The Living Coffin (1959) User Reviews

It's No "Dr. M," And It's No "Crying Woman," But It Still Ain't Bad!

[ferbs54 · 6/10 · 11 April 2008]

"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!

Cowboys and Crying Women

[Leroy Gomm · 6/10 · 6 May 2007]

The Living Coffin combines elements of the Mexican legend of "La Larrona" , Poe's Premature Burial , and oddly enough a Scooby Doo mystery. Cowboy and sidekick / comic relief Crazy Wolf are thrust into action against the ghost of a woman who wails over the loss of her children who drowned in Skeleton Swamp. Is the ghost a true Phantom, or are other more corporal desires at play ? The Living Coffin is a hard sell to recommend, as more often than not Gothic horror and cowboy westerns rarely mix well. Director Fernando Mendez is perhaps the premiere director of Mexican Gothic horror with The Black Pit of Dr.M and El Vampiro among others to his credit, so fans of his work might still want to check this out. I would also urge fans to support these smaller independent DVD companies so that we can continue to see these once very rare films.

Not up to the high standard set by Casa Negra so far.

[The_Void · 5/10 · 8 July 2007]

Well, this is the fifth release I've seen from Casa Negra, and the other four were all excellent; those being The Curse of the Crying Woman, The Witch's Mirror, The Black Pit of Dr M and Brainiac...and while this film isn't terrible, it pales in comparison to those four as there isn't a great deal of imagination and the plot seems stretched out, despite the fact that the film only runs for seventy minutes! I was surprised to find that this film was directed by Fernando Méndez: the same director behind quite possibly the best of the Casa Negra releases so far, The Black Pit of Dr M. Perhaps he was running short on ideas by the time it came to making this film? Anyway, it won't surprise many people to find that the plot focuses on the Mexican legend of 'The Crying Woman'. We follow a Cowboy and his sidekick Crazy Wolf who comes across the mystery of the Crying Woman while investigating an attempted murder in an almost deserted Mexican town. The duo soon learns about the mystery behind The Crying Woman and attempts to get to the bottom of it.

The film mixes elements from horror and westerns in more ways than just the fact that the central character is a cowboy. The bar room brawl is one of the action centrepieces, and is of course a staple of the western genre. The film features a decent atmosphere emanating from the nearby swamp, and this helps to implement the horror tones. Surprisingly, the film is shot in colour, although unsurprisingly, it looks very grainy and cheap. The plot can feel a bit dry at times as there isn't a lot of it, and the film never really capitalises on the 'Crying Woman' theme that made The Curse of the Crying Woman such a delight to watch. The acting ranges from over the top to completely unenthusiastic, and this gives the film more of a trashy feel. When the plot starts to unravel it does feel kind of disappointing, and while fans of Scooby Doo may be happy with how it all turns out, I reckon many people will feel a bit cheated. Overall, this film may be of interest to people who were impressed by other Casa Negra releases, but I certainly wouldn't recommend stating with this one!

Disappointing

[Michael_Elliott · 27 February 2008]

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.

The Living Coffin

[BandSAboutMovies · 3/10 · 23 June 2022]

The Screaming Death was directed by Fernando Méndez, who also made El Vampiro, The Black Pit of Dr. M and Ladrón de Cadáveres. It was written by Ramón Obón, the screenwriter of the first Mil Mascaras movies, as well as the director and writer of Cien Gritos de Terror.

The American version - The Living Coffin - was remixed for U. S. audiences by K. Gordon Murray, who did a lot of that and really didn't ever bother consulting the source material.

Gastón (Gastón Santos, a former bullfighter who played himself in many of his movies) and his sidekick Coyote Loco (Pedro de Aguillón) arrive in a town haunted by La Llorona, the crying woman. Maria (María Duval) believes that the red idol that Gastón is carrying was carved by her deceased aunt Clotilde. And the locals think that that woman is, in fact, the crying woman killing the townsfolk.

The film looks great and mixes gothic horror with western action, but never gets going. But it's an awesome idea and I'll keep looking out for the perfect horror in the west.

THE LIVING COFFIN (Fernando Mendez, 1958) **1/2

[Bunuel1976 · 6/10 · 25 June 2007]

This is a weird amalgam of Gothic horror elements with the Western genre, also interesting for being shot in color. The 71-minute film emerges to be a generally likable curiosity that, with an engaging (even complex) plot, evokes affectionate memories of American 'B' serials from the previous decade – though, ultimately, it's marred by a lethargic pace and, when finally exposed, a trio of uninteresting villains.

Gaston Santos, a famous bullfighter, plays the hero; he's flanked by his resourceful steed and a chubby, perennially sleepy sidekick (initially amusing, he soon becomes overbearing – especially when his antics are accompanied by incongruous 'comic' sound effects!). Unfortunately, too, the star is engaged throughout in some extremely fake fistfights! The main 'ghost' of the narrative actually ties the film with a long-running horror series revolving around a legendary character known as "La Llorona" (The Crying Woman); I've only watched one such film, the fine Mexi-horror THE CURSE OF THE CRYING WOMAN (1961) – which, incidentally, has also been released on DVD by Casanegra.

