Two men are in love with the same women but only one is married to her. The trio lose track of time when walking in the countryside and find shelter in a monastery, where Brothers of the Order of Silence assure them they’re safe so long as they don’t harbour ill intent. Since one man is in love with the partner of the other and since she loves him back in spite of the vows that bind her, they’re already off to a bad start. A very beautiful restoration, rich blacks, a gradation of whites, of a prototype of the haunted house film, this one with more religious overtones than most as rationale for the supernatural, and with an understated but nonetheless central misogyny at its heart: the woman brings in evil and potentially death to the house of God. One offshoot of the genre – the haunted house – here meets another – the mummy film – as we’ll find out that these monks who go about their chores at night, spend their days as mummies in coffins. It struck me whilst watching this film how often books and knowledge are posited in film as both the source of evil and the way of over-coming it.  A handsome-looking film, well-plotted, with a rich concept and striking imagery, and as one of the end titles reminds us, made entirely in Mexico. Another handsome disk from Indicator with an interesting introduction, rich in context from Abraham Castillo Flores and audio commentary (which I have yet to listen to) from Stephen Jones and Kim Newman.

José Arroyo