The She-Wolf (1965) by Rafael Baledón

Director: Rafael Baledón

Year: 1965

Country: Mexico

Alternate Titles: La loba

Genre: Werewolf

Plot:

Deciding to visit a friend, a doctor arrives at the home of a famous scientist to ask about marrying his daughter, but realizing that he’s arrived in the middle of a series of attacks by a fabled creature that has ties to his daughter’s strange condition, he tries to help him solve it before more are killed.

Review:

This was a massively entertaining Gothic horror effort. Among the best aspects to be had with this one is the solid and engaging backstory that merges together traditional folklore with localized elements. The main setup of the film, working on a slight change to most traditional werewolf efforts, is that there’s a strange disease-like infection causing the transformation, and witnessing the father try to treat it with his latest experiments adds a slight spin on the traditional formula. As we still get the transformation method through the same Full Moon triggers and the affliction being treated as a curse that her father and his friend try desperately to cure, there’s a great connection here to allow for its more exotic dalliances, including the idea of having the whole thing be impeded by the romantic relationship at the core of his visit to the house. This all comes together for a rather solid and somewhat intriguing setup for this kind of feature.

That allows for the film to maintain a solid series of impressive and high-energy attack scenes with the werewolf running wild through the community. The opening attack shows the creature emerging from its tomb and running through the local woods, taking out several individuals each in graphic detail, including unnatural leaping through the air, vicious snarling, and rabid pawing at their faces and bodies, resulting in several vicious attack scenes that are quite fun, starting the film on a hot streak. Later scenes involving the creature attacking others around the hacienda she lives at with her father or stalking others in the house as it leads into the thrilling brawl in the finale involving the werewolves clawing and brawling throughout the house leading to some rather shocking and brutal attacks, which given the chance at showing off the fantastic make-up for the creature, are enough to hold this up over its minor drawbacks.

There isn’t much in the way of drawbacks here, but there are some slight issues. The main element with this one is the series of slight changes to the werewolf origins that are featured within here. The idea of this one focuses less on the idea of a curse transferred to survivors and takes it with a more chemically-induced affliction that her father and his friend are looking to cure, which is taken to such a degree that it introduces a different means of stopping the beast as well. There’s such a bizarre change to the eventual defeat that it comes off more as a comical letdown than anything, which is a setup for the other issue in its sense of goofiness, despite the sense of class in the rest of the film. From the design of the creature to the behavior it exhibits during the attacks and the overwrought melodrama for the romantic relationship, there’s a silly sensibility to it that it doesn’t need compared to the more serious attitude featured here. These are the films’ few detrimental factors.

Overview: ****/5

A generally fantastic Mexican Gothic horror effort, there’s not much in the way of flaws with this one, as only a few minor drawbacks are present, which hold it from reaching the upper echelons of the genre. Those with an interest in this type of genre fare, are curious about it in general, or are fans of the approach, will have a lot to like here, while most others might want to heed caution.