Santo el Enmascarado de Plata y Blue Demon Contra los Monstruos

aka Santo and Blue Demon Against the Monsters

1970
Story by Jesús Sotomayor Martínez and Rafael García Travesi
Screenplay by Rafael García Travesi
Directed by Gilberto Martínez Solares

The most popular hair salon in Transylvania…

When it’s night time and fright time, and things are going bump in the night, the monsters come out to play. A whole football team full of monsters! Luckily, the world has Santo and Blue Demon to do what they do best: Kicking monster butt!

Santo films started out like Cerebro Del Mal where they were more low key and just science fiction influenced capers. Santo played more of a supporting role at first. Many of the Santo films that followed would feature influences from horror flicks of the drive in, as Santo battled female vampires, zombies, a spooky wax museum, and stranglers. But by the time Santo fought the Martians, the Santo films were emulating the 1950s and 60s American B movie pictures that were lighting up the night skies at drive ins across North America. Santo would become more science fiction, engaging in spy episodes, running around with famous comedians, and even battling a famous movie monster or two. Influences would continue, and Santo el Enmascarado de Plata y Blue Demon Contra los Monstruos is no exception, the large amount of classic movie monsters present shows a clear influence from the Universal Monster movies.

It’s hard for a super-intelligent brain alien like me to find a girl, what with being an abomination against nature and all…

Even though there are influences, there are differences and odd themes. Wolfman, Vampire, and Cyclops all have big ears for some odd reason. And the Cyclops acts like the Creature from the Black Lagoon, acting as a surrogate for that missing member. Mummy barely appears in the film, wandering around and acting lazy. He also needs to eat a sandwich. Frankenstein looks like he’s tripping on mushrooms, which I think might have been how the film’s concept was dreamed up. The mad scientist Dr. Halder also has some green thugs that are called zombies but some sources, though I just dubbed them Frankenthugs. The large amount of monsters adds energy and a fast pace to the film, as it rushes to try to give everyone enough screentime, and the pace is rather quick for a Santo film.

According to Jim….lives again?!?!?!

Unfortunately there is a lot of cost cutting in this flick, it’s obvious what little budget there was went towards setting up the monster lineup. Most of the sets are sparse, and there is only one real scene that feels like it takes place at an actual place. There is even an extended sequence at that location that is obviously a stage play filmed for some other reason, and added here for padding and flavor. Santo and Blue Demon Against the Monsters features lots of shots that are shot in the daytime but set at night. Normally movies get around that by applying a blue filter to the movie, but that must have cost too much because they didn’t bother to do it all all.

Director Gilberto Martínez Solares was one of the best directors of early Mexican cinema, working often with Tin Tán, but his star began to fade and he soon was directing schlock like this and even worse things after. Though I think the Santo films and Santo el Enmascarado de Plata y Blue Demon Contra los Monstruos in particular are important features on the Mexican cinema landscape, they aren’t considered quality work, and Solares must have been phoning it in as his trajectory waned.

The Vampire is too cheap to turn the AC on during July!

Despite the budget woes and quality issues, Santo and Blue Demon vs the Monsters still ends up being a fun flick, and is among the Santo films you should see first just to get your toes wet. If you can handle Santo and Blue Demon punching their way through a castle filled with people in bad masks, you are ready to expand your journey. This is one of the easier titles to get, and is visual enough that even if your copy is minus subtitles, it won’t be a big loss.

No, keep your eye on the BALL, not the bat! Ball, BALL!!

