on 9/17/2025, 11:19 am
Cesar Zamora guides us through these entertaining if not-necessarily-essential releases from the wide-ranging Indicator label. Here is his intro to the two double-feature set:
If America has the Universal Monsters and Japan has its kaiju films, then Mexico has its Luchadores. The lucha libre film genre had a diverse collection of films that ranged from thriller, noir, horror, action, sci-fi, western, erotica, and occasionally wrestling film--or, in some cases, all of the above. The heavyweights of the genre were El Santo and Blue Demon, combination superheroes/secret agents/masked wrestlers that always saved the day.
I grew up watching these movies on Saturday mornings as a young kid awed by how weird these movies could be. These characters are just accepted as heroes, citizens of the world with secret identities in order to move discreetly in and out of dangerous situations. El Santo was my favorite, I loved his simple, silver mask and realistic build. He always seemed cool and looked great in a suit, driving around in a cherry Jaguar. Just like Godzilla taking on an array of kaiju contenders, El Santo dispatched monsters, counter-agents, smugglers, and any number of villains with equal aplomb.
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