Mexico had a run of doing horror flicks that were heavily influenced by Universal Studios famed Monsters. From the studio itself producing an alternate version of Dracula in 1931 for Spanish speaking audiences to German Robles appearance as Count Lavud in a pair of films in 1957. Next we had the Aztec Mummy films. From there came Santo.
Coming out on DVD this week are the re-release of 3 titles from south of the U.S. border. Santo y Blue Demon contra Dracula y el Hombro Lobo(1973) Santo contra La Hija De Frankenstein(1972) and Santo y Blue Demon contra Dr, Frankenstein (1974). It’s quite obvious that these titles will not appeal to all but if you relish the fantasy film and some camp mixed in then these flicks are a joy to behold. I have no idea how these films were looked at in their native country but suspect they weren’t necessarily meant for adults. If you grew up trying to catch all the Universal Monster flicks as I did on late night television then you just might find this parallel universe of our favorite monsters worth checking out. I know there is a whole genre of these films with countless Santo adventures. I have only seen 8 Santo battles thus far and the only person I work with on my day job who seems to know the character is of course from Mexico. He laughs when I bring them up so they can’t be viewed as all that bad way down south. So if your looking for something a little odd and a little bit out there go for it and check these out. VCI Entertainment usually does a solid job as a releasing company so hopefully the quality of the transfers are worth the viewing.
Mike's Take On the Movies 