AVENTURA
AL CENTRO DE LA TIERRA (1965)
Directed by Alfredo B. Crevenna
Xenon Pictures DVD
Reviewed 12.06.04
Review by Joseph A. Ziemba
THE FILM
Language barrier, get outta town.
Except for the occasional, obvious
line of dialogue (“Fantastico!”),
I had no idea what was going on
during this film. I don’t
speak Spanish. Luck was on my side
though; it didn’t even matter.
I hope you like caves. Aventura
Al Centro de La Tierra is a
bloody, mysterious spook film in
a long line of Mexican horror-exploitation
pictures from director Alfredo B.
Crevenna (helmer of a few Neutron
films, several Santo films, Bring
Me The Vampire, etc.). Aside
from a bit of early-on embellishment,
the entire film takes place inside
a group of gigantic caverns, complete
with oozing mud pits and brow-wiping
humidity. That’s a good thing:
these underground grottoes provide
the perfect stomping ground for
a cyclops-vampire and enormous man-bat.
Interested? You and Jules Verne
both.
During a tour of the aforementioned
giant caves, a girl and a guy sneak
off for some cuddling. They fall
down into a hole and the girl can’t
get it together. A few slaps later
(!) and they’re attacked by
an amazing rubber monster arm. The
guy dies, but the girl makes it
out a-ok. A group of scientists
form a crack team of explorers,
which we meet through some stylish
snapshots. The purpose? To watch
stock footage of lizards fighting
(One Million B.C. footage...again),
rubber dinosaurs blowing up, and
totally hilarious groups of man-suited
dinos stalking around a desert.
After that, these pilgrims decide
to take the caves, smoke a lot,
and flush out the insane monsters
that lurk in the darkness. But don’t
expect the usual cheap-o creatures
around these parts. This is some
bizarre stuff: hairy, smoke bellowing,
and elaborate rubber suited monsters
make mincemeat out of our group
of avengers, one by one. There’s
jealous deceit, genuine scares (those
close-up eye shots especially),
a gross snake burning scene, and
an overly long scene of chasm crossing
via the hand-over-hand rope technique.
It all leads up to an underwater
lair and a call to the cavalry,
who then proceed to blow things
up.
Aside from a few dragging moments
of extended dialogue, Aventura
was a solid slice of weirdness.
The picture was effectively shot
and provided some surprising (from
this type of film, at least) claustrophobic
locales. The creatures get plenty
of screentime and the overall feel
is cheap-but-great (witness the
close-ups of the winged bat monster’s
face, clearly lifted from a different
source). I’m not complaining.
AUDIO AND VIDEO
The full frame, cropped picture
(a little on each side) looks pretty
nice for the most part. The print
is in excellent shape, with little
to no imperfections and the blacks
are perfectly deep. There’s
a bit of unfortunate fuzziness around
edges with far-away shots, but it’s
very minor. The mono sound was excellently
crisp, perfectly accenting the sparse,
tape-delayed score.
EXTRAS
Just the expected chapter stops/scene
selection here. No subtitles!
FINAL THOUGHTS
Aventura is creepy, surprisingly
violent, and totally bizarre. You
might want to place an order if
that sounds about right to you.
If not, a fun rental is awaiting
your next open evening. |
Ankle grab
I need a get-up like that
Pincers at play
Back at the apartment
|
