The Cine de Terror Mexicano movement brings us eight different stories by eight unique Mexican voices spread out throughout the country. These stories bring to life the most brutally terrifying Mexican traditions and legends using modern film techniques.

All eight of the directors were given free rein to decide on the genre and style of film they’d want to make.

The first story, Tzompantli, is by Laurette Flores, a relative newcomer. It fits into the nota roja, or red note, story tradition of the horrifying practices of drug dealers and Satanists, as well as how they visit horror on normal people. This tale is about a gang of dealers who trace their traditions back to the Aztecs.

Jaral de Berrios by Edgar Nito, who recently made The Gasoline Thieves. His work also fits into the criminal side of horror, focusing on two thieves hiding in the ruins of Hacienda del Jaral de Berrios, which was once home to one of Mexico’s richest families before descending into dust.

Aaron Soto’s Drean (Drain) is a lesson as to why you should never smoke a joint that you find on a dead body. Trust me. It does not end well.

Isaac Ezban, who made The Similars, seems to be channeling the spirit of 1990’s VHS-era Mexico gore with his story La Cosa mas Preciada (That Precious Thing). A night of lovemaking in the woods turns incredibly disgusting, thanks to some local trolls. I would have loved to have seen this segment with a rowdy theater.

Lo Que Importa es lo de Adentro (What’s Important is Inside) is by Lex Ortega and concerns a special needs girl and the boogieman that she is sure is her building’s handyman.

Jorge Michel Grau is best known to American audiences for We Are What We Are. His story is Munecas (Dolls) and fits the slasher genre quite well, along with — of course — disturbing doll imagery. I’ve said it before and will say it many more times, but no one makes dolls more disturbing than Mexican filmmakers.

Ulises Guzman, who has worked as a stuntman, writer and even an editor, directed Siete Veces Siete (Seven Times Seven), which is about a ritual to bring back the guilty and make them pay after death.

Finally, Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is by GiGi Saul Guerrero, who has acted in several films, as well as creating and directing the horror web series La Quinceanera. It’s pretty much an excuse for strippers to dress as skeletal creatures and murder their clients. Please don’t take that as a criticism, as this scene was very well shot and was quite entertaining. This scene was originally a short film shot in 2013.

Much like all modern anthology films, this is a mixed bag. There’s no link between the stories, other than the talent is all from Mexico. Maybe it will introduce you to some new filmmakers. Or you’ll be bored by it. It’s certainly better than the majority of the tossed together streaming movies that come up north just about every day.

Thirty years after his father The Great Dante was killed during a magic trick gone wrong, Lorenzo is now being accused of a series of murders that all have magical themes as he struggles to present the biggest show of his career.

This is the third film in the Onetti Brothers’ Giallo Trilogy, following Francesca and Sonno Profundo. For all the reviewers that bring up their Argento style, the true maniacs, the ones who put on their gloves while watching a giallo, the people like, well, me and you — we realize that their influences go beyond the touchstones every critic uses. For all of those that love Martino as much as Argento, good news. This feels like one of his films that was lost in time.

I caught the YouTube premiere of the film, which is missing most of the gore and nudity, which would be the selling point for many a fan of these films. But for the other parts of the form, such as the soundtrack, the plot that goes everywhere and nowehere at the same time, even the look of the color and film, this is a true piece of giallo in a time when I wondered if all the gold has truly been mined.

That said, you can look forward to people decrying its dubbing, acting and plot. Those people have never seen anything beyond Suspiria and have declared themselves experts. Screw it. I hope these Argentinian madmen keep making movies. I’ll pour them a whole bottle of J&B if I ever get the chance to meet them.

You can order this now from Cauldron Films.

PS: I realize that the example I picked isn’t even a giallo. Those of you that have read copy and pasted reviews of movies that reference this genre will, I hope, get the joke.

The divine Mr. Anthony M. Dawson, aka Antonio Margheriti, is back with his third giallo flick (this one’s an Italian-French-West German co-production), the others being (the previously reviewed) Nude, She Dies, and 1971’s Web of the Spider (but discriminating gialli connoisseurs will argue that’s more of a straight horror film because it’s color remake of Tony’s own film, 1964’s Castle of Blood. But that’s another review-debate for another time).

Jane Birken (be still my beating heart) (of Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow Up, Jack Smight’s (Damnation Alley) Kaleidoscope, and the 1973 Christopher Lee-starring British horror Dark Places) stars as Corringa MacGrieff . . . in a film you’d swore was made by Dario Argento, as we’ve got a POV murderer with a straight razor, we’ve got a secluded castle in the Scottish highlands, we’ve got a dungeon, we’ve got a cat, and . . . an orangutan (it’s all about the seclusion, and the animals and insects in gialli).

(And are we plot-spoiling by telling you that seven people die . . . and the ginger cat creeping around the dank castle sees it all? Yeah, and the orangutan gets around—but Seven Death’s in the Orangutan’s Eye sounds stupid.)

So Birken is the ubiquitous bad girl expelled from another Catholic school. And she returns to Dragonstone Castle where she used to spend her summers. At the castle she reunites with her mother Alicia (Dana Ghia of Massimo Dallamona’s The Night Child) who’s doting over her sister, Corringa’s Aunt Mary, the penniless owner of Dragonstone. And like any Agatha Christie novel, we have a full house, with headshrinker Dr. Franz (Anton Diffring of The Beast Must Die and Circus of Horrors) and Father Robinson, the live-in priest (Venantino Venantini of City of the Living Dead), Suzanne, the French teacher (bisexual, natch) (Doris Kunstmann of 1997’s Austrian-made Funny Games), and Corringa’s nutty cousin Lord James MacGrieff (Hiram Keller of Fellini Satyricon) and the Lord’s pet orangutan.

Hey, shouldn’t there be a creepy gardener/groundkeeper? Yep, there is: Angus (Luciano Pigozzi of Blood and Black Lace).

Of course, the Doc is there to take care of crazy James, but also to boink Aunt Mary, and Suzanne—who, in turn, has eyes for Corringa. So while the sisters argue over the family’s money and estate, Alicia is murdered. Then there’s another murder. And the local townsfolk fear a vampire is on the loose: for when a MacGrieff kills another MacGrieff, that victim turns into a vampire—so says the “legend.”

If you’ve watched a lot of Italian horror films—and you know the frugalness of the Italian film industry, where nothing goes wasted—you’ll notice the castle exteriors are the same exteriors from Mario Bava’s Black Sunday and the lush castle interiors from The Whip and the Body. And if it all sounds plot recycling from Margheriti’s own Castle of Blood and The Virgin on Nuremberg, it probably is.

One may argue Seven Deaths in the Cat’s Eye is more British gothic than Italian giallo because it lacks spectacular kills, but the lush cinematography and stylized shots we love in our gialli, is there in spades.

You can (if you’re a member) watch a pristine, ad free and uncut stream on Shudder. The DVDs and Blus (on the Blue Underground and 88 Films labels) are all over the brick-and-mortar and online marketplace, easily picked up at your local Best Buy and Walmart. But, hey, times are tight in these virus days, so we found a two, free rips to enjoy for free on You Tube HERE and HERE. You can purchase the uncut, uncensored and fully restored film from original European vault materials at Blue Underground.

About the Author: You can read the music and film reviews of R.D Francis on Medium and learn more about his work on Facebook. He also writes for B&S About Movies.