Lee Eisenberg The most famous of the 1950s/1960s horror flicks came from the US, but Mexico also made a number of them. One example is "El grito de la muerte" ("The Living Coffin" in English). Fernando Méndez's movie has the feeling of the average Vincent Price movie while incorporating the story of La Llorona (the weeping woman). Like the average Vincent Price movie, "The Living Coffin" makes no pretense about what kind of a movie it is. It looks like the sort of movie that they probably had fun making. I suspect that many people in Mexico likely think that the makers tried too hard to make the sort of movie that the United States would have made - as opposed to a movie focusing on issues affecting most Mexicans - but isn't it OK to occasionally make a movie whose sole purpose is to entertain? All in all, a fun movie.

ferbs54 "The Living Coffin" (1958) is, I would imagine, a fine example of that most curious of subgenres: the Mexican cowboy/horror movie. Reuniting director Fernando Mendez, actor Gaston Santos and cinematographer Victor Herrera after that same year's "The Black Pit of Dr. M," the film is, I regret to say, a far lesser achievement. Whereas "Dr. M" is a beautifully shot B&W masterpiece, this picture is--though surprisingly filmed in color--a much more pedestrian affair. In it, lawman Gaston, his bumbling compadre Coyote Loco, and Rayito, the smartest horse you'll ever encounter this side of Trigger, Silver and Mr. Ed, come to the aid of a hacienda in which corpses are being stolen from their tomb and the legendary Crying Woman is heard to wail at night. What horror elements there are chiefly consist of eerie close-ups of the Crying Woman's attractive but corroded face as she flits through the darkened corridors, but the picture also features a nifty bar fight, a good quicksand sequence, a few shoot-outs and some lame comedy (but certainly not enough to torpedo the film). Santos himself, sans mustache and in color, is practically unrecognizable from the role he essayed in "Dr. M," and Herrera's talents are much more obvious in that earlier picture. Still, "The Living Coffin" makes for a reasonably entertaining 70 minutes, and might even be appropriate to watch with the kiddies, especially when the film's "Scooby Doo" aspects come into play. However, viewers interested in seeing a real Mexican masterpiece dealing with the Crying Woman of legend should check out 1963's, uh, "The Curse of the Crying Woman," a film that I just love. And oh...this Casa Negra DVD looks just fine, as always, but what's the deal with the microprint on the essay extras? You'll need one of those 102" TV screens to read these, I'm afraid!

Michael_Elliott Living Coffin, The (1959) ** (out of 4) Mexican film that mixes the Western and Horror genres while at the same time connects the main villain to The Crying Woman character of various other Mexican films. Two cowboys show up to help some ranchers rid their curse, which appears to be the work of the ghost The Crying Woman. I was shocked to see how fast this 71-minute film flew by. A lot of these Mexican movies move rather slowly but that wasn't the case here. The look of The Crying Woman is very cheap but effective and the performances aren't as bad as you'd think and in fact they manage to be pretty good. The horror elements work very nicely but the Western stuff never really takes off too well. The ending is also a major disappointment and comes over very badly but overall this isn't too bad of a film but I'd recommend starting with a different Mexican film. Original title: Grito de la muerte, El.

Coventry Horror and Westerns generally don't form a great cinematic match, but Fernando Mendez' "The Living Coffin" has a fairly good story and contains a handful of admirable ideas. The plot combines typical western bar fights and heroic cowboy characters with favorite Gothic horror subjects like the legend of the crying woman (processed much better in another contemporary Mexican feature entitled "The Curse of the Crying Woman), premature burial and local superstition. In a small town near a sinister swamp, the restless spirit of the "crying woman" supposedly haunts the remote mansion of an eminent family. She passed away nearly a year ago, but her cries in agony over the loss of her two children can often be heard in the swamp, and her remaining relatives (a sister and an attractive young niece) fear supernatural acts of vengeance. A knife in a clock protects the house, but when it gets removed the ghost emerges from the coffin. Luckily enough, the courageous cowboy Gaston and his unusually intelligent horse travel through the area, and they'll figure out whether there really are ghosts or just a fiendish conspiracy to steal the family's fortune. The sequences in the swamp as well as inside the mansion's catacombs are surprisingly atmospheric and there's a fair share of morbid scenery, like the tomb and crying lady's make-up. Unfortunately, however, there are approximately as many negative elements as there are positive ones, including the cowboy's totally redundant sidekick, whose job is provide an unnecessary comic relief as he always falls asleep and frequently gets hit on the head, and the utterly implausible capacities of Gaston's horse. The animal is actually the real hero here, because he saves his owner's life on several occasions, randomly discovers secret passageways and even defeats the enemies in a totally laughable finale. "The Living Coffin" is a worthwhile effort, but nowhere near as breathtaking and unforgettable as the aforementioned "Curse of the Crying Woman" and Fernando Mendez' other directorial masterpiece "The Black Pit of Dr. M".