El fantasma del convento
El fantasma del convento is a 1934 Mexican horror film directed by Fernando de Fuentes, who also co-wrote and edited the film.
Plot
One night, Eduardo, his wife Cristina and their friend, Alfonso lose their way in the mountains and are guided by a mysterious stranger to an eerie monastery inhabited by the Order of the Brothers of Silence. They are allowed to stay the night, but mysterious happenings begin to unnerve them.A meal with the Brothers is interrupted by a mysterious wind; when the Brothers leave to pray against a supposedly malevolent force, the three find only ashes on the plates that had held food. They follow and watch the monks fervently praying. Returning to the dining hall, the old Father Superior tells them the story of Brother Rodrigo, a man who long ago desired his friend's wife; Rodrigo later found the cursed Book of Evil and used it to sell his soul to acquire his desire. When the friend mysteriously died, Rodrigo could not find peace and came to the monastery to become a monk and to later die in his cell, but to never find peace in death, and that his spirit continually returns to the now sealed cursed cell. As the Father Superior tells the story, Cristina secretly scratches the word "coward" on the table for Alfonso to see.
Alfonso, Eduardo and Cristina are escorted back to their chambers. Cristina sneaks into Alfonso's chamber and tries to seduce him; about to give in to her advances, he makes her leave. Changing his mind, he goes to her door and begs her to let him in, but receives no reply. Alfonso goes to the fateful cell and, when the locked door opens of its own accord, enters it. Inside, the sinful monk's mummified corpse gestures towards a book on the stool beside the bed on which it is lying. Alfonso reads the book and finds that it is the Book of Evil that had caused Brother Rodrigo's downfall. As he too is tempted, he speaks Eduardo's name aloud and the pages begin dripping blood, forming the words "will die".
When the mummified body on the bed turns into the cadaver of Eduardo, Alfonso is trapped in the room, which is once again locked, and sinks into a delirium. When he awakens the next morning, he finds himself in the hallway outside the room and is reunited with Cristina, who seems returned to normal, and Eduardo, who is still alive. The trio find out from a custodian that the monastery has been an empty ruin for many years and that the crypt with the mummified monks has become a tourist attraction. Their belief that the whole experience was a dream is shaken when, examining the now dust-covered dining table, they find the word "coward" that Cristina had scratched upon it the night before.
Cast
- Enrique del Campo as Alfonso
- Marta Roel as Cristina
- Carlos Villatoro as Eduardo
- Paco Martínez as Padre Prior
- Victorio Blanco as Monje