Naschycast #61 - LOS PASAJEROS (1975)

After nearly ten years of covering Paul Naschy films it is no secret that we have reached the final few movies that are available for us to see. Sure, we’ve stayed away from some later efforts with very small roles for our hero that might be worthy of attention. But, of the movies made during his most productive years, there are not many left to dig into and most of those were never released in the United States or, in some cases, outside of Spain. Luckily, the fan-subbing community once again comes to the rescue allowing us to finally check another rare one off our Naschy bucket list. The film’s cast also includes the excellent Aurora Bautista in a significant role as well as Eva León and Loreta Tovar so there are some familiar faces for Spanish Horror fans.

LOS PASAJEROS (1975) is a hard to find film for many reasons. It seems to have been barely released even in Spain and to have been the first of only two feature films directed by José Antonio Barrero. Mr. Barrero contributed the screen story for this effort as well so it seems logical to attribute the film’s quirks to his sensibilities. He appears to have been aiming this movie at the arthouse crowd couching his (supposedly) big statements in arch symbolic actions that often leave viewers scratching their heads. It may be that a Spanish filmgoer in the mid-1970’s would have been able to puzzle out the meaning of what happens onscreen but we might never know. Still, there are points of interest for the hardcore Naschy fan since Mr. Molina has a substantial role as the rich patron presiding over a house filled with subservient people. Naschy commands these visitors to his isolated home to act out scenes from plays while he watches. It’s all pretty weird!

At the end of the show we reply to a pair of recent emails to the podcast. If you have comments or questions the address is naschycast@gmail.com where we’ll be glad to hear from you. If you don’t want us to use your full name on the show let us know. Thank you for listening to this episode and we’ll be back soon with another Beyond Naschy show!

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