A
pair of criminal lovebirds are on a joyride when they are abducted by the
henchmen of a mad doctor and taken back to his lair. There, he uses his captives for his
zombification experiments and sells the female zombies into white slavery. Since the police are powerless to stop these
brutes, they call on everyone’s favorite Lucha Libre superstar, El Santo and
his loyal sidekick Blue Demon to help crack the case.
The
set-up sounds ideal for an El Santo adventure.
A film that features a couple of thrill-killers, a mad doctor, and zombie
sex slaves sounds like a recipe for success to me. Unfortunately, El Santo and Blue Demon are
more or less supporting players in this one. In fact, it takes almost twenty minutes for either
of them to finally show up, and even then, the duo spends nearly half the movie
in their car, either on a stakeout or tailing the suspects.
While
The Beasts of Terror boasts having three wrestling scenes, it’s rather
disappointing as they are all much too brief to have any real impact. (One is probably less than thirty seconds.) There are also no musical numbers to be had,
nor are their any dance routines. Well,
there’s a drunk girl who dances wildly twice.
I guess I should’ve said there’s no CHOREOGRAPHED dance routines.
The
lack of El Santo and Blue Demon in this one gives me the feeling that this was
an unrelated (possibly unreleased) movie that producers padded with newly shot footage
of the two famed masked wrestlers. I
mean they never once make contact with the kidnap victims and when the tragic
ending occurs, they just stand around off screen before shaking hands and
getting in their cars and leaving. You
could’ve easily edited them out of the film, and it would’ve have affected the
plot in any way.
The
meat of the movie feels like a Mexican version of an American exploitation
picture. There’s a skeevy scene where
one of the kidnap victims seduces the villain’s hunchback assistant to win her
freedom. Nothing is ever shown, but it’s
probably the only real memorable moment in the whole flick. The score is funkier than usual, which helps,
but overall, The Beasts of Terror isn’t a terribly vital entry in the El Santo
filmography.
AKA: Santo and Blue Demon vs. the Beasts of
Terror.
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