If all of the Mexican horror movies you’ve seen featured masked wrestlers, this gothic vampire tale will be a big change of pace. Patterned on the classic Universal horror films, El Vampiro is a worthy successor.
Tagline: “The undead awaken after 200 years”
WTF Factor: ** One extra star for bats that sound like seagulls
Notable Comment:
Enrique: “Come on, keep crying. Don’t worry about me. Tears make women more pretty.”
Synopsis: We open with a caped man in the courtyard of a hacienda. He turns into a bat and flies into an upstairs window, where he puts the bite on a woman under the credits.
A train rolls into the Sierra Negra station, in the middle of nowhere. It disgorges a helpfully labeled box of dirt from Hungary, addressed to Sr. Duval, as well as a passenger, a young woman, Marta Gonzales (Ariadna Welter) headed to The Sycamores. Her uncle won’t be able to pick her up until tomorrow, though. At the station she meets Enrique (Abel Salazar), who hasn’t had any luck getting a ride either. It seems everyone is afraid to leave their house after dark. A wagon shows up to pick up the box. The stationmaster says that Sr. Duval wears a cape and only comes out at night. [Hmmm.] Enrique convinces the wagon driver to take Marta to the Sycamores and he tags along.
We now see a funeral procession from the hacienda.
Suddenly a woman in black appears through the closed door and heads in the other direction. They take the coffin into a crypt, where we see the marker plaque for a Count Lavud, prompting the sign of the cross from the servants Maria (Mercedes Soler) and Anselmo (José Chávez). After one last look at the woman’s corpse, the coffin is sealed into a niche with concrete. Marie looks at a note she retrieved from the body.
The wagon driver drops off his passengers far from the Sycamores; luckily Marta knows the way. As they walk, the woman in black follows them. Enrique and Marta become acquainted; Marta has been summoned by her uncle to visit her sick aunt Maria Teresa, who raised her. Marta remembers the hacienda as a bright and happy place, but it’s now broken down and gloomy. Anselmo says they can’t find any servants.
The woman in black, who enters the hacienda in the form of a bat, is Marta’s elderly aunt Eloise, although she appears young and beautiful. It was Maria Teresa’s funeral we saw earlier. Marta’s Uncle Emilio (José Luis Jiménez) invites Enrique to stay since there are no hotels in the area. Eloise coldly explains that Maria Teresa died of a heart attack after five years of “persecutory delusions” about vampires. We see a book shifting on the shelf. After the women leave, it turns out that Enrique was secretly summoned by the uncle.
Down the road, vampire Duval (Germán Robles) rises from his coffin. The box of soil arrives, and it is indeed carrying a coffin.
Duval: “And he will come to life again, my brother Count Karol Lavud, buried by his enemies, who put an end to his immortality in this unworthy crypt.”
They will take the soil and revive Lavud on the hundredth anniversary of his death. On the road, Duval stops to put the bite on a child walking in the woods.
Eloise tells Marta that she is now part owner of the Sycamores. There is a potential buyer and Eloise wants to sell, with Marta’s help. Marta realizes that Eloise has no reflection in the mirror. Nothing suspicious about that, she concludes.
Duval stops by to offer his condolences. Enrique challenges him on the box of soil, which Duval says he will use to plant roses. That same book shifts and falls from the shelf. It’s an old manuscript describing the murder of Lavud. Duval concedes that he is related to Lavud [callback to Son of Dracula (1943)]. He turns out to be the prospective buyer of the Sycamores.
Enrique questions Maria about Maria Teresa’s delusions. Maria says she wasn’t crazy; the beliefs are true. About 100 years ago there were several deaths attributed to a vampire, who was killed with a stake through the heart. Now the same type of deaths are happening again, from another vampire. If the vampire bites someone twice, the victim becomes one of the undead.
That night Enrique is reading the book when he hears a woman singing. Then he hears Marta crying and goes to her. He jokes about crying every day at breakfast, which she finds amusing. He flirts with her, and she’s into it. He’s doing okay, in a goofy way, until:
Enrique: “Lock your door from inside.”
Marta: “Why?”
Enrique: “Because I’m a sleepwalker.” [Eww]
Apparently she thinks that’s cute [she really doesn’t seem too bright]. She doesn’t lock her door, either. After she falls asleep, a hidden door opens and Maria Teresa (Alicia Montoya) comes in. She lays a cross beside Marta and flees.
While Enrique sleeps, Eloise materializes in his room. She searches his luggage and finds a medical bag. Eloise reports this to Duval, who isn’t concerned. He plans to make Marta one of them.
Duval: “She’ll be thirsty of her own blood, searching for it uselessly night after night…It’s our fate…because we’re still in that strange bridge between the end of life and the beginning of death.”
As a bat, he flies into Marta’s room, but is repelled by the cross. Unfortunately Marta brushes the cross aside in her sleep and the plan is back on. He bites Marta in her sleep.
The next morning Enrique is ready to leave. He runs into Marta, who has two large, visible puncture wounds on her neck, but he doesn’t notice. Marta tells him about her childhood, when her aunt Maria Teresa used to sing a special lullaby. It’s the same song Enrique heard last night, but Marta says that’s impossible. Enrique opens up Marta’s childhood bedroom, which is full of cobwebs and dust. He insists that Marta take a look, but when she opens the door, she sees Maria Teresa. Much screaming ensues.
