The Curse Of The Crying Woman

AKA La Maldición De La Llorona / La Casa Embrujada

Director: Rafael Baledón

We are heading back over to Mexico this week, and hopefully we’ll see whether this film is proof that Trump shouldn’t build a wall.

“The Curse Of The Crying Woman” was released in 1963 and directed by Rafael Baledón. Baledón’s career as a director saw him helm almost a hundred films. He was also a regular presence in front of the camera as well as behind it having starred in almost as many films as an actor.

As I have stated before, my knowledge of Mexican horror films is limited, but if “The Curse Of The Crying Woman” is anything to go by, then I feel like I need invest in some more because this is movie is a charming little flick with plenty to enjoy.

The film opens on a horse drawn carriage, transporting two brothers and a young girl through a forest at night time. One of the brothers seems to find himself utterly hilarious and laughs after everything he says, regardless of if it is actually funny, but we’ve all met someone like that before, haven’t we. I suspect the original Spanish dialogue may have been funnier and something was lost in translation when dubbed in English.

The trio are discussing that something doesn’t feel right as they pass through the forest and one of the brothers begins telling a tale about a murderous fiend that attacks people as they pass through this very forest.

Suddenly, the horseman halts the carriage as the pathway is blocked by a creepy and crippled old man, Fred (played by Carlos López Moctezuma) and a mysterious woman, Selma (played by Rita Macedo), with dark sunken eyes and her three dobermans. Without any hesitation, the old man throws a knife at the horseman, killing him instantly. One of the brothers leaves the carriage to see what is going on, only to be strangled by the old man.

The young girl and the other man also depart the carriage and, upon seeing the mysterious woman, the young girl faints and the brother tries to flee, only to be caught by the rampaging beasts. I say “rampaging beasts” to be dramatic, because actually they seem like pretty social dogs, but more on that later.

Selma and Fred seem to take great pleasure in looking at the carnage they have created and to make sure there are no loose ends, the old man picks up a stick and hits the horses on the bottom with it, causing them to gallop forward to run over and crush the unconscious young girl. Cue credits and some lovely spooky music!

In the next scene, some policeman on horseback arrive at a large house (or castle maybe?) belonging to Selma, whose eyes appear to be normal now. One of the policeman goes inside the house and informs Selma of the murders that occurred nearby and asks Selma if she had heard anything. Predictably she denies hearing or knowing anything about what happened out in the woods.

Selma queries why the policeman feels so sure that it is a maniac at large and not an animal. The policeman casually mentions that he ruled that out as the bodies of the victims were drained completely of blood. Because of course that behaviour is totally typical of humans and not animals! Plus they found a knife, which is the knife that the old man threw at the horseman. The policeman gives the knife to Selma and then leaves the house, without the knife! He leaves the knife on the table, which is something which I would have thought to be a key piece of evidence!

Outside the house the policeman speaks to his colleagues about Selma, saying he feels that there isn’t something quite right about her. Apparently the town folk are scared of Selma, despite never really seeing her after her husband, Daniel, died.

We later see Selma’s niece, Emily (played by Rosita Arenas) and her husband Herbert (played by Abel Salazar, who also served as a producer on the film), who is ALWAYS smoking a cigar, travelling by horse and carriage to Selma’s house where they have been invited to stay. As they arrive at the house, the horseman refuses to help them with their bags, stating they were lucky that he even agreed to take them to the house after all of the horrible things he has heard about it and its evil occupant.

As the horseman leaves, Emily and Herbert notices Selma’s three dogs, barking wildly behind a fence. “What horrible animals” Emily comments before reaching for the knocker on the front door. Before she can either touch the metal though, the door is opened by Fred, sporting his usual creepy glare. Fred helps the pair with their luggage and informs them that Selma will return later that evening.

Slightly put out that her auntie isn’t there to greet her, Emily and Herbert go to their room and begin unpacking. After a time Herbert decides to go out for a little while, not sure where to seeing as the house appears to be in the middle of nowhere, and leaves Emily to finish unpacking. She notices that the mirror in the room has been covered with a black sheet which she removes. As she stares into the mirror, her image morphs into that of Selma’s (with no eyes this time) and then into that of a skull. This is a very effective and creepy moment. Very simple but works really well.

