My First Taste of Horror – LA HORA MARCADA (1988-1990)

January 15, 2024

This shouldn’t take long. That is what I told myself when I stumbled upon old episodes of La Hora Marcada (1988-1990) on ViX (not a sponsor). I thought I could put a pause on my day and rewatch an episode or two of the Mexican horror tv show I remembered watching with my family as a child. There were several episodes available for streaming and quickly realized I was wrong and it would indeed take long; my day was then not only shot, but my brain was rendered useless as well, the avalanche of nostalgic memories flooding my mind being the one to blame.

Hello, dear horror friend, hope you are doing well, thank you for being here. Today I would like to share with you a piece of my childhood, of my first taste of horror. But before we begin, let’s acknowledge that decades-long memory could be a tricky thing and may sometimes be confused with fabrications by a vivid imagination and strong emotional reactions. The latter being where I stand in this moment. Even though I feel that La Hora Marcada was where I got my first tv scare as a child, I cannot accept such an absolute proclamation with a straight face as there were many movies and tv shows watched at our childhood home; however, what I can say with total clarity is that I remember how much I both dreaded and looked forward to watching—every week and without exception—the scary show with the scary music and the scary stories.

Oh man, the creepy music from the opening credits was such a trigger for me: the confusing feeling came from my belly when listening to those first notes (I remember that, I hate that I remember that, I shouldn’t remember that), also, the black and white title images with the women and the blood were grotesque and beautiful to me (the ambivalence was strange, but good, always good). Being scared, or rather, wanting to be scared at such a young age must have been a challenge, a rebellion, not against my family but against myself. I have always been a stickler for rules (right or wrong, good or bad, black or white), but I now find it interesting that my young self chose to go for that which confused her, which made no sense in her logical mind, but that felt good in her body.

Fabricated fear feels good because you are absorbed by its darkness without consequences. I am watching you being in danger, but you are not in danger, we know you are not in danger, but for a moment we are both agreeing that you are, it’s all pretend, it’s all safe. This fake reality makes me care for you, hurt for you (and fear for me), but it’s all pretend, you are safe (and I am safe).

Now that I have put this into writing, I can much easily articulate the reason behind my ongoing love and attraction to horror: because I enjoy the risk-free and ambivalent nature of it. Things do not need to make sense to be safe, characters do not have to be perfect to be happy, the worst in life can coexist just fine. Horror is repulsive and exciting, not repulsive or exciting, it is both, it is everything.

Okay, so ViX is streaming right now for free twenty-five of the original eighty-plus horror anthology episodes from the 80’s and, unfortunately for me, they did not include the single one episode that I remember liking, scratch that, obsessing over so much as a kid, alas, a low-resolution version of it was found on YouTube (below).

This is the moment when I tell you that it was sobering to rewatch “En Espera de la Noche” with a set of mature eyes and an educated (and evolved) horror perspective. Young Marath was terrified and captivated by the female Vampire, but current Marath is beyond mortified and quite literally laughing at it all. Oh, to be young and naïve… the memories are still precious though, and will cherish them forever. Cheers!

In Love and Fear,

—Marath

Horribly Poetic – CUANDO ACECHA LA MALDAD aka WHEN EVIL LURKS (2023)

December 24, 2023

Greetings from beautiful Los Angeles, hope you are doing well. There’s nothing new to report on my side of the world, other than life got its usual sparkle back now that the industry strikes are officially over and we can go back to making money art in Hollywood (gonna miss the free lunches at Bob’s Big Boy tho). Right, enough with the pleasantries, let’s jump into it.

