Mondo Macabro: The Witches Mountain (1972) - Reviewed

Images courtesy of Mondo Macabro

Longtime prolific Spanish cinematographer Raúl Artigot best known for his work on The Pyjama Girl Case and The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein made his directorial debut in 1972 with the scenic widescreen Spanish horror oddity The Witches Mountain.  Originally banned in Spain over political reasons before being broadcast on European and U.S. television via public domain in cropped damaged prints, the film comes to blu-ray disc for the first time in it’s original scope 2.35:1 aspect ratio via boutique releasing label Mondo Macabro who in recent years have taken a strong interest in cult Spanish thrillers and/or horror usually from Paul Naschy.  Though decidedly tame if not a little ineffectual with scant if any violence or sexual content and though one of only three features directed by Artigot, it nevertheless represents an interesting if not unique curiosity in the then-burgeoning folk-horror subgenre.

 
Photojournalist Mario (Cihangir Gaffari) is amid a bitter breakup from his girlfriend Monica and he accepts a photo assignment in the distant isolated mountains of Asturias in northern Spain to clear his head.  While on his camera-oriented sojourn he crosses paths with a young lady-writer named Delia (Edge of the Axe scream queen Patty Shepard) and she tags along with him.  But when his car is stolen and then found abandoned near a cottage in the misty mountains, they take refuge in the cottage.  Strangely and frighteningly, witchy ghostly figures begin appearing in his photographs and Mario begins losing track of time and place and that a nearby convent of witches might in fact be closing in on the unassuming couple.  With a creepy clerk managing the cottage and mysterious demonic chanting that comes and goes without warning provided by composer Fernando García Morcillo and scope widescreen photography by eventual City Slickers camera operator Fernando Espiga and A Fistful of Dollars cameraman Ramón Sempere, The Witches Mountain from a technical end has all the ingredients for a real spine-tingling chiller.

 
Unfortunately, despite the pedigree of the cinematography and settings and the arresting atonal instrumentation of the score, The Witches Mountain with its murky blurry transfer and often dimly blue-lit nighttime vistas unfortunately tends to meander.  Occasionally frightening with some measure of moodiness and atmosphere, the film is less overtly scary save for some subliminal flash cuts of uncanny figures appearing in photographs and more of a low-key vibe of unease.  High on buildup and kind of middling on its eventual delivery, the film initially was banned outright by the Spanish government during the fascist era and subsequent copies from overseas were either in substandard or cropped image quality.  The new Mondo Macabro disc represents a new improved (and finally widescreen) restoration albeit with waxy DNR and ghosting on the image resulting in a dulled if not blurry image that only comes to life with wide open vistas of mountaintops touching the sky.

 
A bit of a mixed bag, Mondo Macabro aficionados and fans of all things related to unearthing forgotten Spanish horror will enjoy the indulgences and the presence of Patty Shepard onscreen before her true foray into scream queendom.  For others, it is a good bet you’ll come away a bit underwhelmed if not bored by this.  Watching it I was thinking of the infinitely more engaging and visually stunning (also Spanish) made The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue from Jorge Grau.  Comparatively that was a film that not only had all the same elements of scenic beauty and a creepy premise, but it more than delivered on its seismic conclusion rather than slowly sauntering towards it.  Again Mondo Macabro completists will get a reasonably unique time at the Spanish horror movies but compared to some of the other Spanish Macabros that have come and gone (Alucarda in particular), The Witches Mountain was kind of a dud.

--Andrew Kotwicki