Directed by Chano Urueta, El Monstruo resucitado presents Spanish actor José María Linares-Rivas as a deranged plastic surgeon who keeps an ape-monster in his basement and successfully reanimates a corpse, albeit as a mindless zombie.
Another success La bruja (1954) cast gorgeous Lilia del Valle as a repulsive-looking wretch made beautiful by a scientist who then uses her newfound allure for her own evil ends.
Often called beautifully directed and photographed, El vampiro featured film actor, movie writer and producer, Abel Salazar in the lead role.
Salazar would become one of the key figures of the Mexican horror film wave and shortly after starring in and producing El vampiro he formed ABSA Studios in Mexico.
Murray acquired and distributed an estimated sixty-six motion pictures in the United States, including fairy-tale fantasies, adult films, and approximately thirty horror imports, almost all of which came from Mexico.
Aside from films like The Brainiac and other legitimate classics such as El vampiro and Witch's Mirror, Murray's theatrical showings included Muñecos infernales / The Curse of the Doll People (1960); The Robot vs.
Working out of Coral Gables, Florida, Murray oversaw the rewriting and overdubbing of all his imports at a tiny studio called Soundlab Inc., which was, in fact, one of the first facilities in the U.S. to focus effectively on reworking foreign films for English-speaking audiences.
After helming two lauded shorts, Doña Lupe (1985) and Geometria (1987), along with multiple episodes of the horror TV series La Hora Marcada, del Toro rose to prominence with his international arthouse sensation Cronos (1993), a tale of a cursed antique device and its demonic promise of eternal life.
Since then, the Guadalajara-born del Toro has interspersed the Hollywood blockbusters Mimic (1997), Blade II (2002), and Hellboy (2004) with the Spanish-language The Devil's Backbone (2001) and Pan's Labyrinth (2006).
Along with Texas native Robert Rodriguez, whose From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) ignited a new fascination with Aztec mythology and blood rituals, Guillermo del Toro is serving to keep Mexican horror cinema alive.
Domestically there was a new Horror renaissance in the mids 00's, when five establish indie-Horror filmmakers (and horror scene activists) Lex Ortega, Isaac Ezban, Aaron Soto, Jorge Michelle Grau and Ulisses Guzman created an anthology with a budget out of their own pockets, giving a spot to up and coming Mexican filmmakers like Laurette Flores and Canadian/Mexican Gigi Saul Guerrero, with México Bárbaro, the first self financed high profile Mexican film in years.