# The Phantom of the Convent
**The Phantom of the Convent** (Spanish: *El fantasma del convento*) is a 1934 Mexican black-and-white horror film directed by Fernando de Fuentes, in which a married couple and their friend, lost at nightfall, take shelter in a monastery haunted by the spirit of a monk who sold his soul to the devil for his best friend's wife.[1](https://cinema.ucla.edu/events/el-fantasma-del-convento-02-15-19/) The UCLA Film & Television Archive describes it as the first Mexican horror film of true importance, coming a year after *La Llorona* (1933), and scholarship on Mexican horror cinema counts it, together with Juan Bustillo Oro's *Dos monjes* (1934), as a precursor of the genre.[1](https://cinema.ucla.edu/events/el-fantasma-del-convento-02-15-19/) • [2](https://www.iifilologicas.unam.mx/senderosFilologicos/index.php/senderosPhilologicos/fantasma_1)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title | *El fantasma del convento*; released in English as The Phantom of the Monastery (also The Phantom of the Convent)[1](https://cinema.ucla.edu/events/el-fantasma-del-convento-02-15-19/) |
| Director and year | Fernando de Fuentes, 1934, Mexico, black and white[1](https://cinema.ucla.edu/events/el-fantasma-del-convento-02-15-19/) |
| Running time | 85 minutes (UCLA, Cineteca Nacional, and BBFC listings); the Morelia festival lists the restored print at 83:00[1](https://cinema.ucla.edu/events/el-fantasma-del-convento-02-15-19/) • [3](https://www.cinetecanacional.net/detallePelicula.php?FilmId=HO00007186) • [4](https://moreliafilmfest.com/en/peliculas/phantom-monastery) |
| Screenplay and production | Script by Jorge Pezet, Fernando de Fuentes, and Juan Bustillo Oro; produced by Producciones FESA (Films Exchange, S.A.), producer Jorge Pezet[3](https://www.cinetecanacional.net/detallePelicula.php?FilmId=HO00007186) |
| Principal cast | Enrique del Campo, Marta Roel, Carlos Villatoro, Paco Martínez, Victorio Blanco[4](https://moreliafilmfest.com/en/peliculas/phantom-monastery) |
| Premiere | 27 June 1934 at the cine Balmori, with a one-week run[5](https://tesiunamdocumentos.dgb.unam.mx/ptd2021/junio/0812444/0812444.pdf) |
| Restoration | Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive with The Film Foundation's World Cinema Project and the George Lucas Family Foundation, from the nitrate original camera negative held by the Permanencia Voluntaria Film Archive[6](https://moreliafilmfest.com/sites/default/files/2021-08/17-ficm-cat-todo.pdf) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
The married couple Cristina and Eduardo, along with their friend Alfonso, get lost in the woods at dusk. After the group comes upon a strange monk who invites them to take refuge in the old monastery belonging to the Order of Silence, Eduardo hesitates to go in, while his wife Cristina and Alfonso, her secret lover, persuade him to stay there overnight.[4](https://moreliafilmfest.com/en/peliculas/phantom-monastery) Their host explains that the monastery's ghost is the soul of a friar who traded it to Satan for the wife of his closest friend, a tale mirroring the unfaithfulness within the group of visitors.[1](https://cinema.ucla.edu/events/el-fantasma-del-convento-02-15-19/)
The legend concerns Fray Rodrigo, who seduced the wife of a friend, died, and was denied Christian burial for his sins, so that his spirit still haunts his cell.[3](https://www.cinetecanacional.net/detallePelicula.php?FilmId=HO00007186) • [7](https://cid-albertobeltran.cultura.gob.mx/videoteca/el-fantasma-del-convento-direccion-fernando-de-fuentes-et-al/) Through the night the supernatural gains sway, with mysterious monks, demonic books, spectral dogs, and empty coffins, until dawn discloses new revelations; in the account summarized by the Mexican film archive CID, Alfonso finds what appears to be Eduardo's corpse in Fray Rodrigo's cell, undergoes a nightmarish sequence of frights, and wakes to find Cristina and Eduardo alive and safe, with a watchman revealing that the convent has been uninhabited for years.[1](https://cinema.ucla.edu/events/el-fantasma-del-convento-02-15-19/) • [8](https://www.filmoteca.cat/web/es/node/40369) • [7](https://cid-albertobeltran.cultura.gob.mx/videoteca/el-fantasma-del-convento-direccion-fernando-de-fuentes-et-al/)
## Production
The film was shot in 1934 at the México Films studios and at the convent of Tepotzotlán, produced by Films Exchange (FESA) from a script by Jorge Pezet, Fernando de Fuentes, and Juan Bustillo Oro, the last of whom directed *Dos monjes* the same year.[5](https://tesiunamdocumentos.dgb.unam.mx/ptd2021/junio/0812444/0812444.pdf) Ross Fisher was the cinematographer, the brothers José and Roberto Rodríguez handled sound, Max Urban composed the music, Fernando A. Rivero built the sets, and de Fuentes himself edited the film.[5](https://tesiunamdocumentos.dgb.unam.mx/ptd2021/junio/0812444/0812444.pdf) • [4](https://moreliafilmfest.com/en/peliculas/phantom-monastery) The UCLA notes identify the derelict filming location as the Colegio de San Francisco Javier, northeast of Mexico City, and credit the film's atmosphere partly to Urban's brief but powerful score.[1](https://cinema.ucla.edu/events/el-fantasma-del-convento-02-15-19/)
It premiered on 27 June 1934 at the cine Balmori and ran for one week.[5](https://tesiunamdocumentos.dgb.unam.mx/ptd2021/junio/0812444/0812444.pdf)
