Santo y Blue Demon Contra Dracula Y El Hombre Lobo

Dracula and the Wolf Man return from the dead in 1970’s Mexico with only one purpose in mind: revenge. You see, according to the legend in this film, Dracula was killed 4 centuries ago (why he wears Victorian clothes is anybody’s guess) by an alchemist named Cristaldi, and the Cristaldis are also living in Mexico. So, Wolf Man and Dracula set off to kill and turn the remaining members of the family, which is composed of an old man, two pretty ladies and a young kid, into their undead servants. It’s up to those kick-ass superheroes, Santo and Blue Demon, to find the monsters, rescue the girls and put an end to the evil.
I’ve reviewed a lot of wrestling movies, and we finally get to my all-time favorite of the bunch. Now don’t get me wrong, this is no masterpiece of cinema, nor does it make sense completely. In fact, sometimes it’s just plain out wacky. There are continuity errors in every scene basically, and the effects are just plain ridiculous (check out that bat!) In the most whacked-out sequence, Dracula is played by an old, balding, short Mexican dude, while during most of the movie he’s played by a tall good-looking man. Did they think we wouldn’t notice? And what about that werewolf that has a hairy wolf face, but the rest of the body looks like that of a man’s? What the fuck is up with this movie? But of course, that doesn’t take away from the fact that the movie is very, very entertaining and is a lot of fun. Santo and Blue Demon play themselves as they usually do, with Santo being a no-nonsense good guy and Blue Demon being a short-fused badass. They have good chemistry together, even though in real life they hated each other. Blue Demon was always my favorite and sometimes he is even cooler than El Santo. He also delivers the best line: “When you speak more than ten words at the same time, I know you’re worried”. Hilarious.
Still, the movie is effective in some of it’s scare scenes. The threat of having a child being attacked is always there and for the most part, it’s very effective. The lighting cues and cinematography sometimes equal the quality of Hammer films, and the evil monsters’ lair looks like a high school play’s version of Hieronymus Boch. The way they bring Dracula and The Wolf Man back to life is nearly identical to the way they revive Dracula in Dracula, Prince Of Darkness. That’s always cool. So if you’re willing to let yourself to be taken in by this movie, you’ll find something that is part old school scary, part silly, and all around entertaining.