Somewhat effeminate Eduardo (Carlos Villatoro), his wife Cristina (Marta Roel), and Eduardo’s more manly friend Alfonso (Enrique del Campo) get lost while walking in the woods at night. A strange man with his dog, Shadow, appears and offers to take them to the nearby monastery of the cloistered Order of Silence. There they are taken in by the mysterious monks, and frightening things begin to happen, many of which seem to relate to Cristina and Alfonso’s secret affair.
The Mexican film industry had gotten off to a shaky start—revolutions will do that. Though it would rise quickly to become the dominant Spanish language film provider in the world, in 1934 things were just getting started, and while government backing made filmmaking financially safe, the lack of Hollywood-type money restrained it. Combine all that with the general reluctance for anyone to make horror and Mexico’s extremely powerful Catholic church, and it’s a shock any horror movies were made in Mexico.
Fernando de Fuentes was the most important Mexican director to try his hand at the genre in the 1930s. He was known primarily for his revolution films, and for creating the comedia ranchera genre, not for horror. This was the second Mexican horror film of the sound era (little survives of silent Mexican cinema, including records), so he had no precedent to work from and was finding his way.
On the horror front, de Fuentes does surprisingly well. This is a creepy picture with tons of atmosphere. His location (I’ve been told it was an actual building instead of a set—though I’m dubious that some of it wasn’t shot on a soundstage) is wonderful, both an attractive and freaky monastery. And he makes great use of it; if there’s a shadow to be played with or an ominous door to approach, de Fuentes does so with style. He takes his cues not from Hollywood, but from Germany, who were the masters of creepy photography. This would fit nicely next to Vampyr.
With plot, things aren’t so good. There’s maybe 30 minutes of story here, if I’m being generous. Far too much time is spent with the characters sitting or standing still, talking. We know Eduardo is a bit cowardly; we don’t have to hear about it over and over.
The score is a bit over the top, but it helps a lot when it is there. However it vanishes far too often, leaving silence which isn’t scary, just dry.
El fantasma del convento is a nice second attempt at the horror genre. It feels a bit primitive, but then Mexican filmmaking was a few years behind.
The title is translated both as The Phantom of The Convent and The Fantasy of The Monastery. The first is a poor translation as there is neither a single Phantom nor are they in a convent.