The typical atmosphere of the horror films originating from Mexico – steeped in family secrets, shadows and superstition (by way of Edgar Allan Poe and Agatha Christie) – is further boosted in this case by the muted but pleasant color scheme. Finally, I much prefer the original title of this film – EL GRITO DE LA MUERTE, which roughly translates to SCREAM OF DEATH – to its American moniker, the rather meaningless THE LIVING COFFIN (which is actually a reference to its being armored with an alarm system in case of body snatching, or in the event the coffin's occupant has been buried alive!).

The most substantial extra on the disc is a very interesting essay by David Wilt about this characteristically Mexican hybrid genre (incidentally, the potential camp entertainment promised by the wealth of titles mentioned here – the absolute majority of which have yet to see the light of day on any digital format – is proof once again that this particular cinematic well is far from exhausted!). However, given its considerable length, the inordinately tiny font used (also for the accompanying cast biographies) is a real strain on the eyes!; besides, the audio for the main feature is a bit low.

A ghostly affair with ghostly color avoids being ghastly.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 22 October 2020]

The two strip color of 1930's horror masterpieces "Doctor X" and "The Mystery of the Wax Museum" may not have looked as vivid as the Technicolor of a decade later, but it did work for those two pre-code classics in the sense that it aided in the mood. But for a horror film over 25 years later to come out using what seems to be a similar technique makes it appear to be much older, especially when dubbed in English where some of the actors speak very slowly in order to try to match the lips movement. The slow pacing works to an extent, but it takes a person of great patience to not find themselves tiring of that element.

A crying ghost is the rumored cause of various deaths in this Mexican town where a family curse has already lead to several people's deaths. When the crying ghost appears, it looks like a heavily made up extra with dirt on their cheek and that spoils the impact of the scene. There are long segments with no dialog so even a Spanish language version would lag. A lot of care has been put into the physical production of the film, but the story and characters aren't well developed. I recommend it for the artistic elements, but the gothic melodrama I was hoping for was sorely lacking.

Horse Power!

[Coventry · 6/10 · 23 November 2007]

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".

I'm going to pull that knife out

[nogodnomasters · 2/10 · 28 February 2018]

A man on a white horse rides into town looking for the woman that carved a statue. She is dead. The doctor has one too. Dead woman is said to be haunting the swamp, yet at the same time she is kept dead by jamming a knife into a perfectly good clock.

Yes, we do get to see the dead woman. Boring film.

The Living Coffin

[Scarecrow-88 · 6/10 · 19 June 2008]

The remaining few citizens of a sleepy Mexican hacienda fear the restless spirit of a woman who lost her children in quicksand. A knife is buried in a grandfather clock's face at the direct moment this woman died. To keep her from returning to plague the town even more, the knife remains until the niece, María(María Duval) of the dead woman's sister, Aunt Doña María(Hortensia Santoveña) plucks it out releasing possible terror on them all. María's intentions were to free her very superstitious, guilt-stricken aunt(..she blames herself for allowing her sister's children to play outside where they fell into the quicksand while her back was turned)of the anguish grieving her. A marshal(Gastón Santos) and his sleepy deputy, Coyote Loco(Pedro de Aguillón)happen to seek info on a small statue made by the woman whose death still culminates, like a thundercloud, on the township. What they encounter is murders to the hacienda's emotionally wounded alcoholic doctor(Antonio Raxel)who was still saddened by the loss of the weeping woman for whom he was to marry and Doña María, by a mysterious woman, with a ghastly complexion and sharpened claws which rip the faces of those she strangles, who removed herself from a tomb once María pulled the knife from the clock. But, our marshal believes that, in fact, there are mortals behind the murders and will stop at nothing to diminish the gloomy atmosphere of a hacienda riddled with fear, bringing a murderer to justice. We see towards the opening of the film that someone, in the bushes, shot Doña María's hired help in the back near the swamp where the quicksand is located and perhaps the restless spirit of the weeping woman wanders still mourning the loss of her children.

Being a Casa Negra release, I was anticipating a Gothic western with supernatural overtones. Instead, director Fernando Méndez's film plays more like a western serial with shoot-outs, a bar fight, and even horse tricks(..like one scene where the marshal's rescued from the quicksand thanks to his horse bringing rope to his aid;the horse also makes discoveries which assist it's master). Despite the appearances of a Gothic terror tale regarding a ghost haunting the inhabitants of a once thriving community, it's instead a western where the marshal, pretty much a cowboy sleuth with Alan Ladd matinée idol looks, cracks down on corruption regarding the ownership of the hacienda and a mine containing gold. There's a reason why he's interested in finding out more about the stone statue, depicting a weeping female, carved out of gold. Pedro de Aguillón, as the marshal's sidekick always looking for a bed to sleep on, is a bumbling clown, used for comedy relief as the film builds to the climax. "The Living Coffin", in my mind(..and to other Casa Negra fans it seems), is a second tier release next to the upper echelon of films such as "Black Pit of Dr. M", "Curse of the Crying Woman" & "The Witch's Mirror", but I still recommend it. The fisticuffs are a bit flawed, but the film has it's moments such as when the murderess attacks her victims, and there are some neat little secret passageways and red herrings to keep mystery fans interested. I can't help feeling a bit disappointed that "The Living Coffin" doesn't pursue the supernatural elements, because the Weeping Woman myth sure excited me a bit. And, the idea that a restless spirit, which carries the appearance of an insane witch, is killing folks in a hacienda sure seems like a "can't miss". The short length is a blessing in disguise, though, and the film doesn't outstay it's welcome.

