Synopsis for
Vampiro, El (1957)

The train has arrived in the small Mexican town of Sierra Negra. As the workers unload a large box of soil from Bakonia, Hungary addressed to Senor M Duval, Marta Gonzalez [Ariadna Welter] also gets off the train and looks around for her Uncle Emilio [José Luis Jiménez], who was supposed to pick her up and escort her to the Sicomoros (Sycamores), the Gonzalez family hacienda. Unfortunately, a landslide has prevented the trains from running all afternoon, so Marta wasn't expected until tomorrow and Don Emilio has gone home. Marta isn't the only one with no ride from the station. Enrique [Abel Salazar] has been sitting on a bench for hours, hoping to catch a ride. Just when it looks like they'll have to remain at the station overnight, a wagon arrives to pick up the box of soil. Enrique convinces the driver to give Marta and himself a lift.

When the driver has taken them as far as he will go, Marta and Enrique are forced to walk the rest of the way along the dark, foggy, lonely road, unaware that they're being followed by a woman dressed in a flowing black gown. Marta is eager to return to the beautiful hacienda where she grew up showered with love from Uncle Emilio and his two sisters, Marta's aunts Eloisa [Carmon Montejo] and María Teresa [Alicia Montoya]...especially Marta's beloved aunt María Teresa. Marta received a letter just two days ago from Emilio, telling her that María Teresa was ill. Marta doesn't know it, but María Teresa has already died and been interred in the family crypt. It's for the best, explains Aunt Eloisa, the woman in black who was following them on the road and who doesn't look like she's aged a day in the ten years that Marta has been away. María Teresa has been sliding into insanity for the past five years, convinced that there was a vampire in the house who was after her blood. Night after night she would lock herself in her room and surround herself with crucifixes to ward off the vampires and with mirrors so that she could recognize a vampire by the lack of a reflection.

As unprepared as Marta was when she heard of her aunt's death, she is equally as unprepared to see the once elegant hacienda in its current state of deterioration. The one remaining manservant, Anselmo [José Chávez], explains that it is impossible to get workers because almost all the villagers have left Sierra Negra. As there are no hotels operating in Sierra Negra, Emilio invites Enrique to stay the night at the hacienda. Marta would be surprised if she knew that Enrique is a doctor and that it was Emilio who sent for him, hoping to have him assess María Teresa's state of mind, what with her going on about vampires and all.

What Emilio doesn't know is that there is, indeed, a vampire at the hacienda. In fact, there are two. Eloisa has been turned into a vampire by their neighbor, Senor Duval [Germán Robles], and Eloisa wants to sell the hacienda to Duval. Unfortunately, the agreement between the three siblings was that the majority must rule for any sale to take place, and Emilio is against selling. Now that María Teresa is dead and her share of the estate has been passed to Marta, it is Marta who must cast the deciding vote. In order to assure that Marta votes in favor of the sale, Duval and Eloisa plan to make Marta a vampire, too. Now that the soil has arrived from Hungary, it is also Duval's plan to revive his brother, Conde Karol de Lavud [Lavud = Duval, get it?]. With Karol returned and possession of the Gonzalez hacienda, the House of Lavud will rule again.

That very night Duval pays a visit to the Gonzalez hacienda in order to meet with Marta. Unfortunately, Marta feels exhausted from the day's events and begs off. While readying herself for bed, Marta notices that her aunt casts no reflection in the mirror, but she dismisses it as tiredness. As Duval sits in the library talking with Emilio and Enrique, they are surprised to see a book fall from a shelf, though no one was near it. When Enrique goes to replace the book, he notices it open to a page describing the murder of Conde Karol de Lavud, founder of the Sicomoros, native of Bakonia, Hungary. Interested in this ancestor of the Sicomoros, Enrique takes the book to his room. As he begins to page through the aged text, he hears someone singing a lullaby and assumes it is Marta. During the night, the ghosts are busy. María Teresa enters Marta's bedroom and places a cross on her pillow. Eloisa sneaks into Enrique's room to rummage through his luggage and finds his medical bag. Why would a doctor be here, she wonders? Duval enters Marta's bedroom, but is thwarted by the cross on her pillow...until her hand knocks it off. Then he pounces. First bite.

