Immediately
after the events of Santo vs. the Strangler, the Strangler’s body is picked up
from the crime scene and taken away in the meat wagon. His beefy assistant sneaks in, kills the
morgue attendant, and steals his body from the freezer. After carrying him through a series of subterranean
tunnels, he arrives at his secret lair and revives his master. The Strangler goes back to his old ways,
playing piano like Phantom of the Opera before his assistant fashions him a
mask made of human skin so he can go around and wreak more havoc.
Naturally,
the only man in all Mexico who can stop the Strangler’s reign of terror is the
famous masked wrestler, El Santo!
The
idea of the Strangler wearing human skin masks instead of the latex ones in the
original is kind of creepy. His scarred
visage under the masks is pretty cool too.
I also liked the fact that he kept his victims sitting around a roulette
wheel. Returning director Rene (Santa
Claus) Cardona doubles down on the atmosphere and gets a lot of mileage out of
the tunnel and graveyard sets. He also gives
us plenty of wrestling scenes that showcase El Santo’s lucha libre skills.
As
with Santo vs. the Strangler, it has a lot of musical numbers that act as
filler. At one point there are four
numbers back-to-back-to-back-to-back that really have no bearing on
anything. I could be hard on the movie
because of this. However, if you have to
make a sandwich, fold some laundry, or file your taxes while watching the
movie, this is an excellent time to do so because you’ll miss absolutely nothing.
Speaking
of missing something, I did kind of miss the nutty flavor of its predecessor,
but this is a much more competent and atmospheric picture all around. There’s a great bit where El Santo catches
the Strangler and his partner doing a bit of graverobbing. He tries to stop them, but they knock him
unconscious and bury him alive!
In
fact, El Santo spends a lot of the picture getting knocked out and trapped by
the Strangler. In addition to the buried
alive scene, the Strangler also shackles him underneath a hydraulic press and
sends him down a trap door into a gas chamber.
Not to worry El Santo fans! These
traps are easily escapable, allowing him to get back on his feet and kick some
major ass in seemingly no time at all.
These scenes also help give this entry a decided Saturday matinee serial
vibe, which is much appreciated.
Viva
El Santo!
AKA: Ghost of the Strangler.
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