Mexican cinema has never been well-known for its Horror (not in recent decades, anyway), but once in a while, a few classic gems come your way.

I will keep the synopsis short so as to avoid spoilers, because the movie is decent and I don't want to ruin any surprises. Directed by the "Mexican Hitchcock", Enrique Taboada, this 1984 Horror classic tells the story of two young girls -- Flavia and Veronica. Flavia is a sweet little girl from a rich family. Veronica is an orphaned child who's not so sweet -- and to top it off, she's obsessed with witches and making deals with the devil.

On technical aspects, the movie is admittedly not as good as it could be as Mexican cinema was struggling economically during this time. It appears as if it had been shot in the 60s, not the 80s. However, the film draws inspiration from 60s and 50s films like 'The Bad Seed', so this style of filming is suitable for the film and actually works to its advantage.

The acting, while excellent for its era, does feel a bit "stagey" in today's time, more like theatre than film, as was to be expected from Mexican films at the time.  

Despite this, however, the movie is really a beautifully-executed story of tradgegy and psychological Horror at the same time. It's subtle, but effective in its theme.

If you like movies like The Bad Seed and Rosemary's Baby, do yourself a favor and track this down, so long as you don't mind subtitles if you don't know any Spanish. The film is excellent and beautiful on so many levels. I highly recommend it to fans of Hitchcock, Polanski and 50-60s Horror movies (it does not feel like an eighties one).

It's a true classic that has been forgotten and overshadowed by the crappy Mexican commercial movies of today (Ninas Mal, Km 31, etc). Real Mexican Horror might be [for the moment] dead, but it's memory lives on in classic films like this one.

10/10 (for its time)

8/10 (all things considered. Like I said, performances are heartfelt but feel dated nonetheless)

--Julio