Review of Terror and Black Lace

TERROR Y ENCAJES NEGROS (1985) ***½ Gonzalo Vega, Maribel Guardia, Claudio Obregón. Misleadingly marketed as a horror film, Terror y encajes negros ("Terror and Black Lace") is more melodrama than anything else. It's the story of Isabel (Maribel Guardia), a young woman suffocated by her jealous, controlling husband (played perfectly by Gonzalo Vega), who keeps her virtually imprisoned in their apartment. The first two-thirds of the film chronicles Isabel's struggle to break out of this extreme isolation. The story takes a sharp turn in the final 30 minutes, when Isabel is terrorized by the psychotic Cesar (played by veteran character actor Obregón), after she witnesses him disposing of a dead body in her building. To the film's credit, though, Isabel's ordeal isn't just horror for horror's sake; it's skillfully woven back into the main story as a way of highlighting both Isabel's loneliness and her husband's irrational distrust. Guardia was nominated for an Ariel Award (Mexico's equivalent to the Oscars) for her performance. Worth seeing. In Spanish with English subtitles.