## Place in Mexican horror cinema
The first Mexican horror film, *La Llorona* (1933), precedes it by a year, but the UCLA Film & Television Archive calls *El fantasma del convento* the first Mexican horror film of true import.[1](https://cinema.ucla.edu/events/el-fantasma-del-convento-02-15-19/) The film scholar Maricruz Castro Ricalde of the Instituto Tecnológico de [Monterrey](https://www.edgepedia.org/monterrey) places it among the best titles of Mexican horror cinema and, with *Dos monjes*, as a precursor of the genre, part of a period of thematic and generic exploration before *Allá en el rancho grande* (1936) fixed a commercially reliable formula.[2](https://www.iifilologicas.unam.mx/senderosFilologicos/index.php/senderosPhilologicos/fantasma_1) Mexican audiences had already seen horror from Hollywood and Europe, including *The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari* (1920) and *Frankenstein* (1931), by the time the film opened.[2](https://www.iifilologicas.unam.mx/senderosFilologicos/index.php/senderosPhilologicos/fantasma_1)
For its director, the film is an outlier. Fernando de Fuentes ([Veracruz](https://www.edgepedia.org/veracruz-city), 1894 to Mexico City, 1958) is regarded as one of the finest directors of early Mexican cinema and is best known for his trilogy on the [Mexican Revolution](https://www.edgepedia.org/mexican-revolution), *El prisionero trece* (1933), *El compadre Mendoza* (1934), and *Vámonos con Pancho Villa* (1936), and for *Allá en el Rancho Grande* (1936), which launched the comedia ranchera genre and won the first major international award for a Mexican film, at the [Venice Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/venice-film-festival).[1](https://cinema.ucla.edu/events/el-fantasma-del-convento-02-15-19/) • [9](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8411-cinema-revolutionary-fernando-de-fuentes-in-morelia) • [6](https://moreliafilmfest.com/sites/default/files/2021-08/17-ficm-cat-todo.pdf) *El fantasma del convento* was his first and only incursion into horror, and the UCLA notes describe it as a comparatively intimate chamber work, steeped in mysticism and Catholic guilt, sharing a sensibility with Carl Dreyer's *Vampyr* (1932) and Herk Harvey's *Carnival of Souls* (1962).[5](https://tesiunamdocumentos.dgb.unam.mx/ptd2021/junio/0812444/0812444.pdf) • [1](https://cinema.ucla.edu/events/el-fantasma-del-convento-02-15-19/)
## Restoration and later exhibition
The film was restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive in collaboration with [The Film Foundation](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-film-foundation)'s World Cinema Project, the Permanencia Voluntaria Film Archive, and the Filmoteca de la UNAM, with funding from the George Lucas Family Foundation; the restoration was preserved from the 35mm nitrate picture and track negatives and a 16mm acetate composite dupe negative.[1](https://cinema.ucla.edu/events/el-fantasma-del-convento-02-15-19/) • [6](https://moreliafilmfest.com/sites/default/files/2021-08/17-ficm-cat-todo.pdf) The restored version screened in the 2019 UCLA Festival of Preservation and at the Morelia International Film Festival, and later circulated through archives such as Cineteca Nacional and the Filmoteca de Catalunya.[1](https://cinema.ucla.edu/events/el-fantasma-del-convento-02-15-19/) • [3](https://www.cinetecanacional.net/detallePelicula.php?FilmId=HO00007186) • [8](https://www.filmoteca.cat/web/es/node/40369)
The [British Board of Film Classification](https://www.edgepedia.org/british-board-of-film-classification), which rated a release of the film (as [The Phantom](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-phantom) of the [Monastery](https://www.edgepedia.org/monastery)) for mild horror and violence, notes scenes including a monk's shadow on a wall as he self-flagellates, a decomposing body moving its arm, and bloody writing appearing in a prayer book.[10](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/the-phantom-of-the-monastery-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0xmdaxmjg1)
## References
1. [El fantasma del convento, UCLA Film & Television Archive](https://cinema.ucla.edu/events/el-fantasma-del-convento-02-15-19/)
2. [Maricruz Castro Ricalde (2022). Tradición y diversidad del cine mexicano de terror: El fantasma del convento. Senderos Filológicos, UNAM.](https://www.iifilologicas.unam.mx/senderosFilologicos/index.php/senderosPhilologicos/fantasma_1)
3. [El fantasma del convento, Cineteca Nacional](https://www.cinetecanacional.net/detallePelicula.php?FilmId=HO00007186)
4. [The Phantom of the Monastery, Morelia International Film Festival](https://moreliafilmfest.com/en/peliculas/phantom-monastery)
5. [Fabián Jiménez Sánchez (2021). El cine de horror mexicano. Doctoral thesis, UNAM.](https://tesiunamdocumentos.dgb.unam.mx/ptd2021/junio/0812444/0812444.pdf)
6. [El fantasma del convento program notes, Morelia International Film Festival (PDF)](https://moreliafilmfest.com/sites/default/files/2021-08/17-ficm-cat-todo.pdf)
7. [El Fantasma del Convento, Videoteca CID, Secretaría de Cultura](https://cid-albertobeltran.cultura.gob.mx/videoteca/el-fantasma-del-convento-direccion-fernando-de-fuentes-et-al/)
8. [El fantasma del convento, Filmoteca de Catalunya](https://www.filmoteca.cat/web/es/node/40369)
9. [Imogen Sara Smith (2024). Cinema Revolutionary: Fernando de Fuentes in Morelia. The Criterion Collection.](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/8411-cinema-revolutionary-fernando-de-fuentes-in-morelia)
10. [The Phantom of the Monastery, British Board of Film Classification](https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/the-phantom-of-the-monastery-q29sbgvjdglvbjpwwc0xmdaxmjg1)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Horror films (individual works) › Gothic horror films*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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