The Santo films, indeed the wrestling superhero genre as a whole, is unique to Mexico (I recently tried to sit through an Italian variant, Superargo, and wasn't impressed), and on that basis alone deserves more respect than it is usually accorded. Which is not to say they are good films, only that for Mexicans, most of whom do not have a lot of money to spend on frivolities, these films were important enough for them to keep the genre buoyant well into the '80s.
For a a US viewer, however, the films are oddities, no denying that. I find them fascinating in small doses, but eventually their cultural reasoning eludes me. They are most entertaining when they are at their most gratuitously irrational, so long as the pacing is kept reasonably swift (and the films often lag). For my money, the best of the Santo films I have seen is Santo el enmascarado de plata y Blue Demon contra los monstruos, which is wildly exploitative and inane, but the clips I have seen of Misterio en las Bermudas, together with what I have read of it, suggest that it is truly an epic of its variety.
In any event, here we have a fairly early representative of the genre, and I write this because I was able to see an English dub version, that appearing in the Mystery Theater 3000 series. I'm not a big fan of MT3K, the performers of which frequently think they are funnier than they actually are, but I admit they added some laughs to the experience (although I didn't need that song to a vanished continuing character at all). But it is the Santo film that really makes the viewing worth it.
It should be noted that for some reason best known to Santo's management and audience, a large chunk of his filmography has him battling vampires - he even battles Count Dracula himself on at least three occasions. Perhaps that's just as well - when he battles simple gangsters, as in his first film Santo contra cerebro del mal, the going gets pretty slow.
"Vampire Women" is an odd film and a silly film. It is odd because the first half is pure vampire movie - it is full of atmosphere, weird rituals and menace, and the usual blood sucking, etc. Suddenly, literally out of nowhere, Santo appears, and the film becomes an excuse for the masked one to thrash some vampire - and werewolf - butt, in and out of the ring.
It is silly because there is no coherence to how the myth of the vampire is used throughout the movie; one moment they can be seen in a mirror, then later not, the vampire becomes a werewolf then soon disappears in a fire-bolt at simply the sight of a cross on a church-steeple - The whole narrative seems terribly ad hoc - as if the script were written on the fly (and I suspect it was - although the first half has some money showing in its atmospherics, which are quite impressive, the second half looks pretty cheap).
Fortunately, this is a fairly short movie, and the pacing is pretty good. It is also representative of both the wrestling superhero genre and the Mexican horror genre, so may be a good beginning point for those interested in either. Great movie making this is not - but even without the MT3K commentary, it's actually kind of fun.
For a a US viewer, however, the films are oddities, no denying that. I find them fascinating in small doses, but eventually their cultural reasoning eludes me. They are most entertaining when they are at their most gratuitously irrational, so long as the pacing is kept reasonably swift (and the films often lag). For my money, the best of the Santo films I have seen is Santo el enmascarado de plata y Blue Demon contra los monstruos, which is wildly exploitative and inane, but the clips I have seen of Misterio en las Bermudas, together with what I have read of it, suggest that it is truly an epic of its variety.
In any event, here we have a fairly early representative of the genre, and I write this because I was able to see an English dub version, that appearing in the Mystery Theater 3000 series. I'm not a big fan of MT3K, the performers of which frequently think they are funnier than they actually are, but I admit they added some laughs to the experience (although I didn't need that song to a vanished continuing character at all). But it is the Santo film that really makes the viewing worth it.
It should be noted that for some reason best known to Santo's management and audience, a large chunk of his filmography has him battling vampires - he even battles Count Dracula himself on at least three occasions. Perhaps that's just as well - when he battles simple gangsters, as in his first film Santo contra cerebro del mal, the going gets pretty slow.
"Vampire Women" is an odd film and a silly film. It is odd because the first half is pure vampire movie - it is full of atmosphere, weird rituals and menace, and the usual blood sucking, etc. Suddenly, literally out of nowhere, Santo appears, and the film becomes an excuse for the masked one to thrash some vampire - and werewolf - butt, in and out of the ring.
It is silly because there is no coherence to how the myth of the vampire is used throughout the movie; one moment they can be seen in a mirror, then later not, the vampire becomes a werewolf then soon disappears in a fire-bolt at simply the sight of a cross on a church-steeple - The whole narrative seems terribly ad hoc - as if the script were written on the fly (and I suspect it was - although the first half has some money showing in its atmospherics, which are quite impressive, the second half looks pretty cheap).
Fortunately, this is a fairly short movie, and the pacing is pretty good. It is also representative of both the wrestling superhero genre and the Mexican horror genre, so may be a good beginning point for those interested in either. Great movie making this is not - but even without the MT3K commentary, it's actually kind of fun.