Santo (Santo) – Santo the great hero braves all the evils that threaten the good people of Mexico. And also threaten relatives of his girlfriend, which happens far too often to be a coincidence. Santo must be seeking these girls out just so he can beat up monsters! What a freak… Blue Demon (Blue Demon) – Santo’s best buddy in fiction if not reality, Blue Demon is captured early on in Santo el Enmascarado de Plata y Blue Demon Contra los Monstruos and replaced by an evil double. Otto Halder and Gloria Halder (Jorge Rado and Hedi Blue) – The brother of the evil Dr. Bruno Halder and his daughter, Gloria, who Santo is dating. Dr. Bruno Halder (Carlos Ancira) – A mad scientist who has gone crazy with rage and unleashes monsters upon the world, because he’s a jerk or something. He doesn’t really have any motivation besides being evil. But isn’t that motivation enough? Waldo (Santanón) – Loyal servant of Dr. Halder and also a hunchbacked little fellow, like every film needs. Famed actor Santanón is best known for being Stinky the Skunk in another Monstruos flick. Maybe not really best known, but I declare it so now. The Mummy/La Momia (Fernando Rosales) – A very lazy mummy who is just there for most of the flick. The Cyclops/El Ciclope (Gerardo Zepeda) – Cyclops acts like a Gillman, but with big ears! This suit is left over from La Nave de los Monstruos (Ship of Monsters). Gerardo Zepeda also played one of the three zombies/Frankenthugs. He played goons and thugs in dozens of movies, including Wrestling Women vs. the Aztec Mummy Frankenstein/Franquestain (Manuel Leal) – Even Frankenstein (or Frankenstein’s Monster for you purists!) joins the fun of getting punched by Santo and Blue Demon! Manuel Leal played the lead evil zombie Satan in The Mummies of Guanajuato The Wolfman/El Hombre Lobo (Vicente Lara) – The Wolfman took time off from begging for change at a highway offramp to menace Santo and Blue Demon. El Vampiro (David Alvizu) – Even vampires are trying to get into the fun, especially vampires with big Spock ears like someone “borrowed” just that element from Nosferatu. Sonia the Vampire Woman/La Mujer Vampiro (Elsa María Tako) – The Vampire spends his time making vampire babes like Sonia here, who always walks around in her bra and panties and also tries to seduce Santo. There is another briefly seen vampire lady named Fabiola (Yolanda Ponce) but she does nothing important. Evil Blue Demon (Alejandro Cruz/Black Shadow) – Blue Demon is captured and replaced by an evil duplicate who does evil stuff that is evil. Until Santo kills him! Spoiler… Though the credits are a bit hazy, it is believed that Alejandro Cruz/Black Shadow played the Evil Blue Demon duplicate. Ship of Monsters Saucer Man (???) – This Invasion of the Saucer Men-style brain alien is another refuge from from Ship of Monsters, though all he does in this film is stand around in Dr. Halder’s lab and look weird. An important job!

Will Santo and Blue Demon defeat the monsters? I’m on the edge of my seat!!!

How did they get my bedroom into this movie???

We open with…Las Luchadoras! Yes, wrestling Santo watches from the audience this masked lady free for all. It’s almost as if they had all this extra wrestling footage and just shoved it in the film… Next up is a tag team match that includes Blue Demon and Juan Garza vs El Arabe and Ebano. Of course we all know who wins…the audience! Also Blue Demon and Juan Garza.

Dr. Bruno Hadler is dead…except since he became famous by reviving dead people by brain transplants, maybe he isn’t really dead. Maybe the green-skinned Frankenstein-looking guys and the hunchebacked midget strolling into his tomb are a clue that he isn’t really dead. Maybe. And now they’re stealing the body. Could he really be dead? It is a mystery.

Santo is dating Dr. Hadler’s niece, Gloria, she and her father discuss the departed Dr. Hadler for the audience to learn things. Blue Demon was heading for a vacation when he saw the gravesnatchers and decided to follow. Blue Demon is always getting into trouble like that.

Dammit, Demon, I’m the leader in this flick so just agree with what I say!

When will Blue Demon get his rainbow?

The monsters return Dr. Hadler’s body to his lab and revive him. The collection of creatures helping out is truly impressive, especially that cool Invasion of the Saucer Men-style brain alien from Ship of Monsters! Snooping Blue Demon is caught!

Dr. Hadler has sworn revenge on Santo and Blue Demon for what they did to him….okay. Sure. That must have happened in one of those films we didn’t see… So Dr. Hadler duplicates Blue Demon with a couple of tanning beds, and now we got an Evil Blue Demon!

Now it’s time to get revenge on Santo. Luckily, Santo and his girl Gloria are taking a page out of Manos and making out on the side of a desert road. Sadly no Torgo shows up in Dr. Hadler’s crew of monsters. Evil Blue Demon and some of the green frankenthugs show up to punch Santo and grab the girl. In fact, Evil Blue Demon kills Santo and throws his lifeless corpse off a cliff! NooOOOooOOooOoOOOOoooooOOO!!!

Hey, boss, can I play the computerized Etch-a-sketch first?

