zzzorf
I have been meaning to give an El Santo movie a watch for a long time and now that I have finally done so I'm regretting not having done it sooner, this movie was awesome.Any true lover of professional wrestling knows some history of Lucha Libre (Mexican wrestling) and the super-stardom some wrestlers had that transcended the business into the real of film. El Santo and The Blue Demon were two of it's biggest stars. These Luchadors were superheroes in their own right and in tradition of American superhero things like the Batman TV series this movie was as cheesy as hell, but the right kind of cheesy.Any wrestling fan, or even fans of B movies or cheesy superhero stuff, should watch this and the many other titles to these guys names. For the rest of you, you have no idea what you are missing.
MonsterVision99
Santo y Blue Demon vs Los Monstruos, its one of the weirdest entries in the santo series of films, but its a very fun one.It has some very bad effects, that are really funny, some weird editing and plenty of day-for-night shots, these elements add to the cheese factor, its a very riveting film that uses its low budget feel as a medium for fun, but the acting its not bad, the actors seem to fit within their characters.The monsters of this film are really decent adaptations of the classics we all know and love, the wolf man looks nice, the Frankenstein's monster looks good too, the mummy its not that great, its really just an old guy in a mummy costume but he isn't in a lot of the film, the vampire its great, the actor who plays it looks like hes crazy, the best monster its the cyclops who looks goofy and fake in some parts, but still has some highlights. The film also suffers from padding, the real movie starts about 9 minutes in because the first part of this film its a double wrestling match that doesn't add anything to the movie, other than minutes of length. There are also some musical numbers on it for the same reasons. Overall, I think its one of the most fun santo films, but its not very well made. recommended for those who are fans of the Mexican luchador genre.
José Luis Rivera Mendoza (jluis1984)
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
John Turley
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 MummyThe 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.