Just like you, I follow various horror enthusiasts with the sole purpose of broadening my taste within the genre. Sure, I listen to those with similar opinions to mine, but I really pay attention to those who do not; as a rule of thumb, the farthest you and I are in our enjoyment of the horror spectrum, the better the payoff for me, the better the surprise I get when I watch that which you claim to love. Right, so imagine my surprise when two of the horror people I highly respect, one who echoes my taste, and one who sure as f*ck does not, separately lauded the same indie movie they had watched in festivals (09/22/23 Austin Fantastic Fest, 10/01/23 Beyond Fest, respectively). The movie was called Cuando Acecha la Maldad aka When Evil Lurks (2023) and it was written and directed by Demian Rugna, the acclaimed Argentinean filmmaker who gave us Aterrados aka Terrified (2017). I was intrigued and desperately needed to watch the new film for myself, soon. But soon could not come sooner. And so I waited. Waited until it was released in theaters near me.

CUT TO:

INT. SHERMAN OAKS GALLERIA – TWO WEEKS LATER - NOON

Let me tell you a thing or two about the blessings of going to a movie matinee on opening day: no people around. That is it, actually, the best thing and the second-best thing about going to a matinee on opening day here in L.A. for an indie genre film is the fact that there is no people, period. So here I was at noon on a Friday (yes, PTO was requested in advance because I am that dedicated to horror in my real life) and, besides me being there, one other guy was in attendance as well. Sweet.

Now, so you understand the magnitude of my excitement and subsequent emotional reaction to the movie, you must know the context of that day. As it turned out, I was not only eager to finally watch that one new movie so highly recommended, the one that was unapologetically categorized as one of the best horror movies made in recent years, but I was also uncharacteristically stressed out due to recent personal life challenges and, brother, I was more than ready to escape reality for a couple of hours, to forget about my own problems and give my full attention to this horror gift, if you will. So, I walked in that movie theater full of hope for the—and let me be bold here—pretty much guaranteed great time I was about to have.

Wrong.

I ended up way more stressed out by the end of the movie and—shock, horror!—around the third act I even asked myself, Should I leave now and try to finish it when I am in a better headspace? But quickly answered back, No – what the hell are you thinking, Marath, just relax and enjoy the chaos! Now, if you have already watched When Evil Lurks, then you know [SPOILER] that even the freaking ending was like, WTF!? There was nowhere to run, no one had a way of escaping evil, there was no hope at all… in retrospect, the irony of my looking for comfort and refuge in the movie was, shall we say, horribly poetic? My problems (read: evil) are here and will be here with me, no matter what I do and no matter where I go, so I shall better not expose (read: infect) my loved ones with them. No. Use.

[NOTE: It is not lost in me that one of the big reasons why the movie had such a great impact was because I watched it on the big screen, in a technically empty room, alone, surrounded, no, engulfed in darkness, literally and figuratively. Had I waited three more weeks until it was available online, I bet I would not have cared as much. And that, my dear horror friend, is the power of going to the cinema to experience movie making in full. ADDITIONAL NOTE: Still on the topic of going to the cinema to experience a movie in all its full glory, I have to point out that one of the first thoughts I verbalized in my mind as soon as the movie started was, Wow, this film feels like a real Hollywood movie, like The Shining or The Thing, don’t know what it is but it feels like a legacy movie, not a ready-made Netflix one. And (and!) word to the wise: if you still have the option of watching for the first time When Evil Lurks, go to the cinema for it (granted, it had a limited theatrical release at the beginning of October and we are just ending December, oh wait, Merry Christmas btw), do not watch it online as you will not get that ‘it’ factor due to digital compression. Like I said, the power of going to the cinema is real.]

One last random thing before I actually start talking about the story of the movie. When Evil Lurks is an Argentinean movie, thus Spanish was the spoken language. I speak Spanish, thus I got the privilege of experiencing the movie as it was supposed to be, although, I must admit that one of the main topics, that of possession, was talked about with words I had never heard being used in that context before, thus it took me a minute to realize that ‘encarnado’ (ingrown) and ‘embichado’ (full of bugs) were colloquialisms that meant possessed by an evil spirit, so once I got over that hump I was ready and good to go, baby. Alright, let the ‘embichamiento’ begin!

**SPOILERS AHEAD**

Pedro was the main character of this enormous story happening in a small rural town. Pedro was a divorced father, living in the same house as his bachelor brother. Pedro was this unknown man but I could tell right away he was riddled by his bad decisions, clueless as to what he did (or did not do) to end up alone, wasting away in regret.

