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The Black Pit Of Dr. M

(1958)

Plunged into a perilous pit of unfathomable consequence, beyond this mortal coil, Doctor Mazali dares to open the door between life and death. A portal through which once stepped the path back can never be the same again !.

An astonishing tale of terror, ahead of its time and crafting a cautionary parable to not tamper with what lays behind the veil of earthly existence. An existential allegory of mans arrogance in the face of God. Such investment in ones own egotism is more often than not repaid in abject humility. Doctor Mazali’s transgression of the laws of life prove to be fatally flawed, and the consequence is cataclysmic !.

At the death bed of a professional colleague, Dr. Mazali recounts to the dying Dr. Aldama a pact made that whomever should pass away first would endeavour to make contact from beyond the grave, divulging a means to return to the living after entering the realm of death !. Immediately upon the passing of Dr. Aldama a séance is held and Dr. Mazali receives a positive yet perplexing message from the spirit of his deceased colleague. A prophetic quatrain, with specific date and time for Dr. Mazali to attain what he strives for, but with a tone of caution upon following through.

Over the course of the next few months, leading up to the designated date implied by the spirit of Dr. Aldama, a procession of curious events conjoin in bringing Dr. Mazali ever closer to his designated date with destiny. Dr. Aldama’s daughter Patricia, a young woman who has never met her father, is contacted by a mysterious man who informs her that she should contact Dr. Mazali. She is also directed to a hidden key that is to be given to the doctor. A part of the puzzle to unlock the mysteries of the afterlife.

Upon meeting Dr. Mazali, Patricia is offered a position as an in training psychiatric nurse within his insane asylum. An appropriate place perhaps to be once it is divulged to her that the mysterious man that visited her was her father, even though he had earlier died before calling upon her !.

The Black Pit Of Dr. M paints an almost hallucinogenic veneer to its pin sharp monochrome canvass, drawing its audience into a world of intrigue and uncertainty. A powerful potion of haunting themes and foreboding. An unyielding resonance prickling the hair at the nape of the neck of all whom sit in abject unease at what is unfolding before their very eyes. A stark shocker that still stands tall in the horror alumni even to this day.

Caught up in a cacophony of clandestine design from an existence beyond his own, Dr. Mazali follows his chosen destiny. It in turn envelops those around him, and in particular that of an asylum intern who is horribly disfigured in an assault by a violent female patient. A crime of vengeance is committed, and the lives of the two men converse in a spiralling decent into darkness. The journey back is startling, but even more so is the shocking revelation from the entwining events.

Another mesmerising book mark in Mexican horror cinema. A ghoulish, gothic, archetypal standard bearer for much that followed, and an essential remnant of all that is memorable in experiencing cinema at its very best.