Hasta El Viento Fiene Miedo (1967)
‘Hasta el viento tiene miedo’ is a supremely atmospheric gothic horror from the Mexican maesrtro of understated chills, Carlos Enrique Taboada. Here he takes a prosaic plot, the haunting of a all-girls school and turns it into high cinematic art. To my shame I was, until recently, entirely unaware of Taboada’s genre cinema, and it becomes apparent fairly switly that he is a true master of horror; the opening gambit of ‘Hasta el viento tiene miedo’ is creepy, subtle and shows a great mastery of camera that brings to mind the visionary genius of, Mario Bava. This is a genuinely unnerving ghost story that has you in its icy grip from its bravura first act to the heart-pounding, ectoplasmic dénouement. ‘Hasta el viento tiene miedo’ is clearly an important work, whose chilling gothic moitifs rivals that of ‘Black Sunday’, ‘N.O.T.L.D’, and ‘Carnival of Souls’, and it remains a profound injustice to genre cineastes everywhere that Taboada’s majestic, penetrating visions of fear aren’t more recognized for the landmark films that they so clearly are.
Tags: Reviews