One night, the brothers heard something odd happening out in the distance, but decided not to risk it and wait until next morning to go investigate. What they found was an unraveling mystery, full of unimaginable pain, suffering, and violence. They were certainly not equipped to face any of that, let alone fix it. Evil was a feeling, a game, one that you must play smartly should you want to remain in it. This Evil, however, had no interest in playing by its own rules; animals, humans, men, women, children, they all were fair game when coming across it. But in reality, there was no game, there was no chance, Evil was going to win. Evil will win.

When Pedro and his brother tried to help the first ‘embichado’ they did it badly, you see, they blindly followed the exasperated orders of one of the land owners. They clumsily tried to dispose of that first victim, the one currently carrying Evil, as in, impregnated by it, but because they rushed the disposal, they actually lost the body, the morbidly swollen and infected body. It would have been sensible to say that here’s where their troubles began, but as we already established, their troubles had already begun, and they had already lost – at this point, they were just killing time by spreading Evil and making it kill everyone way faster. Evil will win.

Pedro, being the emotional and reckless person that he was, went to his ex-wife’s house to rescue her and their kids, but was obviously met with resistance by her new husband. Try to picture, if you will, the disturbing image of a naked Pedro, freaking out by his soiled clothes, barking orders that made no sense, scaring everyone, even the dog… so, long story short, everyone gets killed by Evil, but then brought back to life by Evil, but Pedro was still running away, not understanding that faith was already decided. Evil will win.

A demon-hunter lady, Mirtha, eventually provided guidance as to how to properly fight against Evil, but, as you would expect it since we are dealing with Pedro here, he ruined the very skilled, very sophisticated plan mapped out by her due to his impatient nature and, bam, he gets Mirtha killed as well. (Mirtha’s death was the one that bothered me the most, actually.)

With the plan ruined, and with the only capable person dead, Evil gave birth to itself. A little demon kid now walked the earth. Evil won.

So that was the movie – pretty bleak, no? Two things are for certain, When Evil Lurks is indeed one of the best horror movies made in recent years, and on top of that also showcases one of the now most memorable and disturbing moments in horror cinema, that of a possessed mother, walking at night on the side of the road in pitch-black darkness, while scooping with her bare hands the brains of her diseased child, eating them.

In Love and Fear,

—Marath

Worst Week Ever - THE POOL (2018)

November 11, 2023

Not sure about you but my week was not amazing; a few hard-lessons were learned, trust was broken, feelings were hurt—yes, I am purposely being vague on the details of my personal life because who do you think I am, [INSERT HERE name of latest celebrity with a tell-all book]? #noonecares #lifeistough—but all that paled in comparison to the hell of a week that our friend, Day, just had…

The Pool (2018) was a great horror movie from Thailand; the story was so full of twists and turns that by the end of it I was left feeling both in awe and exhausted, the former because it went above and beyond at exploring the subject matter and the latter because it really took the worst-case scenario to the extreme.

Here, let me show you the trailer so you know what I am talking about:

Day was just a regular guy with dreams of making it in the entertainment industry. His speciality? The art department. Was his job his entire world? Yes, yes it was.

These are other things you should know about Day: Today is his birthday and his girlfriend, Koi, is visiting him on set, you see, she not only brought him a sweet birthday present (a decorative egg with a plastic baby toy inside as, unbeknownst to him, she was pregnant and was going to surprise him with the happy news except that last minute she decides not telling him) but also stopped by to drop off Day’s dog, Lucky, as he was going to be an Extra on today’s commercial shoot (Day was broke and needed to supplement his income, thus having his dog be a working dog). What else… oh yes, Day is a diabetic who relies on insulin injections, he likes to smoke, and also enjoys his freedom and alone time… and this is exactly why he got himself into this huuuuuge trouble.

