Touches You

I wanted to but couldn't!

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

A girl (Martha Higareda) tries to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge. When the attempt is thwarted, she is committed to strange mental institution for very sexy and suspiciously mature-looking Mexican girls. She and her equally troubled fellow inmates are attended to by a creepy female psychiatrist. Strange supernatural things begin to occur, largely connected to an eerie abandoned tower on the hospital grounds. Eventually the protagonist is possessed by a vengeful spirit. . .This is a largely unnecessary remake of an earlier 1967 Mexican film with the same title ("Even the Wind Is Afraid"), but it's a pretty different film other than both have the same eerie looking tower and a girl-on-girl striptease scene (although naturally the scene here goes a lot farther). I understand why some of the anglo-phone Mexicans are contemptuous of this film, but very few people outside of Latin America have ever seen the original since (to my knowledge) it has never been released with English subtitles. And this is such a different film, it really deserves to be judged on its own merits (or lack thereof).Martha Higareda is most famous for playing another boarding-school girl in the 2006 Mexican film "Ninas Mal" where she showed off her breasts a lot. She shows off pretty much everything here, but aside from that, they're very different movies--that is a raunchy comedy and this is pretty much a straight horror film. Of course, female nudity doesn't necessarily make for a good film, but it's also an odd thing to complain about. I did find it a little strange that these "teenage mental patients" all look at least twenty, but are wearing school uniforms for some reason (hmmm, sexy 20-year-old girls in and out school uniforms--I think I'm starting to understand now). As a HORROR film, this is pretty weak, and not really a spot on the original, but it is mildly entertaining at least, and there is nothing in it that really justifies some of the hate. . .

A remake of Carlos Enrique Taboada's 1967 movie–now something of a cult favorite–Hasta el viento tiene miedo fared well at the domestic box-office and is enjoyable, slick entertainment. The cast is attractive and competent, the production values are solid, and the direction, photography, editing, etc., are all professional.Although it would serve no purpose to make a detailed comparison between the two versions of Hasta el viento tiene miedo, those familiar with both films will see the basic plot is the same: Claudia is possessed by the spirit of Andrea, who uses her to get revenge on the sinister Bernarda. The 1967 film fooled around with some time-wasting stuff about boyfriends and expanded the possessed-Claudia footage to include Claudia playing the piano like Andrea did, and Claudia excelling in a literature class like Andrea did, ooh, spooky. The lesbian rationale for Andrea's death is new to the remake, the setting is of course changed from a boarding school to a treatment center (although both are located in massive country houses and have a mere handful of students/patients), and the relatively happy ending of the original (Lucía will become the new school director) is turned into a bittersweet conclusion (Lucía commits suicide to be with her true love, Andrea). Curiously, the remake includes two direct homages to the original–the shower scene and the strip-tease scene– neither of which is particularly important or relevant to the plot (even in the '67 version they were basically cheesecake titillation, and the remake ups the ante with actual nudity).In neither version is it entirely clear why Andrea's ghost chooses the newly-arrived Claudia to carry out her vengeance; in the remake, Claudia is assigned Andrea's old room, and perhaps we are supposed to make the link between Claudia "not caring" if she lives or dies and her eventual death-and-resurrection. The new version of Hasta includes some touches which would have been unthinkable in 1967: for example, the anorexic (although she doesn't look it) Claudia has stopped menstruating (a real-life effect of anorexia); at the movie's end, she begins her period and comments that this blood represents life, as opposed to death.The performances are quite good. Martha Higareda (the daughter of actress Martha Elena Cervantes) is becoming an important and popular actress in Mexican cinema, and has a strong screen presence. Danny Perea, who shot to fame in Temporada de patos, is prominent as the troubled Josefina; the rest of the young actresses are attractive (Mafer Malo strongly resembles Amedee Chabot in some shots) and competent, although their roles are slightly under-written. Verónica Langer doesn't have to do much but look stern, while Mónica Dionne gets to do more acting as the sympathetic Lucía. Cassandra Ciangherotti, who is billed but not credited as Andrea, has little significant screen time but is effective–the film hedges its bets on whether she's manipulating Lucía for her own ends, or if she really has an emotional attachment to the older woman.Hasta el viento tiene miedo is an attractive film, shot on location at an impressive house; Arturo de la Rosa's cinematography is fluid and shows no evidence of the "shaky cam" tendencies of Cañitas. Director Gustavo Moheno opts for a naturalistic style, generally avoiding flashy jump cuts, shocks, etc. The special effects are minimal, in keeping with the overall restrained tone (some might complain, on the other hand, that the movie simply isn't that scary as a result): Hasta is an "old-fashioned" character-and-plot driven fantasy film.Hasta el viento tiene miedo is generally a pleasant piece of commercial entertainment.

I went to the cinemas on the premiere night hoping to watch a good re-make of the Carlos Enrique Taboada's classic "Hasta el viento tiene miedo" (even the wind is scared)... What a deception... What a loss of money and time... I paid to watch a classic horror movie remake, instead I had to bear a copy of the bad teen movie "Niñas mal" (aka. charm school, the Fernando Sariñana's movie) mixed with a Mexican soup opera and a lesbian twist... Horrible, horrible movie... The only good scenes were the T&A scenes.. The plot is the same of "Niñas mal": a bad girl with addictions and depressions going to the rehab center with another bunch of disturbed girls dealing with (you know) girly and bitchy matters... Add a ghost that doesn't scare, a two sexually insecure and repressed old ladies and bad acting, bad directing, bad photography, etc.In conclusion: Don't see it, is't an awful movie, unless you want to loss your money and your time...

I've just recently saw a preview of this film in the distributor's little theater. It's a peculiar film; not bad, very atypical for the Mexican industry, with serious flaws but also great moments and incredible acting.Although is a remake of a cult classical Mexican film, the story takes quite a detour from the original. It intrigued me because it tries desperately to be very commercial and very artistic at the same time.The premise is basic horror stuff -a suicide anorexic girl is confined in a psychiatric center haunted by a ghost-, and curiously enough, in a few minutes I was completely immersed not in the supernatural side of the story, but in the profoundly human interaction that the plot manages to establish between the characters.Some aspects of the movie are kind of cheap (al least in front of the budgetary standards established by the pyrotechnical Mexican horror film "Km 31"), but the cast is so great that you forget the economical restraints of the piece.Mexican actress and -believe me- next Hollywood star Martha Higareda, looks and acts very different from her previous roles (she was always the good looking girl next door), while Danny Perea -the girl from Duck Season-, makes quite an impression as the disturbed and beautiful Josefina, a character that is begging to have her own movie.I don't have a clue of what are going to think the fans of the original movie, but I can say this: be prepared for a big surprise. You can like it or not, but the movie doesn't leave you indifferent. You really care for this characters... And, by the way, the music of the movie is really beautiful.