It turns out that Uncle Emilio summoned Enrique to diagnose Maria Teresa and determine if she was insane. Emilio begs him to stay and look after Marta. Eloise visits Marta and once again, Marta sees that she has no reflection; this time it registers. Eloise realizes she’s been caught and tells Duval, who has arrived for a visit. When he meets Marta, she realizes he is the man in her nightmare last night. She begs Enrique not to leave.
Eloise drugs Marta’s drink, while Enrique recounts the legend he read that when a vampire does not rest alone, a relative will show up for revenge. Marta collapses and Enrique declares her dead.
Turns out she’s not dead yet. Emilio realizes that Maria Teresa’s symptoms were identical and she might have been entombed alive. They open the tomb and the coffin is empty. Maria reveals Maria Teresa’s note:
“I’m not dead. Get me out of here and take me to the tunnel behind the cross.”
And so Marie and Anselmo did. They reveal the secret tunnel and take Enrique and Emilio to Maria Teresa, who says Duval and Eloise are vampires who poisoned her so she would be buried alive. Enrique looks at Lavud’s crypt with a mirror and figures out what the rest of us knew; Duval is a relative [he already said that].
Of course, during all of this, they left Marta alone, and she wakes to see Duval at the end of her bed. He wrestles her, with much screaming [why doesn’t he go ahead and bite her the second time?], and carries her off. Enrique pursues them through the secret passage, while Eloise attacks and bites Emilio. Eloise then stalks Enrique, until Maria Teresa attacks her.
Duval brings Marta to his basement, where he prepares for the final bite. Enrique arrives and Duval attacks him with a sword [??]. Maria Teresa strangles [??] Eloise. Enrique’s torch lights a curtain and we hear the cock crow. Duval runs and Enrique punches out his two servants while the room goes up in flames. Duval makes it to his coffin, but Maria Teresa stakes him, which awakens Marta.
Enrique whisks Marta to safety as Eloise ages and turns to a skeleton. Duval’s coffin burns.
The next day, Enrique is leaving on the train. He tells Marta something inaudible as the train whistle sounds, and then he stays behind with Marta. The End (until the sequel).
Thoughts: This was the first in a series of Universal-inspired horror movies produced by Abel Salazar (Enrique) in the late 1950s-early 1960s. Salazar took a starring role in several, including a personal favorite, El Baron del Terror, better known to English speakers as The Brainiac (1961). El Vampiro was directed by the prolific Fernando Méndez, whose work from 1957-1961 included quite a few gothic-style horror movies. El Vampiro was successful enough in its initial release that production of the sequel, El Ataúd del Vampiro (The Vampire’s Coffin, 1958) began while El Vampiro was still in theaters. The sequel, which including the same three leads, writer, and director, was not as interesting as the original, but still worth a look.
The U.S. distribution rights to El Vampiro were purchased by the notorious K. Gordon Murray, who was largely responsible for the influx of Mexican horror movies into the U.S. in the 1960s. Aside from the typically atrocious dubbing, Murray doesn’t seem to have made many changes to this movie, although Paul Nagle is credited as the co-director for the U.S. version. I was lucky enough to obtain the Casa Negra DVD release, which includes the original version of the movie, with sparse English subtitles. Murray released El Vampiro to U.S. television in 1964 and later, U.S theaters in 1968, on a double bill with The Curse of the Doll People (Muñecos Infernales, 1961).
The plot of the movie takes some liberties with traditional vampire lore, but this works within the movie. While it is no mystery who the vampire is, the opening scene is genuinely chilling, at least until the rubber bat comes out. The moviemakers play with our expectations for the character of Maria Teresa. We anticipate seeing her rise from the grave, and indeed she does return, but still clutching her crucifix and attempting to protect Marta. It isn’t clear what Eloise is; Duval indicates that she is undead and she exhibits vampiric powers, but Maria Teresa overcomes her by strangling, which doesn’t seem likely for an actual vampire.
The performances in El Vampiro get the job done. Abel Salazar plays a version of his slightly bumbling hero in multiple movies, and he greatly benefits here from subtitles rather than the goofy dubbed voice he usually gets. This was Germán Robles’ first movie role; Salazar originally hired someone else for the vampire, but then realized he needed an unknown actor to bring out the mystery in the plot. Robles is a convincing vampire, although he is no Lee or Lugosi.
The real stars of this production are the cinematographer, Rosalio Solano, and the set dressers. The moody black and white photography is an essential part of the movie’s charm, and the constant outdoor mists are evocative of horror. They spared no expense on cobwebs for the interior sets, either. Everything looks suitably old and worn out. The only visual aspect that lets the moviemakers down is the use of flagrantly rubber bats on highly visible wires; it seems unlikely that they even tried to erase those wires and you can see them in set-up shots as well.
This movie is worth a look, especially if you can find a subtitled version. If you enjoy the atmosphere of the old Universal horrors, you should find El Vampiro to your tastes as well.
Quick bits:
- Not to be confused with The Vampire (also 1957), an American non-Gothic starring John Beal as a “scientific” vampire.
- “Duval” was one of the first on-screen vampires to sport elongated fangs, a year before Christopher Lee set the modern standard.
Suggested double feature: Universal’s Dracula (1931) makes an interesting comparison.
Tagline for Coming Attraction: “…can you face the ULTIMATE in DIABOLISM!…can you face PURE TERROR!”
