Guacamelee!

Yes, I spelled that correctly, Guacamelee. I just heard that there is another lucha related game coming out very soon! I don't know much about it, but from the screenshots, it looks as though you play as a Blue Demon clone, and it's a side scroller scifi action game.

Check out these screenshots and a video:

I'll be keeping an eye out for more info about this intriguing game!

The Rock and Blue Demon

Recently, The Rock went to México to promote the opening of Journey 2: The Mysterious Island aka El Viaje 2: La isla misteriosa. While there, he took a photo with my favorite luchador chaparrito, Blue Demon!

La Roca y El Blue Demon

I've read a few websites that have mentioned a possible new Blue Demon film. Maybe The Rock could come and make a cameo, or is that too big of a dream?

John Cena and Blue Demon Jr?

I don't know much about this photograph, but I had to share it with my fellow lucha fans. Blue Demon Jr and John Cena shaking hands? What does this mean?!

Encantado...

Could you imagine a Blue Demon Jr. y John Cena contra Los Monstruos film? It would probably be more enjoyable than Doom was.

The Best Lucha Movies

This is my personal list of favorite lucha movies. I plan on updating it as my collection grows, and I'm able to find the more obscure lucha films within the legit and gray-market.
This list has no particular order, they are just the several of the "best" of the genre, in my opinion. Remember, best is a subjective term, especially when talking about this type of film. It's full of cheese, camp, classic comic book style fun, so don't be expecting an American Film Institute classic here:

Atacan Las Brujas (1964)
I love this early black and white Santo movie. It's very dark and moody, and even has an unusual dream sequence to open the film. The story is very well done for a lucha movie, you can really tell everyone is putting a lot of effort into this film. We have the beautiful Lorena Velázquez as the head witch, who wishes to torment and sacrifice poor Ofelia and her boyfriend Arturo. But Santo is not a fan of all this Satanic witchery and foils her diabolical plot!




Las Momias de Guanajuato (1972)
The best lucha movies are team ups, and this contains Santo, Blue Demon, and Mil Máscaras. Honestly though, Santo appears only in the end, but that's okay, I'm a bigger Blue Demon fan. I also like the midget in this film, how many midgets do you know that are called Penguin? Just don't interrupt him while he gives you a tour of the Guanajuato mummies! For my full review of Las Momias de Guanajuato, click here!




Santo y Mantequilla Nápoles Contra La Llorona (1974)
I love this film for two reasons. First, we have Mantequilla Nápoles, famous Cuban boxer. No other Santo film has done inserted a non-lucha athlete into the mix, making it quite unique. The second reason why I enjoy this is that we get to see a legendary monster from Latin American culture. La Llorona, aka The Crying Woman, is a tale about a woman who drowns her own children in a blind rage after learning that her lover wants to throw her away like expired tuna. Because of her horrible deeds against her children, she is forced to wander the earth as a specter. By night, you can hear her wails on the winds near rivers and lakes, "Ay, mis hijos!" This movie builds on the legend, giving a deeper back story, and making for a perfect villain for a Santo film.




Tesoro de Drácula (1969)
Santo is a jack of all trades. Monster slayer, luchador, and scientist. Santo, much like Batman, has a laboratory in his older films. Maybe we can call it La Cueva del Santo? He has been working on a sweet time machine in his downtime, that for some reason works better with women. But the time machine is also quite unique in that you don't merely time travel like Back to the Future, but you return to a past life. I found this really unique for any kind of film. The one down fall to this film is that we have a comic-relief character.. I loathe these characters. Perico is a real dweeb, but he also wears a gold chain necklace of a dollar symbol. This is like a precursor to 90s rap I guess. It's incredibly odd.




