Silver Nitrate is Silvia Moreno-Garcia's latest plunge into the dark alleys of Mexico City's film industry. This is a tale where the line between movie magic and real magic is obscured. It's 1993, and we're introduced to Montserrat, a sound editor who can hear whispers of the supernatural, and Tristán, an actor whose life took a 180 after a car crash left his career and soul mangled. Montserrat and Tristán get entangled with Abel Urueta, a legend in Mexican horror cinema. Abel is now a decrepit figure, ranting about a curse linked to a mysterious lost film. The film, Behind the Yellow Wall, is a strange concoction of Nazi occultism mixed with the golden age of Mexican cinema.
Urueta tells Montserrat and Tristántales stories about a Nazi occultist who believes in Aryan magic. The film is cursed, embedded with spells from Aleister Crowley's grimoire. Montserrat, with her sound editing skills, starts hearing what can only be described as paranormal. Meanwhile Tristán, haunted by his deceased girlfriend, finds himself in conversations with the undead. Montserrat and Tristán venture into a cinematic rabbit hole, where they're not just chasing a curse but confronting the very essence of film. They discover that film is not simply entertainment, but a kind of alchemy. Silver nitrate, this unstable, beautiful medium, becomes a metaphor for their lives—beautiful, volatile, and about to explode.
Moreno-Garcia deftly injects Crowley's magical practices into Mexico's cinematic history. Here, it's about identity, legacy, and the curse of erasure—erasure from film, but also erasure from life itself. Silver Nitrate isn't just a novel. It's an experience, like watching a film where the screen comes alive with magic.
Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is now available on Subatomik as part of our Zombie Shocktoberfest collection. Silvia is also the author of The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, Mexican Gothic, and many other books. She has won the Locus, British Fantasy and World Fantasy awards.
