The Scapular (1968) User Reviews

A religious ghost story

[melvelvit-1 · 8/10 · 7 September 2014]

Mexico's "La Epoca Del Oro" was noted for blending primitive superstition with baroque religious symbolism (isn't that what santeria is?) and all I can say is, that very Catholic country loved putting the fear of God into the devout.

A ghost story set around the time of the Mexican Revolution, THE SCAPULAR concerns an old woman on her deathbed who tells the priest giving her last rites of the strange and powerful influence a religious medal had on her four sons. It's told mostly in flashback and the fog-bound atmospherics "Golden Age" cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa provides in abundance makes it look like we're observing the otherworldly goings-ons through the mists of time. If using black & white was a deliberate choice for this 1968 flick, it was a stoke of genius. An impressed 8/10 but only because I'm not into organized religion (although I'll grant it's pretty scary).

Catholic fright

[BandSAboutMovies · 7/10 · 25 June 2022]

As María Pérez (Ofelia Guilmáin) receives last rites, she tells Father Andrés (Enrique Aguilar) about the influence that a religious medal - The Scalpular - had on her sons' - Julián (Carlos Cardán) and Pedro (Enrique Lizalde) - lives. Meanwhile, two robbers wait outside to attack and rob the priest.

Julián is a soldier who soon deserts the army to join the rebels - the film takes place during the Mexican Revolution - blowing up a train before he's arrested. A sympathetic soldier helps him escape, yet Julián denies the power of the medal - denying God - and is shot and badly wounded.

Pedro falls for a woman well above his social status, Rosario (Alicia Bonnet's), and narrowly avoids being killed thanks to the power of the medal. It turns out her uncle wants their relationship stopped at all costs, so he sends a letter about an evening rendezvous from Rosario while hiring bandits to kill him.

Andrés and Federico, the other two sons, have been lost since being kidnapped by a gang, but perhaps the priest will soon meet them and they will all learn how the power of the scapular binds them all. And that strangely, the old woman has been dead for seven years.

Director Servando González makes a whimsical yet melancholy fantastic film here, powered by a script by Jorge Durán Chavez and Rafael García Travesi, who wrote 94 movies, including several Santo films and The Mummies of Guanajuato.

This movie looks beyond gorgeous, even as it shows scenes of condemned and hung men swinging after their deaths. Somehow uniting multiple genre and countries of cinema, as well as being folk horror by way of Mexican Catholicism, this movie finds death everywhere and still finds a reason to smile (and by frightened at the same time).

Unearthed treasure gem from the late sixties, El Escapulario is near masterpiece that got the cult status!!!

[elo-equipamentos · 8/10 · 10 March 2023]

Between Mexico and Brazil has many similitudes, mainly to be colonized by twin countries like Spain and Portugal who brought their settles with strong beliefs in Christian faith, that endures until today, among this specially in the beginning of last century they used a sort of talisman self-called scapular coming from Christian roots whom loads it at your neck stays protected by all evil that may approaching, his uses dates back almost a thousand years by catholic church since, also nobody should buy such sacred object for himself, it must had given for someone else as gift for everlasting protecting.

The director Servando González wisely adapted his unearthly story into widescreen hoping make a huge success in Mexico, however the picture just stays six weeks on display at there, although through the years slowly this gem has been discovered by many cinephiles around the world gaining cult status afterwards,

The Story takes place in the mid-last century when a dying woman asking for a attendance of a priest Andres (Enrique Aguilar) she had four male children and starting telling the story of each them in flashbacks, the older one Julian Fernandez (Calos Cardán) as Mexico's Army Officer who became a caudillo due the Mexican government imposes a harsh and oppressive procedure against the starving people enforced by powerful Army, Julian wore the scapular until her death at ambush settled by Mexican's Army.

In same night that Julien died another man called as Federico (Federico Falcon) stolen the scapular soon sending by poor man called Pedro (Enrique Lizalde) who has an impossible affair with a gorgeous rich Lady Rosário (Alicia Bonet) promptly hampered by her greedy uncle whom manages by all means cheat to take over Rosário's inheritance, afterwards kills Pedro in a failed ambush, thus the patient Priest hear all stories of such woman, that at last gives to him the sacred scapular for good, that one of his son is missing,.

The outcome is too compelling and moving, exposing how the fate driven us without noticed it should be a fable of spiritual nature, accurately photographed in black and white it gave to the picture the astonishing atmosphere that the story requires, a near masterpiece from Mexico carried out by the craftsman director Servando Gonzalez, don't miss!

Thanks for reading.

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First watch: 2023 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 8.5.

Good Movie

[solenmibrazo · 10/10 · 19 May 2006]

Great classic Mexican cinema. Its about the power of a scapular and its passage between brothers finally arriving to an old lady. As she lies in the death bed she gives the scapular to the village priest. After, the priest leaves the house he wants to go back only to find that the house had be abandoned for many years and that the lady had already been dead for some time. The movie is in black and white. It can get a little on the creepy side as well. The style in the production is not used anymore by Mexican cinema. In the 80s the production values changed. Most movies started being about drug trafficking and sexual content. This was a disregard to actual story line.