The Phantom of the Monastery or El fantasma del convento to give it its Mexican title is a 1934 gothic horror movie from Mexican director Fernando de Fuentes (El Compadre Mendoza and ¡Vámonos con Pancho Villa!). After the huge success of Ramón Peón’s La Llorona in 1933, it was hoped that Fuentes could repeat that success with his own horror movie. Starring Enrique del Campo, Marta Roel and Carlos Villatoro, who would go on to direct Santo Vs the Zombies, it was to become a much-loved classic of early Mexican cinema.

The story itself is about two friends, Alfonso (del Campo) and Eduardo (Villatoro), and Eduardo’s wife Christina (Roel). The trio find themselves lost in a forest at night at which point a monk with a dog appears and offers to guide our protagonists to the nearby monastery as he is headed in that direction himself. Eduardo is at first reticent to follow the man, but the others encourage him and before long they are being welcomed into the monastery by another of the order, and with his words “When the soul harbours no impure desire, there is nothing to fear in this house of God” ringing in their ears they enter the monastery. What becomes evident very quickly is that Alfonso and Christina are having an affair behind Eduardo’s back, and before long Alfonso’s guilt about this relationship starts to eat away at him, while Christina wants him to take her away from her husband. All the while, strange things are happening all around them and the words of the monk may well come back to haunt them.

The Phantom of the Monastery is a masterpiece of gothic cinema, one that deserves to be held in the highest esteem. This is every bit as effective as Universal’s classic monsters or the German expressionist classics of the 1920s, in fact, it shares a similar feel to the Bella Lugosi classic, White Zombie. It is dripping in atmosphere, specifically the scenes featuring members of the monastic order  “The Brother of Silence”. Performances are solid across the board, but what really sets this apart from many other films of its day is that atmosphere, it literally oozes from every frame. De Fuentes makes great use of his low budget, creating a film that relies heavily on its well-written screenplay and some outstanding cinematography from Ross Fisher who uses light and shadow to great effect. 

It’s great that Powerhouse has rediscovered this underappreciated gem and given it the release it deserves. The new print, taken from the 4k restoration undertaken by the UCLA Film and Television Archive and The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project looks great for a film of this age and history. It is also really important that such a product of Mexico’s post-revolutionary past is preserved for future generations as a reminder of the way in which things changed in that important period of Mexican history. The disc from Powerhouse also features a wonderful audio commentary from the ever-knowledgeable Kim Newman and Stephen Jones and the short featurette, The Devil in the Details, where Abraham Castillo Flores, head programmer of Mexico’s Mórbido Film Fest, reflects on the influence of this early horror classic.