Julia, a governess, comes to work for a bourgeois family that lives in a forested property they have recently bought. Julia is to take care of a little girl named Silvia, whose unusual demeanor may find its roots in the family garden.
El Libro de Piedra, Книга из камня
Mexico
Mexico
Se detiene mucho tiempo sobrexplicando el misterio con magia oscura, qué el darkhold y todo eso, hubiera estado mejor si hacía el final involucraban más al Diablo. 😈
Pero está padre, me gustaron mucho los planos tan tenebrosos que tiene y la trama sobre una niña loca, además la estatua de Hugo sí que incomoda, sentí que en cualquier momento me iba a parpadear
Another slow burning ghost story from director Carlos Enrique Taboada, very much in the same vein as his earlier film Even the Wind is Afraid. The Book of Stone sees a governess move to a large household to take care of a young girl who appears to be suffering from some kind of psychosis. This manifests itself in the form of an imaginary friend named Hugo, who is also the subject of a stone statue by the lake. The central setting is very well used. The large house and grounds feel both expansive and isolated at the same time. The film plays with the creepy kid trope - is it just her imagination or is she really ill - while…
Sylvia (Lucy Buj) is a young girl who has suffered from meningitis and is recovering. She needs someone to teach her and assist her so they hire Julia (Marga López) to assist her. Sylvia is not exactly warm to the idea and she wants Julia to leave, so she can continue spending most of her time with her friend Hugo. Her father Eugenio has remarried since the death of Sylvia's mother and he is rather preoccupied but he believes Sylvia might be mentally unhealthy. They claim she is perverted and dangerous and they believe she should be locked up. Julia is more empathetic and she indulges the chance that Hugo might be real showing an interest and asking to meet…
Norma Nazareno corriendo en baby doll mientras busca a su hijastra poseída, es la definición del cine mexicano de los 60 y 70.
La segunda vuelta por el horror de Taboada es una mejora en cada rubro: una historia más interesante, mejores actores, una locación más lúgubre y (casi imposible) ¡mejores sustos!
El libro de piedra empieza como un riff o refrito de Otra vuelta de tuerca/The Innocents, pero es casi innmediatamente tropicalizada con todo tipo de brujería (vudú) y un subtexto menos psicológico y más sobrenatural.
El final es fácil de adivinar en pleno 2022, pero no le resta a su impacto. Si ese último cuadro no les eriza la piel, no puedo evitar pensar que son aburridos para ver películas.
Creepy horror films with kids in the central role are a challenge to pull off at the best of times, and this quiet and unassuming Mexican number certainly struggled in places.
In some ways it reminded me of Damien: Omen II or other similar films where the little terrors set about causing mayhem with their ungodly shenanigans. El libro de piedra certainly has its moments, but overall it didn't quite do it for me as I just didn't find young Silvia particularly convincing, and the dullness of those around her didn't compensate for that.
Part of HOOPT🔮BER 6.0: “Must be the Season of the Witch” challenge.
17/31
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"The Book of Stone" is a Mexican horror movie about black magic and imaginary friends. The production is surprisingly as good as other countries famous in the genre such as UK and Italy.
The atmosphere has a gothic touch that reminded me of "The Innocents" mainly because of Marga López's main character named Julia, who like Deborah Kerr's Miss Giddens in the 1961 classic, is also a classy governess hired to look after a rich child.
Also, both are gradually drawn to the supernatural mysteries surrounding the huge, secluded estate where they work.
Silvia's a wealthy little girl who lives in isolation from other children on…
Gothic Mexican chiller about the kind of imaginary friend that might not be imaginary. Like the other Carlos Enrique Taboada films I watched earlier this year, it may be a little long and talky but the Bava influence is strong. Spooky ending too.
The Book of Stone is a quiet horror movie, one of atmosphere and a creeping, unsettling uncertainty. It is a film of adults terrorised by children and witchcraft, caught within a house of terror. Whether the events are the work of the supernatural or something imagined is left ambiguous for quite a while. Though as The Book of Stone progresses it becomes clear that unknown, old forces are taking root in the modern world. Faces appear everywhere, in mirrors and statues, as the haunting at the centre of the movie becomes increasingly eerie. This is a psychological horror work, executed with calm and confident filmmaking. The scares are built up inside, not reliant on gore. It's a simple…
4th Carlos Enrique Taboada (after Even the Wind is Afraid, Blacker than the Night and Poison for the Fairies)
A frustrating encounter with a director I rated extremely highly last year. Maybe I wasn't in the mood for it given the lurid stylings of Corpse Mania, or maybe I was just too set on the comparisons people have given this to The Innocents, one of my favourite films of all time. But whatever it was, The Book of Stone just didn't click. Too long and too subdued, it never feels scary enough to be a full-blooded Gothic horror and attempts to use ambiguity as a crutch for the narrative inconsistencies. The plot concerns a woman who goes to work as…
Mexinema Vol. 1
18/37
El libro de Piedra es mi primer acercamiento al cine de Carlos Enrique Taboada, quien es considerado uno de los grandes representantes del terror y el suspenso en México.
El libro de piedra funciona por su dotado estilo gótico, Taboada ha congeniado con la idea de que la mente y el desarrollo infantil tienen mucho para aportar en este tipo de historias, como en este caso en el que un terror sútil y magia negra provienen de los pensamientos y comportamientos de una niña, al relacionar con la amistad a una estatua que representa la sobrenaturalidad.
Con un estilo independiente y una atmosfera casi teatral, es evidente que la historia no tiene la capacidad de relucir…
