After the large success of the Indicator Mexico Macabre field set, comes the extremely anticipated El Vampiro: Two Bloodsucking Tales from Mexico set. The El Vampiro: Two Bloodsucking Tales from Mexico field set options the long-lasting and beloved basic that kicked off Mexico’s Golden Age of Horror, the 1957 El Vampiro and its sequel, the 1958 The Vampire’s Coffin. El Vampiro follows Marta (Ariadna Welter), a younger girl who returns to her ancestral residence, solely to find the disturbing tales of vampires plaguing the village and her household. In The Vampire’s Coffin, the vampire Rely Lavud (Germán Robles) pursues Marta at any value.
Field set Producer Abraham Castillo Flores is a movie curator and movie historian identified for his intensive information of Mexican style cinema, most notably horror. He has introduced Mexican horror cinema internationally, together with the 2022 Academy Museum sequence Mexican Maleficarum which highlighted the long-lasting classics of Mexican gothic horror cinema. Castillo Flores shares with us the response to Mexico Macabre, how fellow field set producer Nora Mehenni introduced the phrases of the Vampiro to life, connecting Latino tradition to the vampire delusion, and why these movies are so vital.
What was the response to the earlier field set, the Mexico Macabre?
Castillo Flores: Mexico Macabre was, I am very comfortable to say, a hit. They’re not accessible as a result of they ran out of them. In order that’s an excellent signal of its success. And it ended up in fairly a couple of best-of-the-year lists. I’m very, very pleased with that. I believe we did actually good work. However I additionally discovered that individuals have been certainly very and curious to see what Mexican cinema might provide, particularly the horror style from the twentieth century. That there is starvation for extra. So, I’m very excited by that.
Although the field is bought out, Indicator put them out as single discs, so now you will discover every of the films with all of the particular options. The one factor that isn’t accessible anymore, sadly, is all of them along with the booklet. However we’re very comfortable to push ahead with this second field set from the Alameda Movies vault.
What impressed the characteristic highlighting each the lives and careers of the women of El Vampiro?
Castillo Flores: In one of many particular options, it is me speaking at size in regards to the story of Carmen Montejo, Alicia Montoya, and Ariadna Welter, the women of El Vampiro. We thought it was necessary to share their tales. To begin with, every of those three girls left an necessary imprint in Mexican movie historical past. Remembering their movie work and legacy is necessary. Plus, Carmen Montejo performs the primary Mexican feminine vampire in Mexican cinema historical past. She’s necessary simply due to that. And on prime of that she has a outstanding life story, which has not been talked about sufficient within the English-speaking dimension.
At Filmoteca UNAM, one of many key movie archives right here in Mexico, they’ve a good looking bronze bust of Carmen Montejo. If you go there to do analysis, she’s there within the nook subsequent to a crimson couch, taking a look at you. So, I’ve gone rather a lot to that archive, and I might watch her and generally it felt as [if] she was wanting again. I requested Antonia Rojas, head of the Centro de Documentacion at Filmoteca UNAM, in regards to the bust of Carmen. She instructed me the superb story of the way it got here to be.
All of it clicked; it was evident, “It is ridiculous to work within the Vampiro field set and never embody Carmen´s life story, which incorporates the story of her bust at Filmoteca.” I shared all of this with Nora Mehenni, the superb co-producer of this field set at Indicator. She heard Carmen´s story, noticed her photos and movies, and she or he was completely satisfied. Then all of it turned a query on easy methods to embody that life story into the framework of the particular options.
We have been thrilled to have been capable of chat with some very particular folks. You begin interviewing them and also you get entry to marvelous tales and superb anecdotes that have to be recorded. For instance: Claudia Salazar Arenas and Rosa Salazar Arenas, daughters of actor/producer/director Abel Salazar, shared illuminating and candid tales of his father who was a chic and dashing, force-of-nature kind particular person throughout the Mexican movie business.
Elisa Lozano, an excellent curator and movie historian, delved into the life and work of Gunther Gerzso, the manufacturing designer for the 2 movies within the field set, who managed to craft by his lifetime a prolific output in two completely different actions: movie manufacturing designer and summary painter.
