El Cosmico here, with great pleasure, I present a most excellent sequence of words and pictures from a truly fine fellow...our pal Lobo. Here now, his report:
Que Pasa CineLocos !! , Well I'm (LOBO) back and this time with a report for those who like Jodorowsky movies and also for the ones that like horror films. I decided to write this because this Señor Director (JUAN LOPEZ MOCTEZUMA) passed away on August 2nd five years ago and I would like to share with you some of his background and work from the 70's.
The name of this Señor, great creator and director of horror films, is JUAN LOPEZ MOCTEZUMA. He was born in Mexico City on 1932 the same year when another great director ALFONSO ARAU(Like Water for Chocolate..etc.) was born. He was the part of a family that tried to push him in the Society traditions, they were wanting for Juan to become a Lawyer or a Doctor or some of those Big $$ making careers, but thanx God he didn't listened to them and decided to go for other areas like theater,radio,TV and even painting which introduced him to the filmaking business. He start making short films in the 50's like "Dios y Libertad"(God and Liberty)<<--I guess I see some of this words every day....may be in the U.S. coins ..hmmmm??. Anyways, after his short films he had some trouble in the 60's to make it Big time because a lot of people (Movie $$ Big daddies) thought that he didn't had enough experience and his work was very explicit.
Later in time (that's the 60's still) he work as the assistant of the director Saki Sano where he had the chance to meet the director ALEJANDRO JODOROWSKY(Chile) who was just starting on building up his fame in Mexico and around the world. The work of Juan Lopez Moctezuma became interesting to Jodorowsky and because of that he decided that they had to work together (like Sherlock and Watson). El Señor Juan Lopez Moctezuma collaborated with Alex Jodorowsky in the movie FANDO Y LIS(1967) a movie that was lost for several years and recently released. He also was one of the producers of the movie EL TOPO (my favorite one of Jodorowsky) , where ALFONSO ARAU plays one of the bandits. Later Moctezuma went on his own and made a movie in 1971 called "LA MANSION DE LA LOCURA"(Dr. Tarr's torture dungeon) where he had some of the team from EL TOPO (Roberto Viskin & Rafael Corquidi), this movie in particular is based on a novel by Edgar Allan Poe, he also got a lot of awards with this movie in Film festivals around the world.
Moctezuma also had little response from the film industry and as Alex Jodorowsky he did't found a way to get his hands on the commercial movie making because of the content and the subjects he had on his work. That was until 1974 when he had the chance to make/direct MARY, MARY BLOODY MARY, having in the cast; JOHN CARRADINE and CRISTINA FERRARE along many others. In 1975 he made the movie "ALUCARDA, LA HIJA DE LAS TINIEBLAS" (Sisters of Satan) where he was the director, producer and got himself a small part as an actor. He didn't made another film for a while, but after a big break he came back with the movie "MATAR A UN EXTRAÑo"(To Kill a Stranger) on 1982 and "BIENVENIDA MARIA"(Welcome Maria) on 1986.
He also worked in "EL ALIMENTO DEL MIEDO"(Food of fear) on 1993 where he worked as the director and wrote the screenplay, this movie was based on a real life case in the sixties of a woman in Mexico that was selling tamales with human flesh, from this case I've heard that she got caught because one of the people that bought from her found the finger of a baby inside of one of the tamales, so watch out and be careful on what you eat, ( Tongue and brains tacos , mmmmmm......Rico !!!). His last work was a series of horror stories/shorts based on some of the novels by EDGAR ALLAN POE, this series/shorts were made to apear on TV for like a half an hour but they haven't being screened anymore, and nobody knows what happened to them, the name of the series was "El vampiro"(The Vampire) and people say that they were once shown in U.S. and after that some TV company in Mexico bought the rights and later dissapear, these series/shorts sound like some TV series in Mexico called "LA HORA MARCADA" but I am not sure if was the same kind of stuff because I never had a chance to see "The Vampire" but "La Hora Marcada" kicks ass..
MARY, MARY, BLOODY MARY...
This movie has blood-suckers (not Vampires) sex and gore and is about a Woman killing her lovers (including a Lesbian) to drink their blood, also in the movie there is another blood-sucker (Mary's father) that also kills a couple of people(John Carradine), there is a lot of blood and some symbolism like in Fando and Lis. Mary can live several days by just eating and drinking normal food, but her father must find a victim to get blood and survive. There is just two scenes in spanish diring the entire movie and one of them is in the morgue where John Carradine dressed in Black enters and kills the keeper with a switchblade and gets Buffet !!
SISTERS OF SATAN
I am just going to give you a little something of this movie because you have to see it and I don't want to spoil it, I mean this fllick takes place in a orphanage on 1868 and has really odd-cool things like a hunchback,crypts, corpses, demons, orgies, is one of those flicks that makes sense but it doesn't, it has vampires but they are not they are demons, this film is great and is my favorite movie of Juan Lopez Moctezuma its just cool, I mean the way this guy did it with the little $$ he had to make it and back in the 70's is just great, you can't really tell this movie was made that way because of the editing and special effects it has. Just get it and see it, you will love this film....if you can't find it...I'm sorry because you really are missing a great cult-film.
Dr. TARR'S TORTURE DUNGEON
This movie, based on a story by Edgar Allan Poe is about a Doctor and his patients in an asylum where most of them are running around freely as a way to encouraged and discover their fantasies as a type of recovery therapy.Crazy enough this is a good flick but not my favorite, it has some humor and this was Moctezuma's first feature film as a director.
EL TOPO
Well now that you got to know a little bit about this Señor Director and his movies, I will let you go now, so you can get this flicks and watch them on you own TV-theater. Hasta la vista....wait !!! if you know anything about those series/shorts "The Vampire" please let me know okay..because I would like to put an eye on them while eating tamales..
