Carlos Enrique Taboada had a rather long career in Mexican cinema as a writer and director. He started off in 1955 with the script to Kid Tobaco. A decade later, he found himself in the director’s chair. Besides theatrical films, he found quite a bit of success writing TV series. Toboada found his biggest theatrical success in films that had a nightmare edge. Mexican Gothic: The Films of Carlos Enrique Taboada is a triple feature of his movies about the scares of friendship, inheriting property and fortunes falling from the sky.
Darker Than Night (1975 – 102 minutes) is a black cat tale. The young Ofelia (Claudia Islas) gets unexpected news when her elderly spinster aunt dies. While the two weren’t on good terms, Ofelia has inherited the old woman’s mansion. But there’s a slight catch. The young woman must take care of the aunt’s black cat. Ofelia doesn’t bother much with her “adopted” feline. She’s more up for her and three roommates moving into the vast manor. But they don’t have to worry about keeping the place clean since the longtime caretaker is sticking around. Trouble happens when one of the roommates freaks out when the cat gets into her birdcage.
Rapiña (1975 – 113 minutes) takes us into the mountainous countryside of Mexico. The impoverished locals struggle to survive. They can’t afford to pay for the local doctor. In the midst of their downtrodden life comes a strange boon. An airplane crashes into a nearby mountain top. When Porfirio (Ignacio Lopez Tarso) and Evodio (German Robles) come across the debris, they see there’s no survivors. They also notice a lot of valuables in the luggage from the wealthy passengers. The two decide to loot the site so they can sell the jewelry and other luxury items so they can finally get a head in life. Before good things happen, greed causes them to do horrible things to others and each other. The film really reminds me of Sam Raimi’s A Simple Plan. Hard to prove that Scott B. Smith borrowed elements for his novel and script from this “obscure” Mexican film. As far as a movie about poor friends giving into greed when finding a fortune on a crashed airplane, I prefer Rapiña.
Poison For The Fairies (1986 – 90 minutes) was Carlos Enrique Taboada’s final directorial effort before he dedicated himself to screenwriting. He bowed out with a masterpiece. Veronica (Ana Patricia Rojo) is an orphaned girl who tells the new girl at school Flavia (Elsa Maria Gutierrez) that she’s a witch. Flavia is impressed and a bit frightened of her new friend’s powers. Veronica goes with Flavia’s family on a countryside vacation. While they’re on the farm, Veronica needs to Flavia’s help collecting items to make a poison to kill fairies since they’re the enemies of witches. Things do get even weirder between the two girls in this twisted After School Special.
Mexican Gothic: The Films of Carlos Enrique Taboada is a great retrospective of his directorial efforts. All three films have endings that don’t hold back or tease an audience. Carlos Enrique Taboada delivers the scares.
The video is 1.85:1 anamorphic. There’s a warning that the films were restored from the best possible surviving elements, but nothing is too nasty and distracting. The audio on all three films is DTS-HD MA Mono in Spanish. The movies are subtitled in English.
Poison For The Fairies – Video Essay (14:00) has Valeria Villegas get into the question of how does someone become a witch? Villegas gets into how this was one of the director’s last films and his most celebrated one. She gets into the cunning schemes of the two girls.
Darker Than Night – Video Essay (14:31) allows Valeria Villegas to get deep into the catty movie. She goes into how the director approached the horror genre.
Rapina – Video Essay (14:46) lets Valeria Villegas discuss the horror found in the countryside film. There’s a lot of talk about how the film is about keeping the locals impoverished. She also relates back scenes and themes to other movies by Taboada.
Vinegar Syndrome presents Mexican Gothic: The Films of Carlos Enrique Taboada. Directed by Carlos Enrique Taboada. Screenplays by Carlos Enrique Taboada. Starring Claudia Islas, Ana Patricia Rojo, Ignacio Lopez Tarso, German Robles and Elsa Maria Gutierrez. Boxset Contents: 3 movies on 2 Blu-ray discs. Rating: Unrated. Release Date: March 28th, 2023.
