31 Nights of Halloween Horror - The Hunchback of the Morgue

The Hunchback of the Morgue
87 mins.
Dir. Javier Agguire
1973/Spain



When it comes to Paul Naschy movies, there are a lot of greats to choose from and The Hunchback of the Morgue has to be near the top of that list.  It has everything you could want in a movie featuring a hunchback in a morgue and more.

This time around Paul Naschy plays Gotho, a lonely simple hunchback who everyone makes fun of and ridicules at every chance they get.  They tell him how ugly his face is, which I could never really understand because other then a small scar above his eye, there is little make-up on Naschy and he looks normal.  Gotho works at the morgue in the local hospital, he has one friend who he crushes on who has been nice to him his whole life, but she is dying or an incurable illness.  Gotho goes to see her everyday until her death and bring her flowers.  When his love's body winds up in the morgue two doctors, after ridiculing Gotho, get ready to perform an autopsy.  Gotho goes apeshit at the thought of anyone mutilating his love, kills the doctors and steals the corpse to bring to his underground catacomb lair.  Gotho asks crazy Dr. Orla who also works at the hospital, if he can revive his love, Dr Orla, who is working on some outlandish experiments of his own is all in.  With the help of Gotho providing more cadavers and body parts, Dr. Orla creates a new organism that evolves into a hulking oozing humanoid figure that is ultimately uncontrollable and wrecks havoc in the end.



So much awesomeness abounds in this movie.  Quite possibly Naschy goriest film, hands are cut off, heads are cut off, guts are spilled, rats eat flesh and in one very disturbing scene real rats are set on fire.  And somehow through it all, despite his overgrown hump and scar, Naschy still gets the ladies.  Another doctor who feels sorry for Gotho and is attracted to his gentle nature when he is not murdering people, (though he does it out of love so it is ok) winds up giving the hump a hump if you know what I mean, and I think you do.  Great set design and an outlandish experiment that outdoes Dr. Frankenstein.  Dr. Orla, played by Alberto Dalbes who has appeared in plenty other Spanish horror films, does not build his monster from the body parts of corpses, he starts from the ground up, from cells until he replicates a creature that absorbs other humans, starting with dead and moving on to live specimens.  The love Naschy has for these projects is really evident in his portrayal of Gotho, if you are looking to explore more Spanish horror from the 70s, The Hunchback of the Morgue is a good place to start.  Now get a good nights sleep, tomorrow is the big day.



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