U.S. DVD Release
In the short time Panik House Entertainment has been around they have become one of the leading independent DVD labels out there. Their Pinky Violence line is simply amazing and had fans asking what they could possibly do to top such wonderful releases.
Well, Panik House’s new DVD imprint CasaNegra Entertainment is set to answer those questions with a fantastic line of Mexican horror classics and unreleased rarities. They’re coming out of their corner swinging with El Espejo de la bruja / The Witch’s Mirror (1962) and La Maldición de la Llorona / The Curse of the Crying Woman (1963). Both spectacular Mexican horror films are getting the royal treatment from CasaNegra including new, uncut transfers from the restored vault materials. The picture and sound have been remastered and the DVDs are overflowing with the kind of quality extras one expects from Panik House Entertainment.
The Witch’s Mirror is a wild, crazy mash up of black magic, Satanism, revenge from beyond the grave and Eyes Without a Face style mad science!
When Elena is shown her fate in a magic mirror by her godmother Sara, neither are quite prepared when the dark magic of the mirror points to Elena’s death at the hand of her distant husband Eduardo. Elena is positive Eduardo loves her but the mirror shows them the face of another woman Elena’s never met. Could Eduardo love another? Could he really be planning to kill poor Elena?
Sara decides to go to straight to the Lord of Darkness on Elena’s behalf in order to request protection for the girl. Unfortunately, she’s told this is Elena’s destiny and Sara is not to interfere. Not even Sara’s powerful abilities as a witch can stop Eduardo from making his move and move he does! Elena is given a poisoned glass of milk and dies at Eduardo’s feet!
Before the body is cold, Eduardo married to his secret love Deborah. He brings his new wife to his home and introduces Sara to the young lady. This insult to the dead Elena won’t go unpunished though and Sara calls Elena forth from the grave in order for the tortured spirit to wreak havoc on the household and Eduardo’s new wife.
During a horrifying encounter with Elena’s ghost, a tragic fire is started and Deborah becomes engulfed in the flames and her face and hands are hideously scarred. Luckily for Deborah, Eduardo is a top-notch plastic surgeon and he’s on the verge of perfecting a new procedure that will successfully restore Deborah’s face to its original beauty!
Of course, bold procedures call for bold actions and Eduardo employs local lackey Gustavo as an assistant. To move forward with this medical break through Eduardo will need the bodies of deceased beautiful women in order to replace the ruined flesh of Deborah’s face and hands. Gustavo is okay with corpses but folds under pressure when they discover a girl buried alive. Eduardo aims to use the living girl’s hands to replace Deborah’s and Sara convinces Gustavo his salvation from the terrible deeds he’s done is to go to the police.
Sara then calls forth Elena in order to have her possess the amputated hands. What perfect revenge to have Elena’s ghostly hands attached to Deborah!
As you can imagine…chaos ensues!
These releases are a cause to celebrate! Not only is CasaNegra Entertainment giving these films the releases they deserve, they’re giving cinemaphiles and horror geeks the films they’re asking for! Mexican horror cinema is seriously neglected and these wonderfully restored releases really show viewers how cool these old films truly are. There’s more to Mexican horror cinema than Santo, Blue Demon and Mil Mascaras.
The Witch’s Mirror looks fantastic; there’s very little grain present. With the exception of one or two faded sequences, this is damn near flawless. I assume the faded areas were the biggest problem areas on the original prints. If so, CasaNegra have done an outstanding restoration job.
There was no discernible audio issues that I could detect which was fantastic because my Sony sound system picks up every little crackle, hiss and pop and amplifies them by 100 decibels. Play the wrong classic/vintage horror flick in my system and you’re risking ruptured eardrums. Obviously, they took their time and did shit right. There was a small dubbing issue that caught me off guard but it wasn’t anything that turning on the subs didn’t fix.
Not only does this release look and sound phenomenal, CasaNegra Entertainment is giving collectors a release overflowing with extras including bilingual menus, an audio commentary by Frank Coleman, an essay on director Chano Urueta, cast & crew bios, a poster & stills gallery and a bad ass Loteria game card.
According to Wikipedia, Loteria is a Mexican game of chance, similar to Bingo, which utilizes images on cards in place of ping pong balls with numbers.
Anyhow, The Witch’s Mirror is a must-have release. Whether you’re already a fan of Mexican horror cinema or just looking for a solid black and white classic, you won’t be disappointed with this release.
