REDCAT is pleased to present in-person Fernando Méndez’s Misterios de ultratumba (82 min.,1958), an electrifying scary tale about the man who shocked society with his scientific experiments at the beginning of the century. Dr. Mazali tampers with the limits of life and death, and as he does, the mental asylum he is in charge of becomes the central stage for unsettling apparitions, occultism, and maddening haunting. Misterios de ultratumba is one of the long forgotten masterpieces of classic horror cinema in Mexico. Inexplicably overlooked by history, the film is crafted with precision by the late Fernando Méndez as he leads Rafael Bertrand (Dr. Mazali) and Mapita Cortés (Patricia) amidst a wonderfully gothic atmosphere. The film glows with gorgeous black and white cinematography by Victor Herrera and top art design by Gunther Gerzo. What lies beyond death? Who would dare approach these secrets?

Accompanying the screening of Misterios de ultratumba is a virtual performative lecture The Pentagram of Mexican Cinema Horror Legends (83 min., 2021) by film curator and historian Abraham Castillo Flores –– a one-of-a-kind celebration at the threshold of Halloween and Día de Muertos. Bursting with bristling film clips and unheard-of stories from the cinematic beyond, Castillo Flores presents a must-see psychotronic lecture that will invoke the legends of Mexican folklore that have manifested themselves throughout the years in the country’s delirious cinema of fantasy and horror: La Llorona, El Santo, La Momia, La Muerte and El Diablo. 

With your purchase of the in-person screening of Misterios de ultratumba, audiences will be provided with a voucher code to see the virtual presentation of Abraham Castillo Flores’ The Pentagram of Mexican Cinema Horror Legends: A Performative Lecture.