**SPOILERS AHEAD**

WARNING: CUT TO & LONG STORY SHORT ARE SAID REPEATEDLY, DO NOT USE THIS AS A DRINKING GAME CUZ YOU’LL DIE ;]

DAY ONE, it’s the day after the commercial shoot and Day decides to go back to the set to enjoy the diving swimming pool before it is closed for good. The pool is majestic—albeit the several props left behind by the crew the night prior—with crystal clear blue water, 6 meter deep (for us Americans, that is 19.69 feet deep) and, most importantly, it is all to himself. His production buddy and close friend, Mayom, stops by briefly to activate the pool drainage process and warns Day that he has to get out of the pool soon as the water level is going to start dropping; before saying goodbye and departing to his vacation, Mayom chains Lucky so he does not fall into the water while Day is lounging and having a good time, he also leaves an extra insulin syringe on a table by the pool so he can use it as soon as he gets out, and calls Pizza Hut delivery for his ‘hard-working’ friend. Cut to Day falling asleep on a float and, upon waking up, realizing that the water is now so low that he will have a hard time getting out (there were no built-in ladders) so he freaks out and, long story short, now defeated he falls asleep again on the float.

His girlfriend, Koi, surprises him and visits him again but since he is asleep she tries to be playful and, instead of waking him up, goes all the way up to the concrete diving board platform and starts getting ready to jump and dive when Lucky begins barking, waking up Day who immediately realizes what Koi is about to do and asks her to STOOOOOOP and she gets startled and slips, hitting her head badly and dropping into the water. Koi is not dead, but remains unconscious. Day not only has to deal with his own unfortunate situation, being stranded inside a now abandoned and draining pool with no access to his insulin, or to a working cell, or to his dog, but also has to deal with his unconscious girlfriend. Cut to Day yelling at his chained dog for barking so loudly and disturbing his girlfriend and later realizing he was barking to scare away a crocodile, yes, a crocodile! Long story short, the crocodile also slips and drops into the water.

DAY TWO, the pool is completely drained now, the girlfriend is still unconscious and the crocodile is still there but minding her own business, yes, it’s a she and getting a nest ready… crocodile eggs, baby! And talking about babies, Day finds a positive pregnancy test in one of Koi’s pockets and immediately gets this cool protector vibe and starts looking around and realizes he could open the drain cover located in the middle of the pool and try to go get help, so, impressively, he manages to open the huge drain cover and when he turns away to say goodbye to Koi, mama crocodile beats him to it and goes down the drain first, yikes! Cut to Day noticing that the unconscious Koi is now burning up so he decides to risk it all and go down the drain too, so he goes down but the crocodile is nowhere to be found and, luckily, Day finds an exit but, unluckily, it is locked. Long story short, the crocodile gets out of the drain and back into the empty pool where Koi is still unconscious and alone, and for a few seconds the crocodile gets too close for comfort but daddy Day attacks her from behind and scares her away. It was at this moment that Koi finally wakes up and realizes their horrible situation.

DAY THREE, today is a slow day; a weak, diabetic Day can only manage to write on the floor HELP! in huge letters with leftover black tape from the production. At night, it rains heavily and mama crocodile lays her eggs.

DAY FOUR, the crocodile is super chill and minding her own business by her nest. Cut to Day setting a trap for her and, long story short, they trick the crocodile and she falls down the drain and they keep her there while they steal and eat her eggs. Since Day and Koi are now well fed and stronger, they join forces and try to climb out of the pool but have no luck so they decide to save their energy and rest. Here’s when they start talking about life and when Koi learns that Day wanted her to get an abortion which both saddens her and pisses her off and demands that he not only stops talking crazy but that he does whatever he has to do to get them out of there.

