A Mexican girl returns home for an aunt's funeral. She hears town rumors about vampires. She suspects her other aunt and neighbor are involved with vampires.
A pretty young Mexican girl returns to her hometown to make funeral arrangements for her beloved aunt, who has just died. Soon she begins to hear disturbing stories about the town being infested by vampires, and she eventually begins to suspect that her remaining aunt and the mysterious next door neighbor may be involved.—[email protected]
When the train arrives in Sierra Negra station, the youth Marta Gonzalez learns that her uncle is not at the station to take her to Sicomorros, where she had lived most of her life. She is in a hurry to visit her Aunt María Teresa, who is dying, but there is no means to go to the village. A stranger, Enrique, asks for a ride for her in a wagon pulled by two horses to a weird man that came to take a mysterious box. He accepts to give a ride to them to a road nearby the farm owned by her uncle Emilio. Soon Maria and Enrique learn that her aunt has died and has just been buried in the family's crypt. She meets her aunt Eloisa and is surprised to see how young she seems to be. Further, the servants Maria and Anselmo tell stories of vampires that made most of the population of Sicomorros leave the village. Eloisa tells Marta that she has inherited one-third of the real estate and their neighbor, Count Karol de Lavud, wants to buy the property. But soon Marta learns dark secrets about the count and her aunt.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The train has arrived in the small Mexican town of Sierra Negra. Asthe workers unload a large box of soil from Bakonia, Hungary addressed toSenor M Duval, Marta Gonzalez [Ariadna Welter] also gets off the train and looks around forher Uncle Emilio [José Luis Jiménez], who was supposed to pick her up and escort her to theSicomoros (Sycamores), the Gonzalez family hacienda. Unfortunately, alandslide has prevented the trains from running all afternoon, so Martawasn't expected until tomorrow and Don Emilio has gone home. Marta isn'tthe only one with no ride from the station. Enrique [Abel Salazar] has been sittingon a bench for hours, hoping to catch a ride. Just when it looks likethey'll have to remain at the station overnight, a wagon arrives to pickup the box of soil. Enrique convinces the driver to give Marta and himselfa lift.
When the driver has taken them as far as he will go, Marta andEnrique are forced to walk the rest of the way along the dark, foggy,lonely road, unaware that they're being followed by a woman dressed in aflowing black gown. Marta is eager to return to the beautiful haciendawhere she grew up showered with love from Uncle Emilio and his twosisters, Marta's aunts Eloisa [Carmon Montejo] and María Teresa [Alicia Montoya]...especially Marta'sbeloved aunt María Teresa. Marta received a letter just two days ago fromEmilio, telling her that María Teresa was ill. Marta doesn't know it, butMaría Teresa has already died and been interred in the family crypt. It'sfor the best, explains Aunt Eloisa, the woman in black who was followingthem on the road and who doesn't look like she's aged a day in the tenyears that Marta has been away. María Teresa has been sliding intoinsanity for the past five years, convinced that there was a vampire inthe house who was after her blood. Night after night she would lockherself in her room and surround herself with crucifixes to ward off thevampires and with mirrors so that she could recognize a vampire by thelack of a reflection.
As unprepared as Marta was when she heard of her aunt's death, she isequally as unprepared to see the once elegant hacienda in its currentstate of deterioration. The one remaining manservant, Anselmo [José Chávez], explainsthat it is impossible to get workers because almost all the villagers haveleft Sierra Negra. As there are no hotels operating in Sierra Negra,Emilio invites Enrique to stay the night at the hacienda. Marta would besurprised if she knew that Enrique is a doctor and that it was Emilio whosent for him, hoping to have him assess María Teresa's state of mind, whatwith her going on about vampires and all.
What Emilio doesn't know is that there is, indeed, a vampire at thehacienda. In fact, there are two. Eloisa has been turned into a vampire bytheir neighbor, Senor Duval [Germán Robles], and Eloisa wants to sell the hacienda toDuval. Unfortunately, the agreement between the three siblings was thatthe majority must rule for any sale to take place, and Emilio is againstselling. Now that María Teresa is dead and her share of the estate hasbeen passed to Marta, it is Marta who must cast the deciding vote. Inorder to assure that Marta votes in favor of the sale, Duval and Eloisaplan to make Marta a vampire, too. Now that the soil has arrived fromHungary, it is also Duval's plan to revive his brother, Conde Karol deLavud [Lavud = Duval, get it?]. With Karol returned and possession of theGonzalez hacienda, the House of Lavud will rule again.