This scene stolen by Final Destination 3

Wait, Santo isn’t dead, he just falls only a little bit when he’s thrown off the cliff. Santo gets up and drives after them. The bad guys are so inept that Gloria jumps out of their speeding car into Santo’s car, then their car drives off a cliff and explodes. This suddenly became an awful juvenile delinquency movie! A flaming Evil Blue Demon escapes…

Dr. Hadler begins gathering monsters for battle. He starts with a vampire who turns into the scruffiest fake bat you ever did see. Then he grabs a lazy mummy who can’t even be bothered to open his eyes all the way. Dr. Hadler melts an ice wall and gets a big-eared Cyclops. And also a werewolf because one was just standing around in the wood shirtless or something. He sets them loose upon the countryside, killing random people. It isn’t a Santo movie without dozens of civilian casualties.

Santo isn’t completely negligent, he does battle the Cyclops that acts like a Gillman. Luckily, Santo is an expert diver and knife fighter, so he dives with a knife and goes after the Cyclops, though the fighting ends up being back on land again. Santo stabs him dead, but Dr. Hadler just brings the Cyclops back to life again. The beauty of this gimmick is they can kill off monsters left and right and have them pop back up in the next scene, no harm, no foul. Santo later uses a gun to drive away monsters that attack Gloria and her dad (at night, so we can get many shots of her in a skimpy nightie that gets ripped!)

The horror, the horror…

No, wait, quick, turn back into a dollar store bat! The horror, the horror…

It’s wrasslin’ time! Santo fights a new challenger who has been badmouthing him all over town…and just happens to be the Vampire in a lucha mask! He’s going by the undercover name of The Vampire. Every Santo film needs the scene where Santo battles one of the monsters in the ring. We all know how this is going to end…

It’s Santo-monium in the arena when the Vampire turns into a bat at the sight of Gloria’s cross! Then every other monster shows up in the ring and we have a gigantic fight that’s the best wrestling match ever that didn’t involve Andre the Giant. It ends in implied police presence and suddenly the monsters are somewhere else,and the vampire now has converted a Vampire Chick to join him. Actually, he has at least two, he’s seen leading another one off camera as the newest one flies into Santo’s car to try to seduce him. Santo is all too happy to go along with it until she turns out ot be a vampire. What about Gloria, Santo??? The other monsters attack and Santo punches them all!!

Santo reasons that the monsters only come out at night, so to keep safe at night, he, Gloria, and Gloria’s dad will all stay at crowded places. Which is sort of a bad deal for anyone at the same place as them at night. And it’s also an excuse to go to a nightclub and have a musical number interlude with a complicated stage show with large props that was probably used for some other film or stage show before being filmed for this film.

Typical Tuesday party at my place…

00 Santo!

The monsters just crash the nightclub anyway! I guess they didn’t get the memo that they should stay away from crowds. They grab Gloria and her dad. There is lots of monster punching here. Santo even leaps off the roof and onto an awning to chase after monsters. He does get a tracker embedded into Frankenstein’s neck.

He follows the signal to the secret castle location.

Look, Bald Twilight Spock was never going to work as a costume, you guys…

420 Frankie!

Santo goes inside and finds the real Blue Demon still in the tanning bed, but Evil Blue Demon attacks! Santo punches him off a cliff. Santo wakes up the real Blue Demon, and it’s monster punching time!

Santo and Blue Demon punch a horde of green-skinned goons!

Santo and Blue Demon burst into the main lab and then start smashing machines and waving torches at the monsters!

Santo and Blue Demon punch the monsters!

Santo and Blue Demon punch the monsters some more!

Punch punch punch punch destroy!

Cyclops hate dentist!

Santo and Blue Demon leave the lab in flames, and the monsters trapped to roast alive. Then they stop by the coffin room to stake all the vampires in the heart with bloody, grunting thrusting of massive stakes into the chests of the vampire women and one guy vampire. It’s oddly sexual.

The castle burns as we hit the credits. Unfortunately, Santo and Blue Demon do not punch the credits, so this is the end of this Luchador adventure! But don’t you fret, there are a bajillion other lucha stories out there.

You better not stab this bra, it’s like $55 at Victoria’s Secret!

This happens every week on RAW, and you don’t see the audience running away screaming!

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Better red than Monstruos!

Required wrestling matches in every Lucha Libre film

I miss the days when dead scientists were front page news

Declared champion of having awesome foes!

The random other movie the heroes watch takes it up a notch!

All this equipment, and he still has bad iPhone reception!

Someone stole Blue Demon’s drum set, and he had to improvise!

This is how you had to watch TV before the invention of cable!

Because this is a classy production, each monster gets a title name:

Fin!