El
Santo does battle with some thugs who leave behind a mysterious dagger made of
bone. He has it checked out by an expert
who believes it belongs to a tribe of headhunters who use it for sacrificial
rites. When the professor’s daughter is
kidnapped by the tribe, El Santo joins the search party and treks through the
jungle to find her.
Santo vs. the Headhunters was directed by Rene Cardona, Sr., so you know it’s going to at least look good. He gives us a great first shot during El Santo’s opening brawl and offers up a few interesting shots during the headhunter dance sequences. However, he does little elsewhere to energize what is often a lethargic film.
The early scenes set in Mexico are decent. Once the action switches to the South American jungle, things get real dull, real quick. The long scenes of El Santo and his team traipsing through the jungle are often done in one unbroken take. Many of these scenes should’ve been edited down. In fact, I think El Santo does as much walking in one movie as Frodo did in the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy! Occasionally, a headhunter will poke its head out of the bushes to fire an arrow into a member of the expedition, which staves off some (but not all) of the boredom.
Another
problem is El Santo doesn’t do any wrestling in the ring in this entry. Cardona tries to make up for it by having him
wrestle a crocodile underwater as well as a jaguar on dry land, but just isn’t
the same though (especially when it’s obvious it’s just a stuntman wearing his
mask). I admire the attempt to change up
the scenery a little and put everyone’s favorite masked Mexican wrestler into
what’s essentially an old jungle picture, and the villains are different
enough, I suppose. It just that the interminable
walking scenes zaps the film of much of its energy.
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