The next morning, as Enrique prepares to leave for the train station, he comes upon Marta seated in the courtyard, looking soulfully at a closed door. It was my room when I was little, Marta explains. María Teresa would sing her to sleep each night with a special lullaby that she made up. Marta begins to sing it, and Enrique recognizes it as the same lullaby he heard last night. Marta assures him that it could not be, because she didn't sing it and the only other person who knows the song is dead. Enrique opens the door to the bedroom and finds it, like the rest of the courtyard, filled with dust and spiderwebs, but when Marta goes in to take a look, she sees her dead aunt standing there and starts screaming. Emilio comes running and is shocked to hear Marta describe María Teresa exactly as she looked when she was laid in her coffin, with her hair loose and carrying a crucifix. Emilio begs Enrique to stay for a few hours more. Although anxious to get away from this madhouse, Enrique agrees.

After Marta has had a chance to calm down, Eloisa informs her that Sr Duval is coming for another visit. As Marta fixes her makeup, she again notices that Eloisa casts no refection in the mirror. Knowing that she's been found out, Eloisa invites everyone to have a drink of wine before Enrique leaves for the train station. While pouring it, Eloisa places a drug in Marta's wine. Enrique returns the book he was reading, explaining that it's an interesting account of how Count Lavud was thought to be a vampire by the villagers, so they staked him and buried him one hundred years ago in the crypt. Legend says that a vampire must be buried alone; if he is buried amongst others, another vampire will come looking for revenge.

Suddenly, Marta collapses. Dr Enrique examines her and pronounces her dead. Hours pass. As the family keeps vigil over Marta's body, Anselmo notices a twitch in her little finger. Enrique re-examines her and finds that her pupils are constricted and that a mirror placed near her mouth shows breath. Emilio says that Marta's "death" was similar to that of María Teresa and wonders whether María Teresa might also have awakened after being interred in her coffin. They rush down to the crypt and open her coffin. It's empty! Anselmo and Maria (the maid) reveal that they found a note in María Teresa's scapular just before being sealed in her tomb. The note said: "I'm not dead. Get me out of here, and take me to the tunnel behind the cross." This they did. Anselmo leads them into the tunnel where they find María Teresa, alive and well. She explains how Duval and Eloisa gave her a powder, just like it was given to Marta, to make it look like she was dead so that she'd awaken in her coffin and die of suffocation. They're vampires, she cries, and they're going to try and revive Duval's brother. Emilio and Enrique begin to believe her.

Meanwhile, Marta is reaching consciousness, only to see Duval standing at the foot of her bed. Her screams bring Enrique, Emilio, Anselmo, and Maria running, but Duval has carried Marta off through a secret passage behind a bookcase. Emilio goes looking for a lantern, but Enrique lights a candle and goes alone in search of Marta. A stone staircase leads him down into a maze of tunnels which connect with the crypt where Duval's coffin rests. Meanwhile, Eloisa attacks Emilio, biting his neck. Then she tries to attack Enrique, but María Teresa grabs her from behind and strangles her. Just as Duval is about to bite the again unconscious Marta for the second time, Enrique bursts into the room. Duval grabs a sword and attacks Enrique. Armed with a lighted torch, Enrique fights off Duval's sword, until Duval succeeds in lobbing off the firey head of the torch, which falls on the floor and starts some curtains on fire. Just then, the cock crows. Duval races out of the room, leaving Enrique to fight with two renfields while he jumps into his coffin. Maria Teresa opens the coffin and drives a stake through Duval's heart. At that moment, Marta awakens, Enrique overpowers the renfields and carries Marta from the flames, and Eloisa turns to dust. Eventually, the flames envelope Duval's coffin.

Epiloque: The train has arrived in Sierra Negra. Enrique and Marta say their goodbyes. The train pulls out of the station, but Enrique remains on the platform, kissing Marta. [Original synopsis by bj_kuehl]