El Vampiro (1957)
Directed by Fernando Méndez
Starring Abel Salazar, Ariadna Welter, Carmen Montejo, José Luis Jiménez, Mercedes Soler, Germán Robles

One of the things that I am always trying to promote here on the Krypt is to Discover the Horror, meaning always seeking out films that might be outside of your vision. Whether its older films or ones made in different parts of the world, you never know when you’re going to come across a great piece of cinema, no matter when and where it was made. And one of the reasons I’m always waving that flag is that I want people to learn from my mistakes. I wasn’t always like that, but would be happier to stay inside my little comfort zone. So many years ago, when I was a younger and dumber horror fan, I resisted any other horror sub-genre. My reasoning back then was that there was already too many of the regular titles that I hadn’t seen, so I didn’t want to add to that ever growing list. Thankfully a friend of mine, went against my wishes and sent me a few tapes with some of the Mexican horror movies from the 50’s, such as The Bloody Vampire and Curse of the Crying Woman. And after watching them, not only was I hooked, but I also started to see the errors of my way. Thanks Monster Mark! With so much great stuff out there, from all different countries, you really don’t want to limit yourself. You will miss a lot. Trust me.

So once I became a devoted fan of the Mexican horror cinema, I sought out whatever titles I could find. The one of the first of these films was El Vampiro (aka The Vampire). Like most of the Mexican monsters movies, this film just drowns you in atmosphere. From a couple walking down the lonely and deserted road, with fog swilling about, to the creaking as the coffin lid slowly opens up to unleash the evil vampire, atmosphere is what these movies are all about. And they really knew how to do it well too!

The main man responsible for a lot of these was Abel Salazar. He produced and starred in most of the terror titles that came out in the late 50’s to early 60’s. Another actor, Carlos López Moctezuma, a more well known actor, was originally to play the vampire. But producer Salazar remembered that the actors that made the Universal monster classics were all unknown actors. So releasing Moctezuma from his contact, he found a local stage actor that fit the part. That would be Germán Robles, who would wear the cape and bare the fangs (maybe being the first screen vampire to have fangs?) a year before Hammer made Christopher Lee the King of Vampires. Robles does an exceptional job as the Count Lavud, giving a strong and charismatic performance here and it is a shame that he isn’t spoken in the same conversations as Lugosi and Lee.

In this film, the Count comes to a small Mexican village to revive his dead brother. Seducing the owner of the house under where his dead brother is buried in the crypt, his plans seems foolproof, especially after the death of the woman’s sister, who was deeply religious and understood the evil afoot. Arriving with the niece is doctor who is secretly there to investigate the strange things that have been going on. Did I mention this film has a lot of style and atmosphere?

Director Méndez would go on to direct the sequel , called El ataúd del Vampiro (aka The Vampire’s Coffin), as well as another Mexican horror classic in 1959, Misterios de ultratumba (The Black Pit of Dr. M). He was a well crafted filmmaker that really made his films moody and creepy, something that is essential to these kind of genre films.

For fans that want to get into these early Mexican horror films, this is a great place to start.  If you are a fan of the old Universal films of the 30’s, you can’t miss with this one, or the many other Mexican horror films of that time. And make sure you watch them with the original Spanish language with the subtitles. You really can lose something with the dubbing. Thankfully, these have been released on DVD in beautiful editions, where you can do just that.