Translated as Even the Wind Is Afraid, this Carlos Enrique Taboada-directed horror film touches on the gothic and predates a very similar feeling film, Suspiria, by nearly a decade.

It’s all about Claudia, a student who investigates a tower that keeps showing up in her nightmares, where she sees the hung body of a student who killed herself years before and whose ghost has been haunting the teachers.

It turns out that the ghost is real and it is Andrea, a girl who had asked to leave the school to see her dying mother before it was too late. When Bernarda (the principal of the school) refused, Andrea hung herself inside the tower. Now, Andrea will not rest until everyone pays. And for some reason, she’s picked Claudia to help.

This movie was remade as The Wind of Fear in 2007, with Alicia Bonet (who played Claudia) playing her mother.

That said, I’d recommend you check out the original, which was incredibly entertaining. It really does have that feeling of isolation and worry that the teen years engender, with plenty of gothic mood as well. You can see its influence on del Toro’s The Devil’s Backbone, particularly in that movie’s setting.

You can get this on blu ray or DVD from VCI.