Herbert, hearing the screams from the bedroom as he walks down the stairs, rushes back up to comfort a now hysterical Emily. Dismissing Emily’s story as simply being her imagination, Herbert takes her back into the room where the mirror is now back to normal. The pair then hear the cries of a woman in the distance which they go to investigate. They open a door where they find Fred, pulling another one of his creepy faces – I’ve got to give it to the guy, he’s got those down to fine art!

Herbert insists on going through the door to see what the crying was all about but Fred stops them from getting any further. Disgruntled, Herbert and Emily go back to their room to wait for Selma to arrive.

Later that night, as a storm begins to stir outside, there is some strange goings on in the rat infested bell tower of the old house. Well, it’s kind of a room below the bell tower… it’s not totally clear. There have been a fair few rats in the films I have reviewed recently but I have to say, these rats are my favourite so far. Clearly domestic rats, they seem very relaxed and content and just potter about on top of an old wooden barrel. We then see a large bat with a skull for a head swoop across the room and transform into Selma, now with the same dark, soulless voids where her eyes should be. It’s a pretty basic effect but it works and the skull bat creature is unnerving and freaky looking. If this film ever gets the 4k blu ray treatment, something which I highly doubt will, I hope the wires are left in as they do add a lot of charm to the effects.

Selma begins talking to the corpse of a long dead woman who is hanging from a large wheel. As Selma talks, the corpse begins wailing, emitting the cries that Emily and Herbert heard earlier. The corpse also appears to become youthful for a split second before going back to a lifeless shell as Selma natters away. “Illustrious mistress who commands all, soon you will return from the endless night, you will be here at my side…” Selma says with almost orgasmic satisfaction.

Back in their bedroom, Emily and Herbert are discussing that they feel like they are being watched by something in shadows and decide to leave the house once they have seen Selma. Meanwhile, Selma has returned to her “normal” state and is talking to Fred about their guests and it seems Selma has something planned for them, something sinister, and with four hours until midnight, Selma and Fred begin to put their plan into action.

Selma begins playing an organ (an instrument, not a human organ… just to clarify) and this causes Emily to take Herbert downstairs to see her, almost as if the music has some sort of hold over her. Selma welcomes the pair with smiles and friendly chit chat, but things become awkward when Emily questions the strange crying she heard. Selma blames the noise on the wind but Emily keeps on pushing her auntie, questioning why she has Fred around the house, referring to him as a monster. It turns out Selma saved him the night he was going to the gallows. We don’t find out why Fred was going to the gallows; probably for being creepy. Emily comments that not only does Selma appear to have not aged at all since she last saw her but she also behaves almost like a different woman. Not deterred by Emily’s slightly aggressive tone of questioning, Selma asks Herbert to leave as she is eager to tell Emily about a woman from yesteryear who had extreme power and was called by many the “wailing witch”. Selma points to a painting of her in the room and explains that for years she has been studying the wailing witch and her ways and she now possesses the same power, having renounced the way of mortality and she will gain even more power with the help of Emily.

If what Selma is blathering on about doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, don’t worry, and just go with it. To show an example of her new found power, Selma draws back a curtain to reveal a mirror and walks in front of it. Selma’s reflection is nowhere to be seen whereas Emily’s is crystal clear. This feels more like an elaborate party trick than a show of supernatural power but never mind.

Selma goes on to say that the reason she cannot be found during daylight hours is because she has to tend to the wailing witch, who is the corpse in the room below the bell tower. Selma reveals a hidden passageway behind the mirror where the pair disappear to see the wailing witch.

Meanwhile, Herbert is wandering around the house when he notices the room where they heard the crying from earlier is now unlocked. After checking the coast is clear, Herbert passes through the doorway and begins walking up the steep staircase to the bell tower. Herbert gets bothered by a rubber bat, which he kills… seems a little bit unnecessary but I guess it is only a toy.

Once the bat has been taken care of we see a hairy hand appear through the bars of a door into the adjoining room. With Herbert conveniently pressed up against the door, the hand reaches through and begins strangling Herbert. At this stage we see the hand belongs to a man, sort of a wolf-man, or a very hairy man at least. Herbert struggles and manages to break away, only to fall down the stairs.

We then see Selma and Emily entering the room at the bottom of the bell tower where the body of the wailing witch is kept (and the cute rats, still just chilling out). Selma begins to explain her immortality and that she will gain even more power once the wailing witch has awoken (apparently the witch is not dead, she is only asleep… she looks pretty dead to me).