Santo y Blue Demon Contra Drácula y Hombre Lobo (1973)
The title itself evokes such strong emotions to me. This was the first lucha film I had purchased, and it was due to the title. We get the two most famous luchadores, plus we get the vampire king and a werewolf. This film has the general construction of a typical lucha film. Star with a match, get some story, insert a match in the middle, then end the film with one more lucha match. Sometimes the matches are slightly boring, but this one is enjoyable because the rudo is Renato the Hippie! Who doesn't want to see a hippie get his butt handed to him by Santo? I also have to say, the chess sequence between Blue Demon and Santo is also a nice touch. These aren't merely fighting brutes, they are intellectuals with a concern about the paranormal forces of darkness.




Santo y Blue Demon Contra Los Monstruos (1970)
A vampire? Check. Frankenstein's Monster with a goatee? Check. An prune like mummy? Check. A hobo werewolf? Check. A clumsy '50s scifi cyclops monster? Check. A fiendish scientist? Check. A midget assistant? Check. Lastly, we need one final ingredient to make this a perfect picture: Luchadores (Santo and Blue Demon to be precise) and lots of brawling in and out of the ring. 'Nuff said about this film, if you aren't hooked by all that, then this genre isn't your cup of tea.




Santo Contra Las Lobas (1976)
This is the first really creepy lucha film I've ever seen. A weird werewolf cult, sacrifices, creepy cinematography, it's has such a different feel than any other of Santo's films. While previous films have had a touch of camp, and tongue in cheek at times, this really felt like the director was going for a solid action horror film.

Blue Demon Film Festival in Dallas, Texas

The Blue Demon Film Festival will be held May 5th & 8th at the Texas Theatre, in Oak Cliff, Dallas, Texas! I'm so jealous of those within in driving distance of Dallas! I, unfortunately, live in Washington State... It's not exactly a day trip for me, so I will miss the festivities, but I hope to hear from someone how it goes. If you don't already know, Blue Demon happens to be my favorite luchador of the Holy Trinity of lucha-libre. Meeting Blue Demon Jr would be an awesome thing, but oh well. It wasn't written in the stars that I'd be able to go to this event.

The Texas Theatre, Oak Cliff, Dallas, Texas

But for those that can attend, here are the details:

Thursday May 5th
The Film: Santo y Blue Demon contra Drácula y Hombre Lobo
Starts at 7:00pm

Film duration: 90 min

Year: 1973

Sunday May 8th
Las Momias de Guanajuato
Starts at 4pm, and replayed at 7:30pm

Film duration: 85 minutes

Year: 1972

Besides the two films, here is the schedule for Sunday May 8th:

2:00pm - Doors open (view of lucha-libre memorabilia)

2:30pm - Documentary of the History of Blue Demon (half hour)

3:00pm - Questions and Answers with Blue Demon Jr, Richard Dominguez, and Robert Mercado.

4:00pm - Las Momias de Guanajuato

Second Showing-

6:00pm - Doors open (view of lucha-libre memorabilia)

6:30pm - Documentary of the History of Blue Demon (half hour)

7:00pm - Questions and Answers with Blue Demon Jr, Richard Dominguez, and Robert Mercado.

7:30pm - Las Momias de Guanajuato

 

Lastly, the address for the Texas Theatre:

Texas Theatre

(214) 948-1546

231 West Jefferson Boulevard

Oak Cliff, Dallas, TX

PS. If anyone attends, please let me know how it goes. I'd also love it if you recorded it and posted the q&a on Youtube :D

Also, don't forget, I am giving away a copy of the Santo lucha-horror classic "La Venganza de la Momia," check out my previous blog entry for details on how to win the dvd!

DVD Giveaway - Add Santo to your collection!

Damas y Caballeros! I have a wonderful announcement for you all–I am doing a giveaway for the month of May! I have an extra copy of the DVD Santo En La Venganza De La Momia!

87 minutes of Santo action!

This DVD is new, unused, unopened. It's from the Zima Entertainment Santo Colección. The DVD is region 1 AND 4, so anyone with a DVD player from the US or México can watch it! According to the sticker on the box, it says that there are English subtitles as well, with of course a Spanish audio track.