Juan Ramón Obón, the son of the author of the movies, Ramón Obón. He had wild and epic tales about his father and the movie business of his time that I had by no means heard or learn. I used to be very excited as a result of this man’s additionally a screenwriter. He is an leisure lawyer, so he additionally has very explicit imaginative and prescient of what present enterprise is, and what it takes to carry tales to life.
Conversations with all these unimaginable people have been a very illuminating expertise for me. So, to have the ability to share these conversations right now with all those that purchase the field set brings me immense delight.
You had an interview with Roberto Coria in regards to the vampire delusion and Mexican horror. How necessary is that connection?
Castillo Flores: Roberto Coria will not be solely a really expensive pal, however he is one of the necessary horror specialists in Mexico. His work has notably centered on vampires throughout the literary and cinema dimensions. However on prime of that, he was pal of Germán Robles, the very actor who performed Rely Lavud in El Vampiro. I knew he had nice anecdotes to share about Germán Robles and insightful views about vampiric fiction and lore. Many horror movies had been performed in Mexico earlier than El Vampiro however its roaring success unleashed a frenzy in Mexican horror movie manufacturing that formed nationwide cinema legends which can be nonetheless lively right now.
El Vampiro has audio commentary from Robles himself. How did that occur?
Castillo Flores: That individual commentary is the brainchild of Daniel Birman Ripstein, who launched the film on residence video right here in Mexico, and stated, “Germán Robles continues to be with us. We gotta get a commentary.” And so Mr. Birman Ripstein organized the recording of the commentary. He’s a person of imaginative and prescient. And this version, I believe, if I am not mistaken, got here out in 2007 in DVD. So, once we have been getting ready the supplies and checking over issues final 12 months on the places of work of Alameda, and we’re checking the supplies. Mr. Birman Ripstein out of the blue stated, “We’ve this asset.” Everybody was like, “Woah!”
It’s a must to think about, usually, audio commentaries are by no means in Spanish, as a result of they’re audio commentaries, plus all the additional work that entails. On that observe, I’ve to say, additionally [a] mega loud applause for Nora Mehenni, who together with every part else that the field set entailed, supervised all of the subtitling for that commentary. It was like a piece of affection as a result of she was the primary one who stated, “We have to have Rely Lavud´s voice.” She actually made Rely Lavud speak in English. In order that´s the place that commentary got here from.
What’s your favourite scene in El Vampiro?
Castillo Flores: I’ve fairly a couple of. Okay, let’s focus on two moments. There is a second when Carmen Montero, the feminine vampire walks by the hallways of Los Sicomoros after Rely Lavud leaves. And there is like a pushing in her and there is the fog and she or he simply offers out a devilish stare. It is a kind of moments the place it is the sound, it is the music, it is the place the digital camera goes, the set, the actors — every part simply goes in and exhibits you. Uncut cinema magic. It is nonetheless thrilling to me. Like, I inform you about it, and I get excited. I am like, “Sure, that is Mexican horror cinema.” I nonetheless scream once I see it on cinema. I get very enthusiastic about it.
Additionally, there’s the second when Tia Teresa [Alicia Montoya] is strangling Tia Eloisa [Carmen Montejo]. The fashion that she emotes is SO intense, I really feel we might write a e-book on it. As a result of she’s just like the Catholic saintly girl that was going loopy as a result of nobody believed her in regards to the vampire. After which, when she faces her sister, who has now was a vampire, she’s strangling her with this homicidal rage. She loses it. She is focusing her homicidal rage on her sister who continues to be younger as a result of she was a vampire. And the viewers loves her for it.
However: You can not kill a vampire by strangling. You may’t. It is best to drive a stake by the guts. She does not. It breaks the mythos. Nevertheless it’s so uncooked, in that second that you just’re like, okay, she strangled the vampire. So, I really like that even when there’s leaping movie logic, it is so emotional and uncooked that you just type of do not query it. At the least not instantly.