I would just suggest to Gothic horror fans hoping for another "Black Pit" from director Mendez, to keep their expectations low. He was aiming for the western/mystery crowd with this one.

God dammit, I told you not to disturb the grave!

[lee_eisenberg · 8/10 · 6 May 2014]

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.

Beware of the Llorona

[EdgarST · 6/10 · 13 September 2016]

Not much to recommend here: this motion picture has a few elements reminiscent of "El vampiro" (the ghostly woman walking through dark corridors, the evil surrounding the sets of the dark hacienda in contrast to the sunny exteriors, humor combined with terror) but director Fernando Méndez and screenwriter Ramón Obón were not up to that previous collaboration. Obón would still write a few fine horror scripts (as "El mundo de los vampiros" and "La loba"), but Méndez stopped directing movies two years later, after making a routine western diptych and a formulaic melodrama. The leading man (swinger Gastón Santos, rich son of the big señor of his hometown, in real life) is prettier than the whole cast, but everybody acts better than him. He plays some kind of lone ranger and detective who arrives at a gloomy hacienda where an old woman (Hortensia Santoveña) lives in fright of her dead sister's spell, objecting all intents by her young niece (María Duval) to make life happier in the country side. The few persons remaining in a once prosperous town now live in fright of the vengeful Llorona (Crying Woman), who is somehow connected to the town doctor, two statues sculptured on a strange stone, a deadly swamp and killer cowboys. Santos is a good rider though and his horse Rayo de Plata also plays a key role in the plot, while Pedro de Aguillón plays Santos' sidekick in the lines of a Sancho Panza, adding lines and slapstick here and there, intended to be funny. Unfortunately the action lacks the right spirit, be it comedy or horror, in spite of Gustavo César Carrión's funny effort to add galloping beats to his score. Nothing said if you care for stiff terror westerns with intelligent horses and haunted swamps. Then this is for you.

First seen on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater in 1967

[kevinolzak · 6/10 · 17 May 2024]

1958's "The Living Coffin" (El Grito de la Muerte or The Cry of Death) was a sequel of sorts to the previous year's "The Swamp of the Lost Monsters," again scripted by the prolific Ramon Obon and starring the Western duo of Gaston Santos and Pedro de Aguillon. Doing a superior job at the helm than Rafael Baledon was "El Vampiro" director Fernando Mendez, breezing through Old West cliches to highlight the horror in living color, right from the precredits sequence where a dying man collapses next to some skeletal remains. A pair of carved idols puts Gaston and his trusty horse Rayo de Plata on the scent of the sculptor, a recently deceased mother who channeled her grief over losing both sons to the fearsome swamp into their creation. Now her weeping ghost is said to haunt the ranch as 'La Llorona' (The Crying Woman), and indeed reappears to claw a few unsuspecting victims to death, such as the doctor who owned the second idol, his corpse found hanging above the roaring fireplace. This would indicate a more corporeal threat at work, and with villainous Quintin Bulnes among the henchmen, the solution may come off as routine, but careful camera setups coupled with light and shadow manage to overcome script limitations to deliver genuinely atmospheric chills. Bulnes would soon essay his best known genre role as the zombie master in Benito Alazraki's "The Curse of the Doll People," going on to work opposite Boris Karloff in both "Snake People" and "House of Evil," while splendid leading lady Maria Duval balanced a popular singing career with acting in various low budget projects, from early Santo to John Carradine in starring vehicles for Mil Mascaras, "Las Vampiras" and "Enigma de Muerte." Her character initially comes off curt and a little suspicious, but soon sets the action in motion by the removal of a knife held in place to signify the death of her spectral aunt, elements of Poe's "Premature Burial" in place to maintain a level of tension once a second coffin vanishes from the crypt despite its constantly ringing bell to signify catalepsy. The ghastly makeup on the ghost is simple but effective, the attack scenes granting this the edge over its earlier companion piece. Of course there's a barroom brawl where no punch seems to actually land, and a curiously impassive Gaston Santos is easily outshone by his gallant steed, rescuing his master from quicksand after fooling the villains into believing a hidden posse is shooting at them (the less said about the comic relief the better). Rafael Baledon himself would tackle the legend of La Llorona with 1963's "The Curse of the Crying Woman," while Ramon Obon's 1964 "100 Cries of Terror" played off this film's original Mexican title.