The Aztec Mummy Trilogy

The Aztec Mummy Trilogy

1957

Director- Rafel Lopez Portillo

Cast-  Ramón Gay, Rosa Arenas, Crox Alvarado, Luis Aceves Castañeda, Ángel Di Stefani, Arturo Martínez

            

     This is a trilogy of movies, all directed by Rafel Lopez Portillo, using the same cast and directed at the same time in 1957. Viewed sequentially they form a single story that centers around a centuries old, Aztec mummy.

The Aztec Mummy (La Momia Azteca)

            

     The story begins with a warning about a supervillain called The Bat who is known to conduct strange experiments on animals. Meanwhile, Dr. Eduardo Almada has been developing a process of hypnotic regression where he can get a person to recall events from a past life. He is appropriately scoffed at by the scientific community and feels disheartened. But what does this have to do with a mummy? Well just wait.

       

   

     In a burst of inspiration, he decides to hypnotize his fiancé Flor. Through hypnosis, Flor recalls an astounding memory. Centuries before, Flor was an Aztec maiden named Xochitl. She was to supposed to maintain her virginity so that one day she could be sacrificed to the gods. Unfortunately she bucks tradition and falls in love with a warrior, Popoca. She and Popoca upset the local priests when they consummate their relationship. As punishment, Popoca is forced to drink a potion that drives him insane. Xochtiti is ritually murdered and a golden breastplate and bracelet are placed on her corpse.  OK, but where is the mummy?

            

     Before we get to that, this is the point where we need to make sure that you are acquainted with Mexican horror.  Mexican horror is not like other western horror. It’s not even like Spanish horror. Mexican horror doesn’t have the internal consistency that viewers come to expect from traditional horror subgenres. As a result, it can be both bizarre and fun. It’s closer to American horror than European but with much less rules. For instance, science fiction and horror are rarely mixed and when they are mixed its usually just scary science fiction involving aliens. Rarely does American horror combine science fiction with something truly supernatural.  Mexican horror, on the other hand, will combine all sorts of genres with little thought as to whether or not they “should” go together.

            

     Dr. Almada knows that in order to prove his theories he’ll have to have something to back up his story. So using information from his wife’s recently retrieved past life memory he takes her and his cowardly friend Pinacate to an Aztec temple and starts looking for a tomb. There, Flor comes face to face with herself and finds the corpse of Xochitit, now just a skeleton. They take the breastplate from her corpse and then head out. Unbeknownst to them though, this has woken up Popoca who was cursed to be a mummy and guard the tomb (finally!).

            

     The doctor presents the breastplate to the scientific community and they (rather unscientifically) accept this as proof of his theories about past lives. The breastplate contains inscriptions that are supposed to lead to a vast treasure but unfortunately one has to have the bracelet to decode it. Dr. Almada decides he’ll go back to the tomb but the other scientists (again rather unscientifically) warn him about the dark powers that guard it. He scoffs at their fears as mere superstition, which is weird considering the things he has already proven to be true. He has proven the existence of past lives that can be accessed through hypnosis, but a mysterious curse is just a bridge too far for him I guess.

            

     Flor objects to all of this and chimes in as well about the dark powers. But this was the 1950s and I guess no woman’s objections were going to get in the way of science. The doctor goes back to the tomb and comes face to face with the mummy and runs home with his tale between his legs.

            

     But The Bat meanwhile (almost forgot about him didn’t you) has been monitoring the whole situation because he is actually one of the scientists that has been scoffing at the doctor. He sends his henchman, Tierno, to the doctor’s house to steal the breastplate. Tierno, by the way, means “tender” in Spanish, which is a terrible name for a villain. Popoco the mummy, however, is also on his way to the good doctor’s house for the same purpose. Tender runs into the mummy and retreats. When he tells The Bat what happened, The Bat thinks he is full of crap. Again, The Bat is willing to accept everything else but not The Mummy? You have to remind yourself that this is Mexican horror.

