Santo vs. las Mujeres Vampiro is a 1962 Mexican horror film directed by Alfonso Corona Blake (The World of the Vampires; Samson in the Wax Museum) from a screenplay co-written with Rafael García Travesi, Antonio Orellana and Fernando Osés. K. Gordon Murray supervised the American re-edited version, Samson vs. the Vampire Women.
The movie stars Santo, Lorena Velázquez, Jaime Fernández, María Duval, Augusto Benedico and Ofelia Montesco.
Plot:
Vampire women are awakened by their leader, The Evil One, in order to find him a bride. Diana, a local professor’s daughter (María Duval) is kidnapped and so he enlists masked wrestler Santo to rescue her…
Reviews:
“The main problem is that Santo and the vampire film are odd cousins. Santo is a very physical character based around his brute strength and wrestling skill, while the vampire is supernatural in nature. When the two meet, his immediate response is to engage the male vampire slaves in wrestling matches, which only serves to reduce the vampire’s customary aura of mystery to a very mundane level.” Moria
” …whenever this strays too far from its horror elements, it tends to drag and sadly that’s a bit too often. This isn’t helped any by the fact the dubbed dialogue in the English version is diabolically awful … Harming the film most of all, however, is that it’s filled with so many action scenes throughout that it forgets to save any energy for its disappointing finale, which comes and goes without generating any real excitement.” The Bloody Pit of Horror
“There’s the usual odd dubbing (one of Santo’s opponents talks like Nick Adams), but the special effects (the customary rubber bats notwithstanding) are pretty good, including vampires burning up in flames at the sight of a giant cross or the morning sunlight, or beautiful faces seen as the crusty, aged horrors that they really are when reflected in a mirror. One of the film’s most memorable moments has Santo unmasking his karate-chopping wrestling competitor to reveal a wolf-like kisser!” DVD Drive-In
“Some of the concepts in the film go from the sublime to the ridiculous. We have a police inspector who, after the first kidnap attempt, believes in vampires (and thus releases the unfortunate cop he had locked up earlier) … We have a Professor who contacts Samson by video phone – oddly sci-fi and very out of place.” Taliesen Meets the Vampires
Choice dialogue:
“Follow me, we’ll search for human blood!”
Cast and characters:
Santo [Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta] as Santo/Sampson
Lorena Velázquez as Thorina, queen of the vampires
María Duval as Diana Orlof
Jaime Fernández as Inspector Carlos
Augusto Benedico as Professor Orlof
Xavier Loyá as Jorge – Diana’s fiance
Ofelia Montesco as Tandra, vampire priestess
Fernando Osés as Vampire
Guillermo Hernández as Vampire
Nathanael León as Vampire
Ricardo Adalid as Detective at Party
