I just watched El Santo vs. Las Lobas, Low budget Mexican pro wrestling/horror film Options

[Wounded Ronin]

After a huge amount of anticipation, I finally was able to watch an El Santo film.

If you didn't know, here's a summary of El Santo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Santo

Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta (September 23, 1917 - February 5, 1984), more widely known as El Santo (the Saint), was a Mexican Luchador enmascarado (Spanish for masked professional wrestler), film actor, and folk icon. El Santo, along with Blue Demon & Mil Máscaras, is one of the most famous and iconic of all Mexican luchadores, and has been referred to as one of "the greatest legends in Mexican sports"[1][2][3] His wrestling career spanned nearly five decades, during which he became a folk hero and a symbol of justice for the common man through his appearances in comic books and movies. He is said to have popularized professional wrestling in Mexico just as Rikidozan did in Japan and Hulk Hogan did in the United States.[3] Guzmán's son followed him into wrestling as El Hijo del Santo, or 'Son of Santo'.

Apparently he also appeared in a number of low budget Mexican films and I finally ordered some (Spanish language only, which I don't exactly understand) and watched one last night.

I felt that "El Santo vs. Las Lobas" was an amazing experience. Most immediately remarkable to me was the fact that El Santo spends the whole movie wearing his mask (sometimes with a pinstripe suit, or a sweater) and nobody ever acts like this is anything unusual. I know that that's a Mexican cultural thing vis a vis pro wrestling, but it was still remarkable to see that aspect of the character taken for granted by all the other characters.

I felt like the director's vision was very Lovecraftian, because you had El Santo going to some rural area where you didn't know who was a werewolf and who wasn't, and you also had scenes where characters would be stalked by dogs, or you had dogs running around the peripheries of the scene in a menacing way. You also had bipedal werewolves meeting by torchlight and conducting ceremonies.

Basically the way it was done was all very cheesy, but I felt that the director had a good vision, he just didn't have the resources to implement it. I actually really enjoyed watching the film.

I also enjoyed watching El Santo pro-wrestle werewolves. Again, I felt that taking that for granted as I watched the film as a viewer was kind of an experience in cultural magical surrealism.

On the whole I really enjoyed that film, and I think if someone remade it with better production values it could be a really awesome pro-wrestler vs. Lovecraftian cult horror film.

[Critias]

You're a weird little guy, sometimes, Ronin. That's not a bad thing, mind...but you've still got a pretty strange mix of passions.