Pulp Features

Carlos Alberto Alonso was born in La Coruna, the same place as the late and respected Amando de Ossorio , who gace the world of horror the infamous Blind Dead series. Though they never worked together, Alonso grew up admiring this man and one can see some of the influence this has had on his own works, most especially in the musical score. Like Ossorio, with his familiar templar theme, a bastardized Gregorian chant utilized in all of the aforenoted Blind Dead series, Alonso too, has used repetitive, even annoying film scores, with screeching Spanish bagpipes (they do have them in northern Spain), hoofbeats and heartbeat sounds to enhance the suspense in his films.

Until recently, this new director has been primarily known as a man who makes short films, but is now seeking to expand into features. in the meantime, his past projects have won various awards and he has been making the circuits, attending various horror film festivals in Europe, to gain support for new projects.

Among his most notable creations was the recently released As Muxicas. In Spanish, with English subtitles, one isn’t sure whether to laugh or be baffled, as the story surrounds two elderly actors. The plot involves an aging husband in wife living in Spain in the early 1920s. Each fearing the other will die, the husband announces calmly that he will dig his wife’s grave, though she isn’t even sick yet. Okay, so much for that. The rest of the story is best left to be viewed, though most safely conclude what they think will happen doesn’t happen. When the husband says he will have to kill his wife, because the grave has been dug but cannot remain empty, due to some peasant superstition, the course of action seems set, but all is not what it seems.

The title of As Muxicas relates to a superstition from northern Spain. Here, the souls of departed people appear as tiny sparks of flame, like those admitted from a bonfire. To see them is to prove fatal, the unlucky viewer being hit with a death curse. Well, there’s something you don’t see every day.

Alonso likewise has a knack for film quality and camerawork which is uncommon both in Spanish horror (remember some of the Paul Naschy films where it looked like the werewolf effects were created by old carpet and glue or sadly to say, Ossorio’s The Sea Serpent, with the hoakiest looking monster ever, a complete contrast from his terrifying Templars). Shooting in the north of Spain, where you have more mountains, rivers and forrest country, provide a big contrast with the usual fare generated from this country, with the dry deserts seen in westerns, bullfight footage depicted in Currito de la Cruz, Traje De oro and the like, or the murkier side of Madrid, as constantly cropping up with Almodóvar.

Keep an eye out for this fellow and visit his webpage. There are ample graphics, even for those who cannot read one sentence of the text. Here likewise, you can see some stills from As Muxicas, which has been wellreceived at recent festivals in France, Portugal and of course Spain.

Trackback this Post | Feed on comments to this Post