Santo, el enmascarado de plata, joins an archaeological expedition with a mission to explore the ruins of Aztec origin. After reaching a nearby village, the villagers try to stop them "from desecrating the dreams of the dead. " The group continues, within the ancient ruins they discover the tomb of a priest who was buried alive and cursed. From then on, one by one, the members of the expedition start disappearing...

How do you win this awesome DVD? First, the offer is only valid to the US. I'm sorry but the shipping is coming out of my pocket–and my pockets are very shallow. Other than that, entry is a breeze: just email me at jesse.acosta@gmail.com. Be sure to mark the subject as "Santo DVD Giveaway." (That's it…easy, eh?)

Would you like to increase your odds? When you write me that e-mail, also include your Twitter username. Tweet the following message and I'll add your name a second time into the hat:

#SantoDVDGiveaway in May! Win a copy of Santo en La Venganaza de la Momia! http://ow.ly/4KWVz for details

On May 31st, a random drawing will be held and you just might be the lucky winner! Check your inbox for an e-mail from me. Whoever wins the giveaway will have 48 hours to respond with their mailing address. If no response is made, someone else will be chosen, at random.

This will be a fun month for Santo fans!

La Mansión de las 7 Momias

The review of Las Momias de Guanajuato perked my mummy interest, so I decided to move on to La Mansión de las 7 Momias (1977)!

 

Finding this obscure classic is actually a bit of a chore. I had to find it in a dvd collection of later-era lucha films. The dvd set is called: Los Luchadores Invencibles, it's generally available on iOffer, eBay, and Half.com.

None of the films in this dvd collection come with subtitles though, but after some fierce Googling, I found a subtitle file for you all. I also did some minor tweaking to the file, there were some misspellings and missing accents in names. I'm sure I didn't catch everything, but I caught a few things that bugged me.
Download here: http://www.jesseacosta.net/files/subtitles/LaMansionDeLas7Momias.srt

If you haven't used an SRT file file before, don't fret. It's pretty simple, with most media players you can drag and drop the SRT onto your media player while the DVD is playing. If Media Player isn't doing it for you, try VLC, it's a free media player.

I'm tempted to make my own subtitles for films that don't have subtitles yet on the internet. This could be valuable for the monoglot lucha fans. Let me know if any films in particular stand out that don't have subtitles available.

Now back to the film! This movie contains three people of note: Blue Demon, Superzan, and Manolín:

The heroes and heroine. Superzan in circus regalia.

Blue Demon is the real star of the film, a veteran to wrestling and battling the cohorts of evil. He's so laid back in these later films, he only wears the mask and street clothes. Gone are the days of capes and lucha tights. I actually like the look, Señor Blue even looks pretty cool with the blue ringer tees and jeans. He's very cool and collective through this picture, obviously ready for anything.

Blue Demon, veteran luchador and appraiser of antique water fountains.

Superzan is the next on the bill. This is my first encounter with the guy, I've been ignoring him for some time.
It's not hard to see why I've been avoiding the guy. I'm not big on flamboyant costumes, and Mil Máscaras is about as far as I go with bizarre outfits. Superzan is just late to the party, and didn't get the memo that this was casual Friday. He looks so out of place, like a Christmas Tree in July. Also, he's so gangly, definitely not lucha material in my book. Perhaps in the older films, Blue Demon and Santo held better screen presence, and that's why they didn't look so ridiculous in cape and tights? They looked classy, and heroic, yet Superzan is just a super-dork.  But to be fair, this film was pretty interesting, even with Superzan.

I'm worried that you're scaring children with that mask.

Lastly, we have Manolín, aka Manuel Palacios Sierra. He was a Mexican comedian, usually billed under the duo "Manolín Shilinsky with Shilinsky Estanislao." He played the idiot, while Shilinksy played the clever character, much like an Abbott and Costello or Laurel and Hardy act. Manolín usually says the line "fíjate qué suave," in his films. The Mansion of the 7 Mummies was the last film he starred in, and later that year he passed away.

