The Vengeance of the Vampire Women

It doesn't matter whether he's fighting Aztec mummies, robots or vampires, I find Santo's movies extremely tedious; The Vengeance of the Vampire Women is no exception.

Mad scientist Igor Brancov (Víctor Junco) resurrects long-dead vampire Countess Mayra (Gina Romand) so that he can use her blood to make his creature Razos immortal. Once back from the dead, Mayra sets about building an army of vampires and tries to kill Santo, who is the last living descendant of the man who staked her.

Most of this film comprises of characters driving from one place to another or of Santo fighting, either in the ring or against the baddies, and it's all very repetitive with little in the way of plot development. Director Federico Curiel pads out his film with visits to a cabaret club where go-go dancers gyrate in bikinis, and adds more sex appeal with pretty reporter Paty (Norma Lazareno), but as much as I appreciate this, the film is still a struggle to sit through.

Santo appeared in over 50 films during his screen career, but I get the feeling that if you've seen one Santo movie, you've seen them all.

While this is an enjoyable Santo entry, it is certainly not his best, its slow and lacking action and monster scenes, not to mention that it feels like theres two completely different movies going on. The vampire women are secondary and it feels like a mad scientist movie most of the time, rather than focusing on the female centric villain group the title promises.

You need to be in the mood for a simple low budget Santo horror flick and then it will feel adequate. Not bad but its wasted potential.

This movie is a perfect representation of all the other Santo movies I have seen so far. It does not stand out, in other words. But this is just fine with me. I enjoyed watching it.

The story begins with a mad scientist (with a totally cool laboratory) who revives a female vampire. She is a countess, and of course stunning, and had been put in her grave two centuries ago. The scientist has unsavory plans of World Domination (don't they always?) and expects a partnership with the vampire to be in both of their interests. The vampire has her own desires to settle a long-standing family grudge against "Santo", the famous wrestler who is fighting evil wherever he can. Santo wears a silver mask that he never removes. He never loses a wrestling match, either!

The scientist has a couple of goons working for him, but needs more recruits for his evil cause. So, what to do? Visit a local go-go club and convert some exotic dancers into sexy vampires! Conveniently, the police also regularly visit this dance club. They quickly learn about the missing dancers and start investigating. Santo of course is there to help. Some pesky reporters also appear and start following Santo, because they see this as a juicy story as well as a whole lot of fun.

This has all the classic elements of Mexican Horror: misty graveyards, amazing laboratories, vampires, bad guys, and a mad scientist. Since this was shot in 1970, the period go-go club is an added bonus.

Santo, or "Saint", was in dozens of movies like this. (In some English translations, he is called "Samson"..) In real life, Santo was a genuine wrestler, and he did wear a silver mask all the time, so his fans did not know what he really looked like. He was about 50 years old when this movie was made, and he was still as strong as an ox.