God Rock Radio #188 – Mexican Horror Films Vol#2 (1960-1975)

In part 2 , noted film historian and lover of genre movies Jack “The Agnostic” Garcia continues his epic definite study on Classic Mexican  horror cinema. This time out covering 27 films produced and released between 1960 – 1975.  As the 1960’s dawned the Mexican Gothic flavored horror film would reach its zenith with such movies as director Chano Uretta’s El Espejo de la Bruja (The Witches Mirror) and El Baron del Terror (The Brainiac) managing to achieve a weirdly perverse sublime surrealist splendor on very limited shoe-string budgets. Never the less , Mexican horror cinema world soon lose its dominance over the Latin  American market as Argentina and Brazil begin to craft notable contributions to the genre and Southern European filmmakers from Italy, Portugal and Spain release highly sophisticated psychopathic horror movies which depicted acts of brutality , murder, incest , cannibalism and sacrilege. Mexican horror films would drift away from the classic gothic style and kinky subgenres would begin to proliferate.  A cycle of highly popular films (1962-1973) devoted to the exploits of  wrestler/superheros who not only fight in the ring but also battle supernatural evil.  Characters like Santo, The Blue Demon and The Wrestling Women.   The wrestling superhero cycle at first would be designed for younger audiences but would transform into adult sexploitation epics that reveled in lots of nudity , sex and graphic violence.  Last but not least , Jack examines the brief but brilliant gothic horror revival as a  new wave of Mexican filmmakers , like director Juan Lopez Moctezuma (Alucarda / 1975) reach a new level of  nightmarish absurdity and supernatural intensity.

Nine tracks hit forward to advance.