Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary (1975)

Hot off the heels of his sensational first film The Mansion of Madness, J.L. Moctezuma followed up with this sexy and stylish mash-up of giallo, vampire films, and mystery stories. Set in modern day Mexico, Chistina Ferrare plays Mary, a brilliant artist with a dark secret. Beset by some paralyzing disease, she must seek out and kill random individuals in order to drink their blood and ensure her survival. But not only are the FBI and Mexican police on her trail, but so is a mysterious cloaked stranger. Things are further complicated when Mary falls in love with a fellow drifter, and must control impulse to survive. At its heart Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary is an experimental and surreal work that has more in common with the likes of, say, David Cronenberg than it does with the average horror film. Moctezuma is a master when it comes to staging these brilliant and delirious scenes, and establishing a real sense of place and atmosphere. And there is a real melancholy here. This is a sad film. Ultimately a tragic romance.