Back in the 1960s I can remember reading reviews of Mexican horror films in Stephen H. Scheuer’s TV KEY MOVIE GUIDE (this was before Leonard Maltin) and they were always given really terrible reviews. They played on our local TV station’s SHOCK THEATRE but I never saw one in its entirety. What I do remember about the snippets I saw was the really awful dubbing which really destroyed any sense of fear or dread that the films were trying to inspire. Now 40 years later a handful of these movies have been restored and released on DVD by a small company called Casanegra. They feature the uncut versions in the original Spanish with subtitles and the impact it makes is astonishing but not surprising.
The dubbed soundtracks by American schlockmeister K. Gordon Murray are also available so that you can hear the difference for yourself. But not in the case of this film because the dubbed version has been lost. In addition to the atrocious dubbing Murray also changed the titles to ones which often had little to do with the actual story. This is especially true of THE BLACK PIT OF DR M which in Spanish was called MISTERIOS DE ULTRATUMBA (Mysteries From Beyond The Grave). There is no pit, there are no scenes like the one depicted on the cover artwork but there is a Dr M. He is Dr Masali and it is his attempt to use a dying colleague to find out what lies beyond death that propels this unexpected gem of a movie along. Set early in the last century, MISTERIOS (I prefer the original title) is wonderfully atmospheric with beautifully composed black and white photography that recalls the great German silent films of the 1920s, first rate performances from everyone especially Rafael Bertrand as the title character, and a story of inexorable retribution for meddling with the unknown which is shockingly brutal especially for 1958.
This film predates Mario Bava’s BLACK SUNDAY by 2 years and it’s clear that he was influenced by the settings of this and other Mexican films of the period. If you appreciate old style atmospheric horror and don’t mind reading subtitles then MISTERIOS DE ULTRATUMBA is definitely for you. It is one of only a handful of films of this type (Italy’s BLACK SUNDAY and Britain’s CITY OF THE DEAD aka HORROR HOTEL are two others) that made an indelible impression on me after only one viewing. Others in the Casanegra series THE WITCH’S MIRROR and THE CURSE OF THE CRYING WOMAN while not quite as good are definitely worth checking out.
The Capsule Critic 