DAY FIVE, it is decided that they need to trade places with the crocodile so they open the drain cover and big mama gets out immediately to find her nest destroyed so she is also pissed now but before she can do anything about it, both Day and Koi are gone down the drain, woo hoo! Well, not sure what their full plan was because they are still trapped and, at nighttime, Day is shaking badly due to his diabetes, however, because he is a badass he gathers the last ounce of energy he has in him and climbs toward the exit from earlier, you know, the one that was locked, and thru the vent—which very luckily was just adjacent to the pool—he notices that the table where Mayom placed the extra insulin syringe was right there, he could see it now, so he “MacGyver’s" it and tries to get it but since this is his worst week ever he ends up breaking the glass syringe. (I actually almost cried during this scene, almost.)

DAY SIX, Day and Koi are still inside the locked exit but they now, thanks to a miracle, find Day’s cigarette case which had been accidentally dropped into the vents by Mayom; the case not only had cigarets but also two insulin shots. (My goodness! How was he able to survive six days without insulin!?) Now, a healthier Day, decides to leave Koi behind in order to explore on his own the pool as there was a drone flying above them. So he is back in the pool with the crocodile but the drone was gone; undefeated, Day keeps looking around and realizes that the wind blew over some clothes and cables which he could use to climb out of, hurray! But, oh no, while climbing he hurts himself badly (the cable was actually barbed wire) and falls from several feet high up and breaks his leg. Long story short, he fights the crocodile and after managing not to get eaten he decides to go hide again down the pool drain but this time he goes the other way and finds another exit, but that exit was also a bad one because it ended on the opposite side of the adjoining pool. Poor Day screams and shouts in frustration and decides to retreat and go down the drain again, but once in there, he unfortunately collapses and passes out, alone.

DAY SEVEN, while Day is still unconscious, the people who were flying the drone the prior day return to the pool to retrieve the thing, you see, today the wind was too strong to fly and it made the drone crash inside the now very dirty, very abandoned-looking pool where the crocodile was sleeping under piles of furniture and trash, unnoticed. Long story short, the two drone fellas grab a wooden ladder that was somewhere around the pool and with no problem at all get down the ladder, fetch the drone, get up the ladder and leave in two minutes. Luckily for Day, they leave the ladder hanging so the only thing he has to do is wake up, get out of the drain, not bother the crocodile, and go on his merry way, except that mama crocodile is still pissed and attacks him and they start fighting again. Cut to the damn wind getting stronger when all of the sudden the cylinders holding the wooden ladder start rolling away, pulling with them the ladder and oh my goodness there is absolutely nothing Day can do to stop it.

This is when everything takes a turn for the worse.

When a broken Day—crocodile bites all over him, a busted leg, other various injuries, hunger, dehydration, lack of insulin, lack of hope (damn wind)—finally decides to surrender and die in peace, he pretty much just lays there, not reacting to the crocodile’s deadly bite when all of the sudden he hears a whistle, signaling him that Koi was still alive (for a moment there he thought she had perished, and, apparently, he’d also decided he did want her and the baby in his life) so he gives us a moment of pure badassery when he changes his mind about dying and chooses to survive and he single-handlely kills the predator once and for all. Cut to the dog, Lucky, reacting to the previously said whistle and jumping towards the pool just like he was instructed to do as an Extra during the commercial shoot and, tragically, ends up hanging himself by the neck in a very graphic way. (Moment of silence for Lucky #gnarly #americawouldnever) Long story short, Day and his survival instincts now in full gear tell him to go towards Lucky, his beloved companion, and make his way up, to quite literally use his body as a tool to free himself. And so he does. And then he tries to save his girl but he encounters other hurdles as well and, you know what, I am honestly way, way too exhausted (this movie was a lot) to continue listing all the bad things that happened next so let's just yada, yada thru them real quick and close this by saying he does free her and revives her. The end.

The Pool was a gratifying adventure between a man and his own precarious circumstances; not only were there internal factors (chronic illness, fear of an unstable future, of a committed relationship, of fatherhood), but also external (an abandoned, inescapable 6-meter diving pool, and a large crocodile), nevertheless, it was the man alone who succeeded at every challenge thrown his way, coping with it all. Neither ‘prison’ nor ‘beast’ proved itself stronger than him.

Watch The Pool, please.

In Love and Fear,

—Marath