Santo en el museo de cera

SANTO IN THE WAX MUSEUM (1963) **1/2 (D: Alfonso Corona Blake, Manuel San Fernando) Not bad as far as Santo films go. The masked man goes up against a mad doctor who kidnaps people and turns them into wax figures for his museum. Decent story, although (as usual) there are needless wrestling matches padding it. Similar to HOUSE OF WAX.

Another of the world's worst. This is a product from Mexico and the hero is a silver masked wrestler that also is a crime fighter. The evil Dr. Karol(Claudio Brook)is not happy with the subjects in his wax museum. This is so horrible, it is funny. Also in the cast are Norma Mora and Ruben Rojo.

I have a fondness for most south of the border horror movies.This really isn't one of them.Masked wrestlers were very popular in Mexico from the mid fifties to the mid eighties.Santo was the most popular of them.Only three movies were imported and dubbed into English.This sad one, the much better Samson And The Vampire Women and Invasion Of The Zombies (which I haven't seen).

Okay for some reason Santo is called Samson in this movie.What is goofy is when he is in the wrestling arena (which is too often) the crowd is chanting"Santo!Santo!Santo!"Samson battles for the good of mankind when he isn't wrestling with other sweaty guys.Everybody has to have a hobby.

The plot boils down(if I may pun)to this:The mad Dr Karol runs a wax museum.With some sort of mad scientist formula he has live exhibits that obey his commands. There is a Frankenstein type monster, a werewolf, a pig man and a caveman.Karol was disfigured in an explosion(but only his hands). Therefore he wants to make the world feel pain and ugliness.(Maybe he should make them watch this movie, eh?)Well he kills a friend of Samson's and makes it look like someone is also out to kill him.So old droopy drawers, I mean Samson is on the case.

Now we have to fill 90 minutes here kids.So we get endless wrestling scenes not to mention the endless mad scientist chortling over his helpless victims scenes.Samson takes nearly the whole film to figure things out.He has to face Dr Karol's army of wax zombie/critters.Will anyone survive?

You won't care.While this movie is better than the absolute bottom of garbage heap films (say New York Ripper for instance)it is well below average.So if you have 90 minutes to kill and want to inflict pain and suffering onto yourself or share that agony with others, this film may do it for you.

Wow... is this movie bad.

Words cannot describe how horribly cheesy, campy and utterly boring this movie is.

The plot is terrible, and the acting is sub-par (at best!)

The best thing about this entire movie is the wrestling scenes. Being a huge wrestling fan myself, I was very entertained by the wrestling scenes. However, the lack of commentary, and the fact that he went to wrestle at the weirdest times, made them a little lacking.

The only reason I even own this movie is for my knack for collecting wrestling memorabilia.

So, unless you are a huge wrestling fan (and I mean HUGE) I would not recommend this atrocity to the cinematic arts.

This was my first masked wrestler horror movie and it blew my mind. I'm giving it an extra star because I recognize quality even if it's bizarre to me.

Half of it looks like a gorgeous forties horror classic. Half of it is wrestling. Complete matches of wrestling. My mind is blown.

My first Santo movie but definitely not my last.