Santo el enmascarado de plata y Blue Demon contra los monstruos

Personally, I've always defended Santo films as an important part in the history of Mexican cinema, specially the ones that belong to the fantastic genres (fantasy, horror and science-fiction), as they were an influential series among the few movies of the genre done in Mexico. Sadly, I must say that "Santo el Enmascarado y Blue Demon Contra Los Monstruos" is not one of the best Santo movies, and while it certainly packs some fun and is an important step in the progression of the series (from horror to sci-fi), it also marks the downfall of one of the greatest Mexican directors, Gilberto Martínez Solares.

In the film, Santo and Blue Demon (played by themselves) are rivals on the ring, and partners in their fight against evil. One day they receive the news that Otto Halder (Jorge Rado), the famous scientist, has died. This wouldn't be weird, if it weren't for the fact that Santo and Blue Demon had suspected that Halder was a criminal mastermind. The fact that Santo's girlfriend Gloria (Hedi Blue) is Otto's niece made Otto a personal enemy of the duo. Santo has the feeling that Otto's death is not normal, but Blue convinces Santo to go on vacation while he does the investigations. As Santo had thought, Otto Halder is still alive, and after capturing Blue Demon and bringing back to life the mythological monsters of old, he prepares his revenge against Gloria, her father, and Santo.

While the story was written by Rafael García Travesí (who had written Santo's best and most famous films), the screenplay was really the brainchild of producer Jesus Sotomayor, a Mexican producer notorious for his excessively ambitious movies that while based on popular trends often showed poor results. Sotomayor's involvement in the writing of the story is probably the reason of the convoluted and hugely nonsensical plot, as the inclusion of numerous enemies (Halder himself, a vampire, a mummy, a wolf man, Frankenstein's creature, a cyclops, Blue Demon's evil clone, Halder's hunchback sidekick and his zombie henchmen) makes the film an absurd exercise in excess that ultimately destroys what could had been another good Santo film. García Travesí may not had been a terrific writer, but he knew very well how to mix monsters with Santo's trademark action, and in this film the whole formula gets overused to the point that it becomes surreal.

While the atrocious excess in the plot is awful, I think the real tragedy of the film is that it shows how low the career of director Gilberto Martínez Solares was at that point. From being one of the most important figures in the Golden Age of Mexican cinema (directing the best films of genius comedian Germán Valdés "Tin Tán"), he witnessed the downfall of the Golden Age and like many others, worked on sub-par productions in the darkest years of Mexican film industry. By the early 70s, old school comedy films were not popular, so he started directing adventure and sci-fi films (the first being "Blue Demon contra las Invasoras" in 1969) and later sleazy and zany low-rate comedies through the late 70s and early 80s. While a very effective director in comedy, Martínez Solares showed an very anachronistic vision when he started making sci-fi films, and this film demonstrates it.

The film has a very 50s look and if it weren't in color it could pass as a film straight from that era, as the camera-work and the overall style of the film look dated (even for the 70s). The low-budget of the film doesn't help with this as most of the make-up and special effects (like the Cyclops costume) are incredibly cheap. However, not everything is bad in the film, and it could be said that this film (along with the previously mentioned "Blue Demon contra las Invasoras") started the new evolution of the wrestlers sub-genre, moving away from the Bond-like style of films Santo was doing at the moment and taking him back to the fantasy realm in sci-fi adventures of mad doctors and kitsch futuristic designs.

Depsite all the flaws, Santo's charm works and he delivers a fine performance with the little he had to work. While it looks like Santo feels awkward working in the film, he gets the job done like only he knows how to do. Blue Demon seems to have more fun, and he has the meatiest role, as after he is captured he is cloned and the evil clone is sent to kill Santo. Jorge Rado as Otto Halder delivers a good performance, although the script doesn't really give him a lot to work with. Hedi Blue was not really a talented actress and her short career shows that she was only in the film for her good looking face.

While overall this Santo film is disappointing, it's fun to watch in group, as the absurd plot and excessive amount of badly done monsters can make for a fun night at the movies. It's a shame that the careers of Santo, Blue Demon and Gilberto Martínez Solares were involved in this film, but at least this opened new grounds for Santo and other wrestlers. Sadly, it also meant the beginning of the darkest hour for Mexican cinema. 5/10

Investigating the abduction of his girlfriend, the popular wrestler finds a mad scientist creating clones of his friends and using criminal's brains to revive a slew of monstrous corpses, forcing him and the real Blue Demon to fight them off to save her.