Selma explains that the witch was sentenced to death but years later, Selma murdered the jurors descendants and gave the witch their blood, making the witch immortal. The witch can only be fully woken by the youngest of the dynasty, which is where Emily comes in. Clearly not happy about this arrangement, Emily tries to leave but Selma informs her that they are both actually part of the same family as the wailing witch and at midnight, when Emily turns 23 years old, she must remove the lance from the wailing witches body, thus awakening the witch, and giving Selma more powers and Emily immortality. As much as Emily protests that she won’t do it, Selma assures her that she will begin to give in to her destiny.

Emily leaves Selma in the basement only to find Fred about to stab Herbert, who passed out after his fall. Emily runs up the stairs to where the two men are and Fred quickly hides his knife, claiming he was only trying to help Herbert. Fred picks up the unconscious Herbert and takes him to the bedroom so he can rest.

At the bedside, Emily begins to blame Selma for what has happened to Herbert but Selma tells Emily it was in fact Daniel, her husband who had supposedly died years before. Only, he isn’t dead and instead had been locked up and turned into a wild beast. Selma claims that Herbert will end up with the same fate. I’m not sure that is what happens when you get locked up in a cell for years and years, I think you’d probably just die rather than turn into a hairy blood thirsty creature. Emily storms out of the room, stating she is going to get a doctor. Selma than informs Fred that soon, Emily will begin to crave blood and she will begin murdering to get it.

Whilst out wandering in the woods in an attempt to get help, Emily stumbles across an old man making his way to the town on horseback. Sadly the man is less than keen to help after he finds out Emily has come from the “witches house” and just as Selma prophesied, Emily enters a violent rage and begins to strangle the old man. With the innocent man at her mercy, Emily comes to and realises what she is doing. Worried by her actions, Emily tells the old man to hurry to the town before she hurts him any further.

In despair, Emily looks at the moon, realising that midnight is drawing closer and as the distant sounds of the wailing witch are heard, Emily’s eyes begin to change. As her insanity builds, mysterious eyes appear in the sky and in the trees, watching over Emily with relentless stares. Whilst this is quite a cheap effect (I am guessing the image of the eyes is simply being projected onto the background), it is a really memorable scene and again there is something charming about the way the effect has been put together.

Meanwhile, back at the house, Herbert awakes with a headache (probably tobacco withdrawal) and appears to be under the control of Selma. She guides him downstairs where she then burns an effigy of him whilst giving a bit more history on the wailing witch. Here we get some flashbacks to the witch performing evil, which look to be really well staged and interesting scenes and certainly feel like they would add a lot more scope to the film, seeing as for the most part it only really has a handful of locations and cast members. Sadly, however, the flashback footage has been inverted making if difficult to really see what is going on, which is a shame. There is some really interesting imagery (an army of devil worshippers, someone gets turned into a wolf-man, the witch gets tortured etc) so it does seem like an odd choice to then make it difficult to properly enjoy the spectacle. Maybe it was done to hide the fact it’s the main cast in these scenes too, I dunno.

Emily arrives back at the house, which causes poor Herbert to snap out of the spell that Selma had cast on him. With midnight looming, the pair begin to try pack so they can leave the house once and for all. In the bedroom, Emily notices her reflection no longer shows in the mirror and begins to freak out. Herbert smashes the mirror in an attempt to calm Emily but inadvertently cuts his hand in the process and the sight of blood only re-ignites Emily’s witchy desires that she is so desperately trying to suppress. Feeling that trying to resist the destiny Selma talks of is fruitless, Emily rushes up to the bell tower with Herbert in tow.

In the town, the old man has made his way to the police station and is informing the captain of his altercation with Emily in the woods. The police seem happy that they finally have some “evidence” that they can use to arrest Selma, after years of suspicion as to where her husband vanished to I suspect.

Back at the house, Herbert has fallen (physically and metaphorically falling in to her trap) through a trap door operated by Selma in the bell tower, landing in the room where the corpse of the wailing witch is. The geography of the house seems a bit off at times. The room where the corpse of the wailing witch is would seem to be in the basement, but Herbert landed here after going through the trap door at the top of the bell tower. However, it looks like the only thing that would have been below the bell tower would be the stair case itself.

