Saturday, June 21, 2025

Cursed Film Lore: Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Silver Nitrate

 Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Silver Nitrate book cover

Silver Nitrate presents a really intriguing urban legend, the cursed film, and proceeds to incorporate other entertaining and interesting elements of the horror-fantasy genre. The story starts off a little slowly, but this allows Moreno-Garcia to develop the characters Montserrat and her friend/actor Tristan. The story revolves around the legend of an unseen film that is based on ancient magik texts. Moreno-Garcia’s development of the two protagonists allows for differing views of the various players involved in the story and their different motivations for wanting the cursed (or magikal film stock). I was looking forward to this story since I am fascinated by stories of cursed films, and while this takes a slightly different approach, it is nevertheless entertaining, especially in the middle and end of the text. There are also some really chilling ghostly moments, and that made this book a wild and entertaining ride. Although I enjoyed Mexican Gothic, Silver Nitrate offers more action and a wilder ride, while also discussing some of the inequality and racism found in Mexican society. 



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