Day 5-El ataúd del Vampiro/Ju-on 1

Casa Negra really floored a lot of classic horror fans when they released a series of Mexican gothic horror films during their unfortunately short-lived existence (if ever the death of a dvd company left many of us in mourning, this was the case) in the mid 2000s. The likes of Curse of the Crying Woman, The Black Pit of Dr. M & (my favorite) The Witch’s Mirror were getting dvd releases and surprising many of us gothic horror fans with their own takes on the Monsters from Universal, putting their own spin on those movies that inspired them. I think I remember playing Black Pit of Dr. M during one of my Octobers in the past, but I definitely wanted to include a number of Casa Negra titles in this October’s watch list. The first to make October is the El ataúd del Vampiro, a sequel to the successful El Vampiro. For whatever reason, I seemed to have found El ataúd del Vampiro mediocre the first time (my review on the imdb was given a 6/10), but not this viewing. I thought it was a rewarding experience. The B&W photography, and glorious use of night and shadow (one extraordinary sequence has Count Lavud chasing a potential victim down an alley, his shadow actually proceeding him, damn near engulfing her), are of such beauty, I was sometimes taken aback. I think the most surprising part was the use of humor, like when the film’s heroic doctor, Dr. Enrique Saldívar (Abel Salazar), is concerned for Marta (Ariadna Welter), and he’s in the pose of the Thinking Man statue, with that very statue a few feet from him, or when he goes to the hospital director with news of the vampire’s removal from his tomb, and the casket’s placement in Room #14 (and vampire’s eventual disappearance, and danger to others), only to have no evidence at all to corroborate his incredible revelation. Germán Robles’ casting is also fitting for the part. He’s got that perfect mix of handsome and menace; very aristocratic, forceful, and determined, Count Lavud is of the right breeding to follow in the footsteps of Lugosi, often his Count Dracula the model for the caped, debonair vampire. Some of the goods I find irresistible are here: a wax museum with a basement that holds the count’s casket, the bat (representing the Count in animal form) with visible wire sometimes noticeable up close to the screen, the use of hypnotism to gain advantage over victims, the great chase where the count captures his quarry and attempts to make her his bride with her savior having to fend off a henchman (this is a wonderful moment because it occurs in a theater high up into a scaffold, with these long ladders reaching upward and these long stairs on the outside of the stage leading down to the street), the dramatic use of props like a guillotine and Virgin of Nuremberg (the guillotine is used as a suspense device with an unconscious Marta’s head laid in the position where the blade could fall at any moment, the blade’s rope starting to untwine; the Iron Maiden is used to kill an old nemesis of the Count’s, with her screams as it is closed on her (she was hiding in it!!!) quite horrifying), and up close shots of those pearly white fangs as Robles prepares to take a bite.

 

 There’s good use of Yerye Beirute as Barraza, a hired wax museum body guard, a long-term crook and brute who helps Dr. Enrique’s colleague, Dr. Mendoza (Guillermo Orea) retrieve the casket of the vampire, taking it, despite resistance from a “guardian of the tomb”, María Teresa (Alicia Montoya), to the hospital. Mendoza wanted to study the vampire for scientific purposes while Barraza wanted plenty of pesos for his involvement. So Mendoza is responsible—look, I have to admit that this is a preposterous storyline method to free the vampire, but any way to get him out of that crypt would have been far-fetched—and pays for it, but Barraza is the chief reason Count Lavud was roaming the streets just because he wanted that amulet around the vampire’s neck! Removing the stake keeping the amulet from his possession releases Lavud and allows Barraza to become his servant. So the plot is set and all the rest is the skills of the filmmakers telling their story in way that magnifies the basic tenants of the origin vampire story set in Dracula when it was released by Universal in ’31.

The first Asian horror film to make October is coming up for me in a matter of minutes as I once again pop in one of my favorite horror films of the last twenty years, Ju-on. Looking forward to seeing Shimizu's version unaltered or disrupted by American hands.
---

You know what is neat about first experiences is sometimes they come when you least expect them. I thought I had downloaded a copy of Ju-on (which is actually the “third” film in the Japanese Curse series, the first directed by one of my favorite Japanese directors, Takashi Shimizu), but in actuality I acquired the 2000 first film of the series! This was especially exciting as I started to watch it and noticed that while there are aspects that are familiar (and applied to the American remake), this was a totally different film that what I expected. I currently own the VHS copy of Ju-on (so I will settle on just watching that one later), and was in a hurry to get access to Shimizu’s film so I downloaded a copy  I thought was his, but instead, much to my delight, it was the Ju-on 1. I think the 2000 film may not be what the doc prescribed for some Grudge fans. It is more than a little glacial in its pace, but there were some genuine moments of horror (some great images of ghouls, with blood applied perfectly to indicate gruesome events) that more than compensate (or did for me).

As is well known with the Japanese Ju-on movies, there’s a chapter method devised to explain those “infected” by the grudge curse. In Ju-on 1, this could be considered the “beginnings”, with the storytelling still done in non-linear, back-and-forth-through-time form.

You have the teacher Kobayashi (Yûrei Yanagi) concerned for his student, Toshio (Ryôta Koyama), going to the child’s home after a devastating murder had occurred. While Toshio seems to be badly beaten, he still appears to be alive. Kobayashi remains there. The whole time, Toshio’s mother is dead and stuffed in an attic upstairs. Other characters include the current residents of the house after the events that caused the grudge to start with, a student (…who dated the teen boy living in the cursed house waiting at a teacher’s command) in the school, and a tutor the daughter in the current family about to be visited upon by Kayako and her rage. Also turning up is the husband who murdered Kayako and heinously (in his madness) cuts the baby of Kobayashi from the wound of its mother! All the usual suspects are here: Toshio opens his mouth and a cat meow sets off, an unfortunate peek up in the attic reveals Kayako approaching her (with hair eventually splitting and that freaky face emerging), the ravaged, crumbled corpse of a bloody victim (there’s always an example of what Kayako does to a victim, even if they are a ghoul as she is) of Kayako’s shows up (in this case, without a jaw and turning around to show mama the last remnants of a daughter once alive and well), and the cops are shown (here, briefly) observing the damage by the grudge curse. The film leaves an open ending setting up the next film with a sensitive asked by her realtor brother to “feel out” the cursed house so he can try and sell it; its notoriety has been an eyesore on the market, but she knows something’s bad wrong with that home. A family moves in and the sensitive sees that already the curse has taken its hold.

The budget is at its lowest (it does look like a film made for direct-to-video), and it’s obvious that those involved in the special effects had to work with limited resources and a lot of imagination. I think that is why the film had to gradually build scenes absent special effects, and then give us individual pay-offs per chapter. While I think Shimizu’s film is far superior, it was cool to see the series at its start prior to the explosion in popularity soon to result. I think what is sad is how far the concept and series would fall by the time the American sequels polluted the power once begun by the Japanese in 2000.
---