The Wind of Fear (2007)

Nice effects though.

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Time passes and this movie is revealing a lot of good stuff. The acting is very strong and Danny Perea, specially, creates a beautiful and tormented character. It's very different than the original in terms of emotion and ambition and, of course, it's not perfect but nonetheless is a strong piece of cinema. Carlos Enrique Taboada's intentions of creating a love triangle in the story are finally realized; this shocked many people when the movie was released, but it was the original intention of Taboada. It seems that the movie was made with very little resources, but the director takes advantage of that and creates a very special dark and romantic mood. It has very little in common with Mexican contemporary cinema. Don't miss it.

A girl (Martha Higareda) tries to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge. When the attempt is thwarted, she is committed to strange mental institution for very sexy and suspiciously mature-looking Mexican girls. She and her equally troubled fellow inmates are attended to by a creepy female psychiatrist. Strange supernatural things begin to occur, largely connected to an eerie abandoned tower on the hospital grounds. Eventually the protagonist is possessed by a vengeful spirit. . .This is a largely unnecessary remake of an earlier 1967 Mexican film with the same title ("Even the Wind Is Afraid"), but it's a pretty different film other than both have the same eerie looking tower and a girl-on-girl striptease scene (although naturally the scene here goes a lot farther). I understand why some of the anglo-phone Mexicans are contemptuous of this film, but very few people outside of Latin America have ever seen the original since (to my knowledge) it has never been released with English subtitles. And this is such a different film, it really deserves to be judged on its own merits (or lack thereof).Martha Higareda is most famous for playing another boarding-school girl in the 2006 Mexican film "Ninas Mal" where she showed off her breasts a lot. She shows off pretty much everything here, but aside from that, they're very different movies--that is a raunchy comedy and this is pretty much a straight horror film. Of course, female nudity doesn't necessarily make for a good film, but it's also an odd thing to complain about. I did find it a little strange that these "teenage mental patients" all look at least twenty, but are wearing school uniforms for some reason (hmmm, sexy 20-year-old girls in and out school uniforms--I think I'm starting to understand now). As a HORROR film, this is pretty weak, and not really a spot on the original, but it is mildly entertaining at least, and there is nothing in it that really justifies some of the hate. . .

Having not seen the 1968 original, I will not comment on the remake in comparison. I will look at it on it's own.Martha Higareda (Smokin' Aces 2: Assassins' Ball) and Verónica Langer ("The Crime of Padre Amaro") head this primarily female cast, with a great performance by Elizabeth Valdez.The film was not really very suspenseful, and there was no horror. It was a basic ghost inhabiting a body to get revenge against the one who killed her.Outside of a few short nude scenes, there is really nothing to recommend this film.

Although some may disagree, this remake of the 1968 cult classic by Carlos Enrique Taboada, excels the original in many ways . Gustavo Moheno does justice to the story and manages to create a very scary entertainment. The main change? While the original took place in a boarding school, this one occurs in a psychiatric asylum.One of the best scenes recreates the famous striptease done by Norma Lazareno, but while in the original this dance was extremely well choreographed loosing credibility, in the remake the sequence fluids as a very spontaneous act that follows the impulses of a group of girls that just want to have fun.In general terms the ghost story is the same as the original but with new variations that add drama to the situation. There is a beautiful scene in which Martha Higareda reveals her naked body in front of a mirror that suggests the main theme of the movie (which I'm not going to mention because it could be a spoiler).The original film was formulaic and this remake can't help using the formula as well. Nevertheless, this new version is very well done, full of fascinating stuff that blocks, to some degree, all the clichés that defined Taboada's formula.