THE LIVING HEAD (1963)

In 1525 Mexico, we see an elaborate Aztec human sacrifice ritual. The great warrior Acatl has been killed in battle and a cowardly soldier blamed for his death is sacrificed to the goddess Quadiliku by having his heart ripped out. Acatl's head is buried in a tomb, and the high priest Xiu proclaims that he and the high priestess Xochiquetzal are to be buried alive in the tomb to protect Acatl should his tomb be profaned. In 1963, Professor Muller and his assistants Charlie and Tony find the tomb with the head of Acatl (whom Muller, in the English dub, refers to as a "great military celebrity") still intact. Also intact is the body of Xochiquetzal, though it quickly crumbles to dust, and the beefy body of Xiu, holding a large ceremonial knife, which does not crumble. A "ring of death" is also found which sometimes glows and which Muller unwisely gives to his daughter Martha. Muller takes all his booty to his home to examine further, though Martha's boyfriend Robert thinks it all belongs in a museum. Another unwise thing that Muller does is to ignore a parchment that mentions a curse on all defilers. Soon, Charlie is found stabbed to death, then Tony, with a knife very much like Xiu's. The ring that Martha wears allows Xiu to control her. The last person Xiu needs to kill is Prof. Muller, and it looks like Xiu will enlist the unwilling Martha, who looks a lot like the gone-to-dust Xochiquetzal, to help out.

This cheapie Mexican horror film is a rehash of ideas from the Universal Mummy movies of the 1930s and 40s, even though the mummy character, Xiu, doesn't look at all like a mummy in his Aztec garb and face paint, though the way he stands still in his stand-up coffin conjures up Boris Karloff in the opening scene of the first Mummy movie. The opening segment in 1525 is nicely done, with lots of extras and good sets, but the rest of the movie looks cheap, shot almost entirely in Muller's house. The ring of death is a silly gimmick; even when Martha has gotten rid of the ring, she is still under Xiu's power so there seems no reason for it to exist. Ana Luisa Peluffo plays both Martha and Xochiquetzal; it could be that when the Aztec priestess crumbles, her spirit enters Martha's body, but that’s never clarified. Oddly, Mauricio Garces plays both Robert and the head of Acatl, though I didn't notice this during the movie—as Robert, Garces resembles Clark Gable, and as the head, he just opens his eyes occasionally and glowers. The creepiest scene for me is when a big spider crawls across Acatl's face. (BTW, the way that Acatl's name is pronounced causes the auto-generated subtitles to interpret it as "a cuddle" which made me chuckle every time.) Guillermo Cramer has the thankless role of Xiu (pictured), looking moderately threatening most of the time. Abel Salazar, a prolific filmmaker and actor, plays the fairly unimportant role of the cop whose men continue to shoot at Xiu even though bullets don't hurt him. He also produced the film. Directed by the even more prolific Chano Urueta—over 100 credits on IMDb. The English dub (original title: La cabeza viviente) was produced by the infamous K. Gordon Murray. Mostly slow and dull. [YouTube]