In Mexico in the months of October and November there is a festive atmosphere related to death every year. The syncretism with Anglo-Saxon culture has caused not only the traditional Day of the Dead to be experienced, at the same time the streets are filled with costumes and it is common to find ghosts and fantastic creatures. It is under this atmosphere that every year the desire awakens to enjoy those cinematographic works that have made us scream, jump or lose sleep, whether enjoying horror, suspense, psychological terror, fantasy or science fiction. The Mexican film industry has a large number of titles on these themes, many of them inspired by popular literature and legends.
One of the best Mexican psychological horror films of all time is director Carlos Enrique Taboada’s masterpiece, Poison for the Fairies (1984), which throughout its 100-minute duration keeps us on the edge of our seats as we witness the games between two girls to prove that one of them is a witch, as the film progresses the situations become increasingly strange and the games more sadistic until they have a fatal outcome. Without a doubt, this multi-award-winning film with excellent performances and chiaroscuros deserves not to be forgotten.
Another classic of national cinema is Macario (1960) by director Roberto Gavaldón, being the first Mexican film to be nominated for an Academy Award for best foreign film and winner of Best Cinematography at the Cannes Festival. It is the adaptation of the also acclaimed literary work by Bruno Traven, which tells the story of Macario, who, tired of living in precariousness, dreams of enjoying an individual feast, when one day he has the opportunity to fulfill his dream of eating a guajolote, this leads him to live fantastic experiences with three characters related to life and death.
A work of this genre that is present in the imagination of the Mexican horror film audiences is Hasta el viento tiene frighten (1968), also directed by Taboada, tells the story of a group of girls who, having to stay at the boarding school for Summer vacations experience supernatural events. Without a doubt, in Mexico there have been productions in the horror genre that have become cinema classics and this was just an example of them.