Qué suave!

The story for this film is pretty confusing, but the basic gist is that Sofía de la Garza is the descendant of a long line of the reincarnated governor of Antigua, Guatemala, whom previously made a pact with the devil. Now Sofía is the recipient to her father's inheritance, which includes the cursed treasure of the conquistadores. Sofía must now endure three trials to gain the inheritance. But by sheer luck, she has Blue Demon, Superzan, and Manolín helping her along the way.

Conquistador or clown? Also, even if you are undead, you still need a wheelchair.

Grave digger, hunchback, and unsung hero

Why Satan, with all that power, you choose to wear that ugly mug?

I think we'll need more than a haircut to solve his problems

By far, the spookiest scene in the film.

Stats
Length: 90 minutes
Year: 1977

Favorite Quote
While the luchadores are driving into Antigua, Guatemala, they slow down so Blue Demon can admire an antique water fountain that appears to have a prostate problem:
Blue Demon: "Mira, que fuente!" - "Look, what a fountain!"
Really Blue? This is what you have to say? At times, the film feels like a travel brochure for Antigua, Guatemala.

The Ratings:
My rating system is out of five stars, and consists of six categories, then an overall score.

• Story: The story in La Mansion is actually pretty interesting, even though the budget  and effort may not have been the strongest. I really enjoy these lucha stories that involve the history of Latin America, and black magic. The blending of Catholicism, the influence of Spain, and Indigenous America makes for a great backdrop.
• Bizarre Factor:   This isn't the first time a lucha film stars a comic relief character. I really hate these types of characters, Orko from Masters of The Universe, Snarf from Thundercats, Perico from Tesoro de Dracula. Manolín is certainly an oddball to toss in this film. Superzan also looks more like the menzo than Manolín, in full regalia.
  

• Horror: First off, these look closer to a traditional zombie, than a mummy. They also look better than any other undead I've seen in a lucha film yet. They aren't the usual oatmeal + paste makeup job. They actually have rotten heads with nasty teeth, and missing eyes. By far, my favorite scene is the swampy locale where the zombies rise from the depths of the algae thick waters.

• Action: As per usual lucha film, lots of fighting. Some of the more interesting battles are between the two heroes and ex-buddy Rodrigo. One specific note about this film is that there is not a single filmed lucha match! At the moment where they cut to the arena, Blue has already won the belt! This is pretty odd for a lucha film, I wonder what business was going on behind the scenes that forced the filmmakers to go without?
• Camp: This film is full of camp. The red Spanish conquistador outfit is outright ridiculous. Satan looks less than sinister, just a graying gentleman with some glued on horns. BTW, did you know you can keep Satan at bay with a cross, much like a vampire? I really hate to harp on Superzan, but he just looks ridiculous in the outfit. Lastly, why are these ancient zombies (excuse me, I mean "mummies") wearing things like modern era button up shirts, slacks, and I believe one of the creatures is even wearing Mr. Roger's cardigan.
• Nudity: No nudity, or even suggestion of real sex. This film is pretty G rated when it comes to any sort of sexuality.
• Overall: I started out with low expectations. This film was collected in a dvd pack of poor quality lucha films, but honestly it wasn't too terrible. While the filmmaking and budget weren't exactly that of Titanic, the story was certainly interesting enough. I think this story would be better suited in a graphic novel. Fun Fact: Santo and Blue Demon used to appear in "fotonovelas," which were photographed comic books, with illustrations added for the special effects such as monsters, laser guns, and explosions.

