BeforeGuillermo del Toro, there was another classic horror master in the Mexican genre cinema —Carlos Enrique Taboada, who isoften credited with the informal title of the king of Mexican horror. Having worked in hisnative film industryfor years, Taboada first contributed to the genre as a screenwriter, being the author behind the popularNostradamusvampire film series andThe Witch’s Mirror(1962), the film that’s still considered one of the greatest horror classics in Mexico. However, Taboada fully embraced his unique style when he became a horror director himself. Thus, his first notable directorial work wasEven the Wind is Afraid, which came out in 1968 and is said to have immediately revitalizedMexican genre cinemawith itscombination ofGothic style, contemporary setting, and therefore, exploration of more modern, relevant issues— such as human cruelty, which would become one of Taboada’s trademark’s topics.
A Familiar Ghost Story Gets an Unexpected Twist in This Gothic Chiller
A year before thecult Spanish horror film,The House that Screamed(1969), and almost a decade beforeDario Argento’s iconicSuspiria(1977), Taboada’sfilm proves that an all-girls boarding school can be the perfect setting for a horror film. One of the students, Claudia (Alicia Bonet), has a recurrent dream featuring an unknown girl who calls out her name desperately. As Claudia starts to suspect something bad might have happened to one of the former students, she and her friends go to investigate the locked tower in the middle of the school grounds, which is considered forbidden. The girls are caught and punished by the principal, Miss Bernarda (Marga López), who determines that they should spend their holidays here. The stern principal, whom the girls all refer to as The Witch, alsorefuses to acknowledge that something supernatural might be happening, with dire consequences for everyone involved.
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Ghosts and blood and ghouls, oh my!
By the timeEven the Wind is Afraidcame around, Mexican horror was largely preoccupied withGothicesthetics,familiar monsters, and practical effects.Elements of the Gothic style remain important for Taboada(a special Blu-ray with three of his works was even notably calledMexican Gothic), and theboarding schoolprovides multiple possibilities to incorporate those — the old, creaky building, the dark staircases, the long shadows cast over everything, and the bloody-red curtains. At the same time, thesettings in most of Taboada’s films feel much more contemporary, with major characters facing serious issuesrelevant to their time. Sometimes it’s social injustice, like inRapiña(1975), or parental neglect and ostracism towards “otherness”, like inThe Book of Stone(1969) andPoison for the Fairies(1986). InEven the Wind is Afraid, Taboada uses the bare bones of a traditional ghost story to provide a commentary about the power imbalance in contemporary society and its consequences.
Sure, There’s a Haunting in This School, But the Cruel Actions of People Are Still Much More Terrifying
Like in all his best films, Taboada doesn’t lean into excessive gore and jump scares, opting tocreate a dense atmosphere relying on inventive cinematography and effective sound design. The camera here is helmed by veteran DOPAgustín Jiménez,who worked withLuis Buñuelon several occasions, including his Gothic re-imagining ofWuthering Heights(1954), set in 19th century Mexico, and the imagery is appropriately mysterious and tends to teasingly conceal more than it actually shows. But it’s the sound that plays a major role in making it such an effective horror film. The titular wind, which has served as asymbol of inner turmoil in cinema since the ’20s, wails outside the windows — quite literally, until it becomes indiscernible from an actual desperate cry. Even before this happens, though, the wind helps create the constant sense of tension and dread —the unspoken hostility the girls feel in the world around them.
While Taboada’s style here is often compared to several Giallo classic masters, such as Argento,Lucio Fulci, andMassimo Dallamanowith his “schoolgirls in peril” films, his esthetics are usually more toned down. Andthe violence is more implied as an unspoken menace rather than vividly depicted:Even the Wind is Afraidnotably starts with Claudia’s nightmare, which shows the feet and the shadow of a dead girl hanging from the ceiling, and for much of the film, that remains the only graphic image we see up until one very effective scene involving a body that’s presumed dead. A screenwriter to his core, Taboadapays a lot of attention to storytelling and the psychological nuances of interpersonal dynamics in most of his directorial works. In this 1968 film, his focus is on the complex relationship withina group of teenage girlsand the overpowering influence of the school principal over them.
Like inThe Book of Stonea year later, Taboada keeps the plot perched on the edge of realism, where the supernatural aspect only serves to emphasize the idea that was gradually becoming popular inhorror of the ’60s:no haunting or monster is as scary as the reckless actions of human beings. Here, Miss Bernarda’s behavior is shown as not only excessively cruel, but coldly manipulative, as she coerces one of the girls, an orphan who’s craving approval and acceptance, to spy on her classmates. In this sense,Even the Wind is Afraidand Taboada’s filmography in general feel especially relevant today, in comparison tocontemporary horror, as they include the motives of being different and societal oppression, especially towards girls and young women, who often become the main characters of his films. Much like indel Toro’s fantastical filmsyears later,the eyes of Taboada’s young protagonists are wide open to the wonders of the world around them. What they end up seeing, though, is usually much less magical, and much more realistically horrific.
Even the Wind is Afraid