This was an unbelievably cheesy and thoroughly enjoyable Mexican monster mash-up. What really works incredibly well here is how well this manages to echo the greatness of the old Universal monster mash-ups this was clearly inspired by, putting them all together in a single film that really lets them do what comes naturally to them which is run amuck and cause devastation. That really allows for a frenetic pace here, since unlike a lot of these efforts it's got very little downtime, moving from one scene and confrontation to another rapidly and providing plenty to love about those fights. From the opening wrestling matches showing not only the women fighting but also managing to include the rather fun Blue Demon tag- team match as well and plenty of great fighting elsewhere including several rousing and fun battles with the evil clone that's quite striking for the brutality inflicted upon each other, this one generates a great deal of positives with this high-energy action. That also includes a pretty entertaining kidnapping venture that provides some fun and excitement when it delves into a thrilling high-speed car chase through the countryside, a series of encounters with vampires in different caves as they try to continue on with their organization plans and the uproarious amounts of cheese featured in them being able to collect and reanimate the various monsters and then letting them loose in the world. Those scenes of the creatures getting released and rampaging throughout the countryside provide it's cheese quotient most of all, as each of the creatures has a scene of them out and causing mayhem which are just so cheesy and fun they're enjoyable on any level and sets up the film's greatest part, a high-energy finale in the mad scientist's lair. It's undoubtedly the highlight here that's got all sorts of action not only from the rush on their hideout that has plenty of fighting, but also manages to go for finally bringing him out of hiding to join in on the rather cheesy brawling which really gives this a wholly enjoyable sequence. Coupled with the extreme, over- the-top levels of cheese not only with the monsters and the costumes but the simplistic storyline and special effects here that manages to make this one so enjoyable as there's not a whole lot really wrong here. Some of the monsters may look too much like a silly variation of what they're more commonly known for which really becomes distracting at times here. They look quite cheesy and not really all that threatening, much like the remaining special effects with the monsters' lab and the filming itself. The comedy as well may not work for everyone, but this is still immensely entertaining.

Rated Unrated/PG: Violence.

This blissfully bonkers, far from formulaic Santo Luchador adventure erupts luridly across the shock- scintillated screen like some phantasmagorical psychotronic fever dream brought to hyperbolic life! The creature feature to end ALL creature features has the indomitable silver masked champion of the underdog dangerously embroiled in one of his most monstrously bizarre mysteries!

After the dead professor, Halder (Carlos Ancira) returns to life via technologies Satanic, he proceeds to maniacally perpetrate a singularly strange reign of monster-infested terror that almost proves too much for, Santo and his loyal criminal crushing compatriot, Blue Demon to handle! Like a lurid horror comic brought to screaming life,'Santo el enmascarado de plata y Blue Demon contra los monstruos' boisterously delivers all the slam bang entertainment one expects, along with an electrifying surge of high-voltaged monster mashing mayhem! The garish sets, eye-boggling make-up, exquisite implausibility, and the dynamic drop-kicking do-gooders rowdy fighting prowess excitingly guarantees another cinematic squall of exemplary Blue Demon & Santo B-movie entertainment!

Loyal hunchbacked dwarf assistant Waldo (Santanón) brings his recently deceased master, scientist Bruno Halder (Carlos Ancira), back from the dead. Halder proceeds to build an army of monsters so that he can take revenge on his brother Otto (Ivan J. Rado) and pretty niece Gloria (Hedi Blue), girlfriend of luchador Santo.

After Santo's best pal Blue Demon (Alejandro Moreno) is captured and cloned by the mad professor, and several attempts are made to kidnap Gloria, Santo steps in to thwart Halder's dastardly plans.

This film opens with a wrestling match, and is pretty much wall-to-wall fighting, either in the ring, or outside the arena against Halder's monsters: Frankenstein, Cyclops, The Vampire, The Wolf Man, The Mummy, the Vampire Woman, and assorted zombie henchmen. The creatures are an amusing bunch of monstrosities (especially Cyclops), but once the novelty of the many shonky monsters wears off, the film will hold little appeal for anyone but avid lucha libre fans.

4/10, plus a generous bonus point for the hilarious dance scene that looks to have been lifted from an entirely different film, and for the fact that Frankenstein had an electric vibrator stuck in his neck (that's what the subtitles said!).

In this story, our hero Santo, called "Sampson" in English, must wrestle against an array of monsters:

(1) Frankenstein's Monster, complete with neck bolts (2) The Wolfman (3) Dracula, escorted by fanged female helpers (4) The Creature from the Black Lagoon (5) The Mummy

The monsters are controlled by a mad scientist (what else?), whose laboratory is located in an old castle. As expected, the scientist is rotten to the core and has all kinds of evil schemes in the works. The monsters and laboratory look great - all classic horror movie stuff!

Poor Santo is way outnumbered. Fortunately, the monsters can only come out at night (even though it often looks like daytime, at least to this viewer).

How can Santo defeat the monsters and stop the scientist?? You will have to watch the movie to find out!

Great fun.