Santo & Blue Demon Vs. Dracula & the Wolfman (1973)

I have absolutely no idea how I found this film, probably a night of drunken Amazon surfing - I've bought many strange things doing that!

Anyway, 'Santo & Blue Demon Vs. Dracula & the Wolfman' (what a title!) is pretty much a regular monster flick (similar to a Hammer horror movie) except the heroes are a couple of Mexican wrestlers who, when not wrestling, act as detectives (wearing the mysterious wrestling masks at all time).

The most bizarre thing I found about this was at intervals during the film there would be several rounds of wrestling. These scenes rarely have any relevance to the overall story but are fun nether the less (the commentary is hilarious).

This film is part of a series of similar themed movies which usually feature the title of, 'Santo Vs. *enter monster name here*'. Santo is one of Mexico's most well known characters, often compared in popularity to James Bond (007).

Here's a clip from the movie, Santo wears the silver mask by the way.

The Devils Backbone (2001)

The Devils Backbone is a ghost story set during the Spanish Civil War.

Directed by Guillermo Del Toro this has some similarities to his recent and most successful film Pan's Labyrinth in the way it mixes fantasy with war torn Spain. Its a bit of a strange mix but works really well overall especially when its all spoken in Guillermo's native tongue.

The film's based at an orphanage where the ghost of a murdered child haunts the corridors and attaches itself to the newest orphan, Carlos. Carlos follows the ghost and eventually discovers how he was murdered after questioning the other children.

Meanwhile the janitor, a mid twenty-something who has lived at the orphanage since a child has ideas about stealing the orphanage's hidden gold supply for his own benefit.

Both stories come together for the explosive finale and some pretty gruesome stabbing scenes.



I really enjoyed the special effects in this film because they are so subtle. The ghost boy is really simplistic at first appearance but when you get to see his face close up you'll notice some great water effects. It wasn't until I saw one of the 'making of' features on the disc (only available on this region 1 special edition by the way!) that some of the scenes I thought were real were actually made using some really awesome animatronic puppetry.

I would recommend this to anyone that enjoyed Pan's Labyrinth. Guillermo is a really interesting director and one to definitely watch out for in the future.