70 years ago, Dr. Malthus (Fernando Casanova) was hanged by the neck for his experiments to stay forever young that involved blood transfusions from women under 25 that ultimately killed same women.

Now, Gonzalo Malthus (also Fernando Casanova) returns home from his studies in Europe and takes residence in his ancestor's home. It seems the place is still haunted by the older Dr. Malthus, as Gonzalo is somehow led to his secret laboratory, where he finds, next to cages full of mummified bodies from the girls the good doctor used in his experiments, the formula to bring Malthus sr back to life. So Gonzalo steals his body from the crypt, abducts his fiancée Rosa's (Sonia Furió) maid Luisa (Aurora Alvarado), and brings Malthus back to life. And Malthus is pretty much his splitting image - but Malthus has a weak spot, he has to receive shots of fresh blood regularly, otherwise he ages into a hideous old man rather rapidly. At first he can still feed on Luisa, as Gonzalo has managed to keep her alive, but eventually it becomes apparent that the next transfusion will kill her. Gonzalo refuses to kidnap any more girls, upon which Malthus throws him into a cage and takes over his life - which of course has him in a great position to kidnap girls. With Gonzalo's life, he also takes over Gonzalo's fiancée, who eventually finds out he's not Gonzalo when she sees the marks the noose left on his neck when he was executed. Malthus wants to throw her into a cave as well and maybe feed on her blood, but by that time, Gonzalo and the girls Malthus keeps for blood have managed a breakout, and eventually burn down Malthus lab, and him with it.

Now on a story level, La Marca del Muerto offers little new, and it tells its story in a pretty simplistic manner - which at least makes for a fun genre flick. This movie's saving grace though is that it's very atmospherically shot, and even when the story's weak it's strong on mood, and it really gets the most out of its locations, making this actually a very decent watch.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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