portillo himself shot the 1980s scenes or not since the Narco release simply reuses the original film's credits and splices in the new title card a la Nick Millard.

Cautivo / Terror / Narco: A shining example of how class...

...becomes trash, for a quick buck.

Things open up with the desperate Vicki visiting a black magic-practicing witch she hopes can help her sort out her pathetic love life. You see, Vicki is in love with the wealthy and (so they keep telling us) “handsome” mustachioed architect Ricardo Santamaria. However, he's already in love with "that blonde woman" Barbara. The witch attempts to cast a spell, which backfires because Barbara has some kind of special charm protecting both her and Ricardo from evil. She then ties photos of Vicki and Ricardo together and casts another spell which will supposedly tie them together forever but that dooesn't work either. Perhaps Vicki should have just kicked back and waited this one out. When she isn't busy sunbathing topless out by her pool and having her girlfriend rub her down his tanning oil, Barbara is busy being whiny and insecure about how “distant” her lover has been recently. She's even gone so far as to hire a private eye to follow him around to make sure he's not seeing another woman behind her back. When she confesses this to Ricardo, he laughs it off and finds it cute instead of being horrified like most of us normal folks would be. The witch uses a voodoo doll to cause Barbara's father to have a fatal car accident, but that only ends up making the couple's love stronger. Now it's time to go to Plan B... as in Beelzebub.

The witch suggests that Vicki hand over her body and soul to Satan in exchange for getting her mitts on Ricardo and his moolah. She reluctantly agrees and a deep-voiced, skull-faced Satan appears before her, asks her to take her clothes off and then gives her a special dagger. With it, she can kill whoever she wants and no one will ever find out who did it. Satan then gifts her with eternal youth and beauty even though she doesn't look half bad to begin with. Using her new good looks and buxom bod (and now played by Ana Luisa Peluffo), Vicki gets a gig as a feather dancer in a nightclub. All the while, the witch is busy trapping Ricardo's soul inside a jar. She puts one powder in to make him forget all about Barbara and a pinch of salt so that no woman other than Vicki can awaken his sexual desires. The plan works and next thing we know Ricardo is moving Vicki in and can't keep his hands off of her. The union doesn't last long when Satan orders Vicki to kill him with the dagger, which she does with no hesitation; even after all of the work she put in to get him in the first place. After stabbing him through the throat, the dagger's powers make the wound and all of the blood disappear so the murder can be pawned off as an unfortunate case of natural causes.

Ricardo's brother Carlos (Carluis Saval... I think) shows up for the funeral and is soon haunted in his dreams by his brother, who walks out of his crypt long enough to inform him that he plans on possessing him and using his body to get revenge on Vicki. And that he does. Carlos surprises the Satanic murderess at her new dance show “Macumba Vicki” with flowers and quickly seduces her. The two become lovers but Carlos is unsure whether this is really happening or it's all just a dream. His secretary Margarita (Silvia Suárez) suggests he go to see an unorthodox psychiatrist (Roberto Cañedo), who hooks him up to a lie detector on his first visit and starts drilling him with questions. After confessing the truth, the doctor gives him sleeping pills and tells him to just let the dreams play themselves out. In his dreams, Carlos is a jealous lover and when he suspects Vicki has been dishonest with him, he stabs her to death. Uh oh. His relationship with Vicki actually wasn't a dream and he really killed her!

After lifting his fingerprints off the murder weapon, Carlos is taken into custody and the film suddenly switches gears and becomes an absurd courtroom drama for a good 10 minutes. Defense Attorney Mendoza (David Reynoso) decides to take on Carlos' case and, with some help from the lie detector shrink, attempts to prove that he's innocent because he was in a “hypnometric trance” at the time of the murder. In other words, a vengeance-seeking spirit took possession of his body and forced him to astrally project out of his body to do their dirty work. The verdict? Guilty as charged. The film then does another 180 and suddenly becomes a zombie film in more newly-added scenes. In these, the witch goes to where Ricardo is buried and hopes to put his soul at rest by driving the dagger into his head. Instead, Ricardo emerges from the grave as a rotting zombie and sinks the dagger into hers. He's back just in time to stumble upon his brother Carlos dying by firing squad and walks up to one of the soldiers and rips his guts out. From there, he goes to pay his true love Barbara, who's gracious enough to show off all her goodies taking a nude bath first, a visit.

Few films leave me almost speechless but this strange, confusing, nonsensical yet deliriously entertaining mess must be seen to be believed. Oh screw it. Just find this. Watch it. I guarantee you won't be seeing many other films in your lifetime as bizarre as this one. You'll be perplexed watching old and new footage that looks completely different desperately attempting to become one. You'll pull your hair out trying to figure out who is who and where so-and-so came from and what the hell is going on from one scene to the next. As an added bonus, this contains some of the worst editing I've ever seen. There are split second flashes of the most random things imaginable like clothing on the floor, bare breasts, swirls, darting eyeballs (which are also sometimes superimposed over the action), a man in a plastic devil mask rocking back and forth and sometimes even snippets of scenes we've already seen. There's no way some of that was intentional!

In the original film, Saval played both Carlos and Ricardo and is credited as such in the opening credits. In this new version, he only plays Carlos and another actor plays Ricardo in the new scenes. One of these is a crazy nightmare featuring a black cat, a possum, a snake, an owl, fog and zombies, one of whom stabs a vagrant to death after he attempts to rob Ricardo's ghost at knife point (!!) The Vicki character is played by Peluffo in the older footage but by another actress in the newer footage. The new actress is supposed to be the character before she's turned beautiful by Satan but is still used occasionally even after that. Some scenes contain new voice-overs that don't match the original actor's voices at all. An echoing laugh heard numerous times sounds exactly like Vincent Price's laugh at the end of Michael Jackson's “Thriller.” In fact, it may actually be!

Working out a cast list for this film is next to impossible. Since a lot of the original footage ended up on the cutting room floor, many of the listed actors aren't even in this new cut of the movie. Beatriz Aguirre, who is billed third in the original film's credits for playing Ricardo and Carlos' mother, had her role whittled down to next to nothing in this version. The Cautivo poster brags about it being the “debut estelar” of an actor named Gonzalo Aiza, yet the Terror poster calls the same actor Carluis Saval while the Narco release reverts back to the Aiza name for the video box yet uses the Saval name in the credits. Say what? Under any name, this man either didn't appear in another movie after his “debut estelar” or he's a fan of fucking with people's minds by using multiple fake names for the same film. To add to the confusion, a Dr. Gonzalo Aiza Avalos is credited as the producer. The same guy? The star's father who backed the film to give his son his one and only starring role? Who knows. I want to hear from you pronto, Mr. Saval / Aiza / Avalos. None of the actors featured in the new footage are credited though a few looked vaguely familiar, especially the “new” Ricardo; hilarious fake mustache and all. How this one came to be and who made it and starred in it is pretty much a complete mystery and seeing how the director and most of the cast and crew are no longer with us, it will likely remain that way.

SBIG