Hasta el viento tiene miedo (Even the Wind is Afraid (1968) – Film Review

If you like a good ghost story, Hasta el viento tiene miedo is a Mexican horror film you need to know about. Released in 1968, it’s a Spanish-language chiller that manages to outshine most modern supernatural horror films regardless of all their clever special effects. It has everything it needs without them: a strong cast and an excellent plot. The only special effects come courtesy of a wind machine.

In America and the UK, the film is generally distributed as Even the Wind is Afraid, a direct translation of the original title. It’s also sometimes known as The Wind of Fear. After you watch the film and become familiar with it, you may think this is the better title. I certainly do but call it what you want, it’s an excellent film that you may find yourself wanting to watch more than once.

Set in a boarding school for girls, Hasta el viento tiene miedo begins with one of the pupils, Claudia (Alicia Bonet) tossing and turning in her bed due to a bad dream. She’s pulled from her sleep by a voice calling her name, looks up to see a girl’s body hanging above the bottom of her bed, and starts screaming.

The following morning, the school doctor (Enrique García Álvarez) examines Claudia and tells the sub-principal, Miss Lucia (Maricruz Olivier), not to worry, saying it’s only an attack of nerves brought on by the nightmare. He recommends bed rest. However, the school principal, Miss Bernarda (Marga López), goes against this telling Miss Lucia she expects to see Claudia back in class within half an hour.

During the lunchtime break, Claudia is walking in the school grounds with her friends Ivette (Renata Seydel) and Silvia (Irma Castillón) when she notices the padlock that secures the door to the tower in is open. This is unusual so the girls call over Kitty (Norma Lazareno), Marina (Rita Sabre Marroquín), and Veronica (Lourdes Baledón). Urged on by Kitty, the six girls enter the tower and Claudia immediately recognizes the interior from her dream, telling her friends there is a red door at the top of the stairs.

When the girls climb the stairs, they are shocked to see Claudia is correct. However, before they get a chance to investigate further, the girls are stopped in their tracks by the voice of Miss Bernarda, who orders them down and later them that they will have to stay at school during the upcoming vacation as a punishment.

So, the following day, when the rest of their classmates head home, the girls have to remain and take remedial lessons. One of their other classmates, Josefina (Elizabeth Dupeyrón) stays behind as well because she has no family to go to.

Josefina differs from the other girls in that she’s very studious and rule-abiding. Trusted by the principal, she’s also somewhat of a spy in the ranks who isn’t averse to telling tales on her classmates if she catches them breaking the rules.

Responding to the voice calling to her in her dreams, Claudia heads back to the tower during the night and finding it open is about to go inside but is stopped by Kitty and Ivette who have been following her while she is sleepwalking and ask what she is doing. Claudia tells her someone is calling to her, but her friends hear nothing but the wind. Then Claudia tells them to look up at the window. When they do, they see a ghostly-looking girl watching them.

After a subsequent encounter with the apparition, all seven girls confide in Miss Lucia. They also show her a picture Kitty found in the Principal’s desk drawer and tell her it’s a picture of the girl who is haunting them. Pressed to provide answers, Miss Lucia tells them the girl in the picture is Andrea, a notable student who was unfairly punished by the principal and forced to remain at school, five years ago, while her mother was dying. When Andrea learned of her mother’s death, she went to the tower and hung herself.

Hasta el viento tiene miedo is a gripping supernatural horror film that fluctuates between ghostly encounters and entertaining scenes that show the girls interacting with each other and aid character development. With the exception of the school principal, all the characters are easy to like and at one point in the film, when Claudia appears to be dead, even the strict Miss Bernarda shows a softer more compassionate side.

Many of the best scenes in the film are enhanced by the effective use of a wind machine and howling wind sound effects, that create the kind of spooky atmosphere that leaves a lasting impression. As the school gardener, Diego, reminds Miss Lucia during a conversation about Andrea’s ghost, the wind was howling on the night they found her body, just as it is that very night. After she leaves Diego, Miss Lucia encounters the ghost herself for the first time.

Throughout the film, Miss Lucia is a kindly teacher who shows genuine affection for the girls in her care. She and the overly strict Miss Bernarda are poles apart and Maricruz Olivier and Marga López do an excellent job of bringing their characters to life.

Although it’s hard to fault any of the acting in the film, some of the girls such as Claudia (for obvious reasons), Kitty, and Ivette, are more prominent. Especially so in the case of Kitty, who tends to be somewhat braver and more forward than her classmates and, at one point in the film, shocks her friends by performing an impromptu striptease.

Hasta el viento tiene miedo, may begin as a ghost story, but as the film progresses there are some surprising twists and turns as it develops into a tale of revenge from beyond the grave. As the film nears its climax, it becomes easy to predict what’s going to happen but the ending still works very well and does not leave any loose ends.

In 2020, the film was released on Blu-ray in the United States, helping it to gain extra exposure. There are now also multiple streaming options available but non-Spanish-speaking viewers will need to be happy to view the film with the help of subtitles because dubbed versions are not available.