We then see Fred entering Daniel’s cell and giving him a good whipping but he doesn’t seem as in to it as Severin from “Venus In Furs” would be. The husband (who sounds strangely like Rowan Atkinson in the first series of “Blackadder”) manages to grab hold of the whip, pulling Fred over, and then picks up a metal chain and begins to give him some of his own medicine before escaping the confines of his cell. How hasn’t this happened before? Fred is incapacitated pretty easily!

At the top of the stairs, Daniel bumps into Emily and proceeds to chase her down the stairs into the main house. Well, when I say chase, I mean walk at a slightly quickened pace. Daniel soon stops chasing Emily after he spots a portrait of himself from before he was locked away, reducing him to a whimpering mess. This doesn’t last long though as he soon destroys the painting in a violent rage, ripping the canvas and then throwing the wooden frame across the room.

Two policemen finally arrive outside the house but there is no answer from the front door. Suddenly, Selma’s three dobermans come racing around the corner and here we get another highlight of the film. In an attempt to simulate the dogs biting the policeman, it appears the filmmakers have placed a pane of glass in front of the camera, smeared some food on it and then got the dogs to eat (or more accurately, lick) the food from the glass. The effect doesn’t really work but again, there is a charm to it and considering some of the horrible stuff that has happened to animals in other movies just for entertainment, there is something sweet about seeing the dogs enjoying themselves.

With the policemen licked to death and midnight just moments away, things are looking bleak for Emily. Admitting defeat she goes through the secret passage and into the room where the wailing witch is to find Selma and her prisoner, Herbert, who is now restrained.

The bell begins to ring and Emily stands in front of the corpse of the wailing witch and begins to ease the lance out of it’s body, despite Herbert’s protests not to. The scene does drag slightly, with lots of shots depicting the same thing (albeit beautifully lit shots); the bell ringing, Emily trying to remove the lance, Herbert trying to persuade Emily to stop, Selma quivering with delight, rinse and repeat. I will say though, the shots of the bell slowly ringing as years of dust and dirt shimmies through the air are quite mesmerising.

At the last moment, Emily snaps out of her witchy state and rather than pulling the lance out from the corpse, she plunges it in further, causing the wailing witch to scream a rather un-climatic scream I must say. Maybe they could have done with re-dubbing that. As the wailing witches fragile corpse crumbles to dust, so does the house. As the walls begin to crack and celling beams begin to fall, Selma orders Fred to kill Herbert and we are then treated to a fight which again sadly outstays its welcome. Considering how easily Daniel overpowered Fred earlier, I am surprised how difficult Herbert is finding this. Speaking of Daniel – where is he?!

Sure enough, as Selma and Emily are fleeing the house, they bump into Daniel and Selma seems very upset about seeing him in such a state. I don’t know why, she did that to him! Justice is served though as Daniel strangles and kills and Selma.

Back in the basement, the fight still rages on and it ends with the bell tower falling inwards and killing Fred whilst Herbert makes his way out of the room. Once in the main house, Herbert reunites with Emily and the pair open the front door to escape – only to be confronted by Selma’s three dogs. Luckily for them, the dogs bypass the pair and instead attack (lick) Daniel – poor Daniel.

The film ends with Selma morphing into a skeleton and then to ash with Emily and Herbert outside in the wood, watching as the house continues to crumble until it is just a pile of rubble. Fin.

First thing first, I’m not going to say that “The Curse Of The Crying Woman” is an excellent movie, because it’s not: the plot is overly convoluted, some scenes last too long and Selma’s endless exposition and almost sexual facial expressions do begin to grate. But the film does have a lot of charm, the effects are enjoyable to watch and rather than laughing at their cheapness, I found myself commending the filmmakers for at least trying. The film makes good use of its setting, even if the geography of it doesn’t quite add up. The score fits the film well and has a nice spooky vibe to it. There is some beautiful cinematography, and given I can say that based on a slightly dodgy bootleg copy of the film is high praise!

Whilst nowhere near as effective as any of the Hammer Horror films from the UK or similar gothic efforts from the likes of Mario Bava and Riccardo Freda in Italy, “The Curse Of The Crying Woman” is an enjoyable, inoffensive and fun movie with a great atmosphere. Plus, any film that has a dog licking food off a pane of glass to depict it attacking someone is fine by me!