GENRE FROM MEXICO
Crime, horror, lucha libre, and more from our neighbors down south.
EVEN THE WIND IS AFRAID 1968
Invoking Dario Argento’s SUSPIRIA and the works of Mario Bava, EVEN THE WIND IS AFRAID is a Mexican horror film draped in macabre moods and stunning Gothic ambience. Claudia is haunted by nightmares of a hanged woman from the tower of her all-girl’s boarding school, convinced that her dreams could be something more. When she’s suspended for investigating and forced to spend the summer on campus, she and her friends uncover a dark mystery that will put them in dangers they never imagined. Gorgeously shot and wonderfully atmospheric, any appetite for genuine chills will be sated in full by EVEN THE WIND IS AFRAID.
Wednesday, September 2
Director: Carlos Enrique Taboada
Starring: Alicia Bonet, Maricruz Olivier, Marga López
Runtime: 88 min.
Language: Spanish w/ English subtitles
SANTA SANGRE 1989
Though best known for his one-two punch of psychedelic ’70s midnight movies, El Topo and The Holy Mountain, his 1989 “comeback” feature is perhaps the most accomplished and troubling film Jodorowsky ever made, a surrealist thriller centered on Fenix (Axel Jodorowsky), the son of two circus performers who, after a terrifyingly violent spat between his parents sends him for a long stay in an insane asylum, is released back into the world to do the bidding of his mutilated and vengeance-minded mother, now the leader of a sinister religious cult. “A movie like none I have seen before, a wild kaleidoscope of images and outrages, a collision between Freud and Fellini… A flamboyant parade of bold, odd, striking imagery.” —Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Friday, September 4
Saturday, September 5
Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky
Starring: Axel Jodorowsky, Blanca Guerra, Guy Stockwell
Runtime: 122 min.
Language: English
SANTO & BLUE DEMON VS. DRACULA & THE WOLFMAN 1973
Masked super-hero Mexican wrestler Santo teams up with his sidekick Blue Demon for tag team wrestling/monster fighting in this classic Lucha Libre film. After facing defeat at the hands of Cristaldi the magician, Dracula is back to seek revenge and rule the world. With the help of Wolfman and his legion of followers, victory seems imminent. Professor Cristaldi, a descendant of the magician, is warned about Dracula’s plans and calls upon Santo and Blue Demon in the hopes that they can defeat the infamous Count and the werewolf once and for all.
Saturday, September 12
Director: Miguel M. Delgado
Starring: El Santo, Blue Demon, Aldo Monti
Runtime: 90 min.
Language: Spanish w/ English subtitles
THE PANTHER WOMEN 1967
To resurrect the leader of their cult, the Panther women practice blood sacrifices and fight up and down the ring. They soon find someone who thwarts their schemes through brawls and pursuits. As eccentric as the wrestling that he puts up on screen, with characters and stories that escape all definition, René Cardona’s film is an amusing mix of the best Mexican B-movies of the Sixties — where masked wrestlers, occult rituals, and Gothic Mexican chills collide in pure pulp delight.
Restoration from the original camera negative from Permanencia Voluntaria Film Archive. With the support of: FOCINE/ IMCINE, Cinema Preservation Alliance, Filmoteca de la UNAM, the Academy Film Archive, Paso Del Norte Foundation, Friends From the Archive. Restoration supervisors Viviana García Besné/ Peter Conheim. (Roxy)
Thursday, September 24
Director: Rene Cardona
Starring: Ariadna Welter, Elizabeth Campbell, Yolanda Montes 'Tongolele'
Runtime: 87 min.
Language: Spanish w/ English subtitles