Starring Miroslava, Carlos Navarro, Jose Maria Linares-Rivas, Fernando Wagner, Alberto Mariscal
Directed by Chano Urueta
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)
A brilliant plastic surgeon, tormented by the scorn of others due to his disfigured face, is on the verge of a violent revenge, but a lady reporter hopes to steer him from that dark path.
This early Mexican horror film borrows elements from past pictures, but really has a tale to tell all it's own, primarily showcasing Linares-Rivas as the mad doctor Herrmann Ling, and not the creatures he's experimented on. The actor who appears to us with his face covered in the early going has an impressive makeup that is definitely shocking in the film's reveal, and has lengthy bits of dialogue in a refined but haunted voice that go into painting the story of his psychosis that are well scripted. Miroslava is the catalyst for the story, and plays her part well as a bored reporter urged by her editor to look into Ling's interestingly worded personal ad for female companionship. Urueta and his crew provide worthy dark atmosphere for the tale, from the oddly placed wax figures in the doctor's home, to Victor Herrera's shadowy photography, and Raul Lavista's misterioso music score. I found it to be a very worthwhile film, one that is credited by authors I've read with setting the standard for the Mexican horror movies to follow. The film can be found under many different titles- El Monstruo Resucitado, or The Resurrected Monster, was its original but it's also been called The Monstrous Dr. Crimen, and also simply just Monster, which was the title I found it under.
No comments:
Post a Comment