This film has a lot ardour throughout it, and you will discover it in so many locations. It left a deep imprint that we will nonetheless discuss doing issues passionately, just like the strangling or the units, the best way they characters speak, and naturally the fangs of the vampire. This was one thing that director Fernando Mendez stated, “Un Vampiro cachondo [the horny vampire]”. That was very a lot the factor he had. The central factor of, I am gonna eat you up with my eyes and I need to drink your blood. I need to take your land. It is voracious and it is the Fifties. However there’s an innuendo and a deep sexual undertone. I actually suppose that is a part of what additionally made the film particular.
And for The Vampire’s Coffin, what’s your favourite scene in that film?
Castillo Flores: There is a beautiful episode inside a lounge. Enrique [Abel Salazar] is so nervous as a result of he desires to speak to Marta in regards to the vampire, and the vampire is exterior, and he is hypnotizing her. They usually minimize backwards and forwards to that. After which they do these pictures with the chandelier and the vampire´s medallion after which his eyes. They shuttle, they usually’re tremendous intense.
And I really like that second, these moments of depth for the characters. Marta is dropping management of herself. She has been taken over by the thoughts of Lavud. She desires to say one thing, however the vampire is now in management. Enrique and Marta are in love, however then there’s a vampire proper within the center. To me, it turns into a really sensual and romantic gothic factor. I discover it very intoxicating.
Why do you’re feeling it is necessary to protect and launch these two movies?
Castillo Flores: This movie has the credit score of being a pillar in Mexican cinema, not solely as a result of it is probably the most identified exterior of Mexico Metropolis and Mexico as a rustic. It was just like the one which spearheaded Mexican horror cinema to worldwide audiences.
You talked about earlier than that this [movie] was one 12 months earlier than the Dracula by Hammer. Christopher Lee mentions that he had seen this movie. He noticed what Germán Robles did earlier than he turned Dracula. So, sure, there may be an affect. We should always keep in mind, that is solely the third movie on the planet to characteristic vampires with fangs. The primary one was Nosferatu in 1922 and the second, Dracula in Istanbul in 1953. Bela Lugosi‘s vampire by no means confirmed pointy fangs.
, some American lecturers take into account El Vampiro because the bridge between the Common and Hammer. So, you understand, it is large, and a number of specialised press on the time took discover. One of many stunning issues that we did for this booklet of El Vampiro is to characteristic the mentions in numerous journals or cinema magazines about El Vampiro within the late Fifties. It was stunning to seek out, learn, and now reproduce all these reactions for right now´s audiences to find. Rely Lavud, the Mexican Vampire is definitely performed by a Spanish actor. It’s even talked about that the Lavud vampires come initially from Hungary. The Jap European previous and Dracula are acknowledged.
However we’ve to keep in mind that vampire bat is an precise species that’s indigenous to Latin America. Vampires are from South America. And the primary tales of blood-sucking creatures went again to Europe by way of the chronicles for the conquistadores and Alexander von Humboldt. Little by little these chronicles cross-pollinated with Jap European folklore. So, all these tales, ideas, and beliefs had already blended and unfold round when Bram Stoker dipped into that folklore and got here up together with his personal model of the mythos for Dracula. So as soon as once more, the tales of far lands went there, got here again, acquired repurposed and thrown out, after which the Mexicans got here and we gave their very own model of the story as soon as once more.
And I believe that is why it is necessary that these movies attain new audiences and generate a brand new chapter of their life cycle by the years. The movies are actually 67 years outdated and they’re of their prime. Effectively, one of many benefits of vampirism.
If you watch the Blu-ray, the tales behind the filmmaking and solid and crew from this movie, it’s a must to keep in mind we are literally resurrecting the tales of all of those people who are actually gone. We’re remembering and celebrating the legacy of a really explicit movie business. Individuals ought to keep in mind not every part is Hollywood. I do not say this in a foul means, however there’s movie industries from everywhere in the world who’ve completely different heroes, villains, and have their very own mythologies. And I believe it is thrilling that individuals get a style of what that was like by boxsets like this.
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El Vampiro: Two Bloodsucking Tales from Mexico is now accessible from Indicator and different on-line retailers: https://www.powerhousefilms.co.uk/merchandise/el-vampiro-two-bloodsucking-tales-from-mexico-le
To comply with Abraham Castillo Flores on Instagram, go to: https://www.instagram.com/aullidos_panteoneros/
