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Las Bestias del Terror
The Beasts of Terror
Mexico 1973
produced by César del Campo, Fernando Osés (executive) for Películas Latinoamericanas
directed by Alfredo B. Crevenna
starring Santo, Blue Demon (= Alejandro Moreno), Víctor Junco, César del Campo, Elsa Cárdenas, Antonio de Hud, Fernando Osés, Quintín Bulnes, Alma Ferrari, Andrés del Campo, María Antonia del Río, Carlos Suárez, Ángel Nadal, Ismael Ramirez, Andrés del Campo jr, Roberto Lozoya, Ivan Curiel, Miguel Ángel Herrera, Edy Cabrera, Rafael Menendez, Lidia Newton, Idania del Cañal
written by Fernando Osés
El Santo, Blue Demon, El Santo and Blue Demon
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Small time crooks Nora and Lucky owe a debt to crime kingpin Lucky
(Quintín Bulnes), and since he has the nasty habit of having those who
owe him beaten up, they plan to kidnap Susie (Alma Ferrari), sister of a
millionairess, for ransom. Said millionairess turns to private eye Tony
(César del Campo) for help, who in turn enlists the help of wrestlers
Santo and Blue Demon. Thing is, Nora, Lucky and Susie have in the
meantime fallen into the hands of mad scientist Doctor Matthews (Victor
Junco), who as a business brings dead girls back to life to sell them as
sex slaves. Santo soon learns about this scheme. Tony meanwhile asks of
all people Lucky for assistance in finding Susie, and Lucky soon learns of
Doctor Matthews operation and soon figures there's more money made of him,
and teams up with Sandro, who's in league with Matthews, to lure Tony into
one trap after the next. Of course, Tony and his wrestler friends win the
upper hand and free Susie while the good doctor gets his just desserts. In
writing, this film seems to have everything, a mad scientist, dead girls
turned into sex slaves, even a whipping scene, masked wrestlers,
kidnappings, and whatnot, really. And yet, as a film, Las Bestias del
Terror feels oddly disjointed. It's not only that Santo and Blue Demon are
sidelined to the film's actual hero César del Campo, it's also that the
kidnapping and the dead-girls-turned-sex-slave parts of the film don't
really click, and little to no effort is made to somehow blend the two
distinct parts of the movie, that is the goings-on in Matthews' dungeon,
and the investigations of Tony and friends. Also, some scenes are in odd
sequence, as if they were filmed with no actual screenplay and then put
together at random. Furthermore the film has quite a few way too long
scenes of our heroes just driving their cars along the streets, with no
dialogue and nothing to move the narrative along. All of this gives the
feeling as if this movie was hastily put together for one reason or
another rather than mapped out, and might maybe incorporating footage from
an abandoned project or two, with newly filmed stuff just edited around
it. So no, this is by no means a good movie, but for lovers of obscure and
bizarre cinema, this is still a treat, exactly for its shortcomings and
odd structure.
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