That very night Duval pays a visit to the Gonzalez hacienda in orderto meet with Marta. Unfortunately, Marta feels exhausted from the day'sevents and begs off. While readying herself for bed, Marta notices thather aunt casts no reflection in the mirror, but she dismisses it astiredness. As Duval sits in the library talking with Emilio and Enrique,they are surprised to see a book fall from a shelf, though no one was nearit. When Enrique goes to replace the book, he notices it open to a pagedescribing the murder of Conde Karol de Lavud, founder of the Sicomoros,native of Bakonia, Hungary. Interested in this ancestor of the Sicomoros,Enrique takes the book to his room. As he begins to page through the agedtext, he hears someone singing a lullaby and assumes it is Marta. Duringthe night, the ghosts are busy. María Teresa enters Marta's bedroom andplaces a cross on her pillow. Eloisa sneaks into Enrique's room to rummagethrough his luggage and finds his medical bag. Why would a doctor be here,she wonders? Duval enters Marta's bedroom, but is thwarted by the cross onher pillow...until her hand knocks it off. Then he pounces. First bite.
The next morning, as Enrique prepares to leave for the train station,he comes upon Marta seated in the courtyard, looking soulfully at a closeddoor. It was my room when I was little, Marta explains. María Teresa wouldsing her to sleep each night with a special lullaby that she made up.Marta begins to sing it, and Enrique recognizes it as the same lullaby heheard last night. Marta assures him that it could not be, because shedidn't sing it and the only other person who knows the song is dead.Enrique opens the door to the bedroom and finds it, like the rest of thecourtyard, filled with dust and spiderwebs, but when Marta goes in to takea look, she sees her dead aunt standing there and starts screaming. Emiliocomes running and is shocked to hear Marta describe María Teresa exactlyas she looked when she was laid in her coffin, with her hair loose andcarrying a crucifix. Emilio begs Enrique to stay for a few hours more.Although anxious to get away from this madhouse, Enrique agrees.
After Marta has had a chance to calm down, Eloisa informs her that SrDuval is coming for another visit. As Marta fixes her makeup, she againnotices that Eloisa casts no refection in the mirror. Knowing that she'sbeen found out, Eloisa invites everyone to have a drink of wine beforeEnrique leaves for the train station. While pouring it, Eloisa places adrug in Marta's wine. Enrique returns the book he was reading, explainingthat it's an interesting account of how Count Lavud was thought to be avampire by the villagers, so they staked him and buried him one hundredyears ago in the crypt. Legend says that a vampire must be buried alone;if he is buried amongst others, another vampire will come looking forrevenge.
Suddenly, Marta collapses. Dr Enrique examines her and pronounces herdead. Hours pass. As the family keeps vigil over Marta's body, Anselmonotices a twitch in her little finger. Enrique re-examines her and findsthat her pupils are constricted and that a mirror placed near her mouthshows breath. Emilio says that Marta's "death" was similar to that ofMaría Teresa and wonders whether María Teresa might also have awakenedafter being interred in her coffin. They rush down to the crypt and openher coffin. It's empty! Anselmo and Maria (the maid) reveal that theyfound a note in María Teresa's scapular just before being sealed in hertomb. The note said: "I'm not dead. Get me out of here, and take me to thetunnel behind the cross." This they did. Anselmo leads them into thetunnel where they find María Teresa, alive and well. She explains howDuval and Eloisa gave her a powder, just like it was given to Marta, tomake it look like she was dead so that she'd awaken in her coffin and dieof suffocation. They're vampires, she cries, and they're going to try andrevive Duval's brother. Emilio and Enrique begin to believe her.
Meanwhile, Marta is reaching consciousness, only to see Duvalstanding at the foot of her bed. Her screams bring Enrique, Emilio,Anselmo, and Maria running, but Duval has carried Marta off through asecret passage behind a bookcase. Emilio goes looking for a lantern, butEnrique lights a candle and goes alone in search of Marta. A stonestaircase leads him down into a maze of tunnels which connect with thecrypt where Duval's coffin rests. Meanwhile, Eloisa attacks Emilio, bitinghis neck. Then she tries to attack Enrique, but María Teresa grabs herfrom behind and strangles her. Just as Duval is about to bite the againunconscious Marta for the second time, Enrique bursts into the room. Duvalgrabs a sword and attacks Enrique. Armed with a lighted torch, Enriquefights off Duval's sword, until Duval succeeds in lobbing off the fireyhead of the torch, which falls on the floor and starts some curtains onfire. Just then, the cock crows. Duval races out of the room, leavingEnrique to fight with two renfields while he jumps into his coffin. MariaTeresa opens the coffin and drives a stake through Duval's heart. At thatmoment, Marta awakens, Enrique overpowers the renfields and carries Martafrom the flames, and Eloisa turns to dust. Eventually, the flames envelopeDuval's coffin.
Epiloque: The train has arrived in Sierra Negra. Enrique and Marta saytheir goodbyes. The train pulls out of the station, but Enrique remains onthe platform, kissing Marta. [Original synopsis by bj_kuehl]