            

     Popoca gets his breastplate and decides to kidnap Flor while he is at it. He takes her back to the tomb with the intention of re-enacting her ritual sacrifice. The Bat, meanwhile gets caught by the police while giving chase. Dr.Alamada, Pinacate, and Flor’s father save Flor from the mummy. Her father uses a crucifix to keep it at bay. Why a crucifix would work on an Aztec mummy, I have no idea. Fortunately, he also uses a stick of dynamite which, though killing him in the process, traps Popoca in his tomb.

            

     The movie only has one drawback. Most of the mummy’s scenes take place in the dark and the lighting is so poor, it’s hard to get a good look at it. But the mummy isn’t really the star anyway, more of a plot device.

The Curse of the Aztec Mummy  (La Maldición de la Momia Azteca)

           

     This movie picks up right where the last one left off (after about 20 minutes of recap). The Bat, after being arrested in the last film, is being transported to prison. His crew ambushes the transport and a shootout ensues. A caped, roadster driving, masked luchador, The Angel, intervenes. Yes, a masked wrestler has now entered our tale. Remember, I told you, this was Mexican horror.

            

     The Angel gives the bad guys what for but in the end there are too many of them. He is subdued and The Bat escapes. He still has his sights set on the Aztec treasure and wants that breastplate. But he doesn’t know where in the tomb it was located. Well, if Dr. Alamada can hypnotize Flor to get it, then The Bat can too! He kidnaps her and gets his hands on the breastplate and bracelet. He holds Flor hostage and forces Dr. Alamada to start working on translating the inscriptions.

            

     The Angel intervenes and is beaten (he doesn’t seem to be a very good superhero). He gets stuck dangling over a pit of snakes and escapes in time to get captured again. His mask is removed (the nightmare of every luchador) and we find out that he is actually the supposedly cowardly Pinacate. The doctor finishes the translation and The Bat is about to kill them when Popoca the mummy shows up and wreaks havoc. The henchman, Tender, gets acid splashed on his (they are in a villain’s hideout after all and such things are often left lying around). The Bat falls in the aforementioned pit of snakes and Popoca, in possession of his treasure again, goes on his way. Everyone can now live happily ever after. Or so it seems.

The Robot vs. the Aztec Mummy (La Momia Azteca contra el Robot Humano)

            

     Volume three picks up five years after the last film (after another 20 minutes of recap). Pinacate (his identity revealed) has abandoned his charade of The Angel. The Bat, though, has not abandoned his dream of the Aztec treasure. You can say this for him, the man is goal oriented. He needs two things; to know where Popoca (and his breastplate) have disappeared to and a way to beat him. Tender, though, just wants revenge for his acid burned face.

            

     The Bat theorizes correctly that Flor and the mummy have a psychic connection. Since The Bat has hypnotized her before, he can exert remote control over her. She sleepwalks out of her home and takes The Bat to a cemetery where Popoca is resting. She then goes home and wakes up the next morning, none the wiser.

            

     The Bat kidnaps everyone again, and again steals the breastplate, but this time he is prepared. Remember at the beginning when I mentioned those weird medical experiments. Well, that finally comes into play. The Bat has stolen a human head and placed it inside a robot (which I guess, technically makes it a cyborg). This atomic powered abomination is meant to protect him against Popoca. When the mummy shows up, it’s initially a good fight, but in the end, supernatural vengeance trumps any man made monstrosity. Evil is finally vanquished. Popoca can finally be left alone with his breastplate and Flor can live out her life without anyone else trying to kidnap or hypnotize her.

            

     Viewed all together, the entire trilogy is about 3 and half hours long (assuming that you don’t skip through the 40 minutes of recap). This is a crazy series typical of the fun that can be found in Mexican horror if you’re willing to put logic aside and just take things at face value. It’s not as classic as say, the Santo series, but still fun to watch. Actually, I think a modern remake by Guillermo del Toro could be very entertaining.

Side note: Several other Mexican movies would later use the idea of an Aztec mummy, most notably Wrestling Women vs. the Aztec Mummy (1964), but none of these films are related to this trilogy. For a similarly fun if not quite so eclectic story, check out the American serial, The Crimson Ghost.