Even the Wind Is Afraid (1968)

Nowadays, I am rather bored with the same movies about spiteful little ghosts of teenage girls or resentful children who want to give someone a message or simply punish their murderers. Especially if we are talking about those Asian movies that always have a similar ending. Don't get the wrong idea about me, I am not trying to be rude or offensive, but horror movies nowadays tend to be way too similar when it comes to the whole "vindictive ghost" subject matter. Obviously, it is almost impossible not to base a movie on prior ideas and that is not the blameworthy thing I'm trying to point out. Basically what really annoys me about contemporary ghost flicks, is that they try so hard to shock the audience or provide something new, that they usually end up messing it up and worst of all, the ending is still predictable. At least that is my humble opinion. Fortunately, we can always rely on a good horror gem from many years ago and that is the case of "Hasta el viento tiene miedo". A simple and yet stylish horror movie that provides all the necessary elements, without trying so desperately to fill an hour and a half. It may be a little bit predictable in a way, but at least it's highly enjoyable and it doesn't try to mislead the audience with pitiful and superfluous situations.

In "Hasta el viento tiene miedo", a group of boarding school girls suffer from the torments of a authoritarian and conniving headmistress called Bernarda, who seems to unload of all her anger on the girls. In contrast, Lucia, the vice-headmistress, tries to be as easy-going as possible to make up for Bernarda's unkind behavior, earning that way, the girls' friendliness One night, Claudia, a student from the boarding school, suffers from a nightmare, in which she hears a ghostly voice that calls her name from the heights of a tower that is situated in the school garden. When she goes in and walks up the stairs, she opens a red door and finds the body of a blonde girl hanging from the ceiling. Claudia's classmates become so fascinated with that dreadful nightmare that they all go together to the tower to reveal the mystery, even though Mrs. Bernarda had forbidden the girls to go up there. Before they can reveal any mysteries, the headmistress arrives and catches the girls who were trying to disobey her rules. As a consequence, all the girls are punished and forced to spend their winter vacations at the boarding school. Furious with their headmistress, all the girls complain about their vacations, without realizing that something even more awful is about to happen. There's a ghost seeking for revenge and one of them is going to be chosen as a messenger and living avenger.

"Hasta el viento tiene miedo", is a well made Gothic horror gem, that not only frightens more than once, but also offers a lot of amusing scenes that work as some kind of humorous relief, without turning the whole movie into a comedy. Naughty winks and yet naïve situations that probably caused a little bit of controversy back in the 60s, when the film came out. For example, the scene in which the ill-disciplined and naughty student named Kitty performs a striptease for her classmates and teaches them how to do it, I think that's one of my favorites. Not so much because of the striptease itself, but mostly, because the other girls look at her as if she was killing someone right in front of their eyes. There's also the scene in which all the girls force the prude girl to dance along with them and then jump all over her, like barbarians and take off her clothes as a way of revenge for being such a gossipy. The chemistry between actresses who played the schoolgirls (some of them were almost in their 30s) was simply flawless. Marga Lopez, as the evil headmistress, probably offered one of the best performances in this film. Her character, Mrs. Bernarda, reminded me of those days when I used to go to school and I would feel a shiver up from down my spine, every time I saw an intimidating teacher or headmistress. Definitely not a pleasant feeling, which means she did a good job. The well known Mexican composer Armando Manzanero was in charge of the music, which is also an extra point. His work, is also one of the main elements that contributes to make this film so atmospheric. "Hasta el viento tiene miedo" probably even delivers a hidden message regarding the severity of school authorities back then and the fact that violence can only produce more violence. Now, the question is: is there really a hidden message or am I just overreacting and giving the film more credit than it deserves?. I suppose that's up to each one to decide. Either way, hidden message or not, I highly recommend this film.