Santo en Las Momias de Guanajuato

This is probably my favorite of the films I have seen thus far in the lucha-libre genre–probably due to the Holy Trinity star in this film: Santo, Blue Demon, and Mil Máscaras. I also like the fact that in this film (and others) they suggest that Santo comes from a long lineage of Enmascarados de Plata. Imagine Hernán Cortés arriving in México, and seeing a wrestling ring constructed of jungle vine and wood set within an ancient Aztec temple; two tribal brutes duke it out with masks…too bad real lucha history doesn't extend much further than than the early 20th century!

Guanajuato is very beautiful

This isn't a real mummy...

The film is set in the beautiful colonial city of Guanajuato, known for it's bizarre collection of mummies. Pinguino, the midget tour guide, explains to a group of curious visitors: the unique chemical makeup of the earth in Guanajuato only lets the human body break down to a point, then it begins to harden, turning corpses into twisted looking mummies. He goes on to say that one of the mummies is called Satan, and was once a luchador. (He's even still wearing his one-hundred year old tights). It is revealed that this 7' monster had made a pact with the Lord of shadows to return to life to avenge a humiliating loss in the ring against Santo's ancestor. Pinguino remembers that the curse foretells that our villain should return this very day! Well, the curse is true–the lucha mummy and his cohorts set forth causing all sorts of havoc until they find Santo to settle an ancient score.

This is the real museum of the mummies of Guanajuato

And this is what a true mummy of Guanajuato looks like.

Stats
Length: 95 minutes
Year: 1971


Favorite Quote
Blue Demon: How about we celebrate our meeting?
Mil Máscaras: That sounds like a great idea! How about I make us some big steaks, and a Roquefort salad, and a Valencian paella, and a nice vegetable soup, and...
Lina (Mil's girlfriend): Remember, you're on a diet!
Mil Máscaras looks down and whimpers in disappointment


The Ratings:
My rating system is out of five stars, and consists of six categories, then an overall score.

• Story: This is a pretty basic story, like most lucha films. We have the trope of the adopted child (This time Blue Demon has Julio as an adopted son). We have a midget (Pinguino the mummy tour guide). We have monsters (Guanajuato mummies that look more like zombies). I also like how Santo plays as the Deux ex Machina in this film, coming in out of the blue to save the day. I also like that there was only one tag-team wrestling scene in this film. Most of these lucha films have two to three matches that you have to sit through. Depending on whose wrestling, I sometimes watch. Mil is definitely more skilled, and has some impressive movies in the ring in this film.
• Bizarre Factor:   Honestly, this isn't all that weird compared to others. I do like that the police don't seem to terribly distraught over shooting a mummy disguised as Blue Demon with no effect. They are also pretty chummy with Blue Demon when they apologize for accusing him of the murders without any real clues. Also, the one way to survive a mummy attack is to go to sleep. Lina and Julio always are sleeping, yet Mil and Blue Demon don't seem too afraid they might be eaten or kidnapped by the living dead walking the streets of Guanajuato.

• Horror: These mummies are pretty cool looking, but not ragged enough for being 100+ years old. I also like the ring leader's droopy eyeball. Too bad they couldn't be a little more rotten, or even hungry for flesh. They were only good for snapping necks. 

• Action: As per usual lucha film, lots of fights, matches, and throw downs. My favorite scene is when Blue chucks a mummy out of the second story window. I am curious though, are the undead forced to watch Bruce Lee films in the afterlife? I ask because these mummies have only one battle tactic: karate chop. No closed fist punches, no kicks, just hand chops. Not even biting! I guess not all zombies were created equal. 
• Camp: Oh man are there some plot holes in this film. My favorite plot hole is the scene where the mummies knock out Blue Demon and steal his clothes to impersonate him and cause chaos downtown. For one, how did Blue get home? They don't even mention it, and he never tells anyone what happened. Perhaps he was too ashamed to have been stripped by a 7' mummy? Also, why are these mummies only interested in knocking out the heroes? You'd think they would just feast on them instead. 
• Nudity: No nudity, or even suggestion of real sex. Well, Pinguino does ask one of the night club girls to stay the night in her room, but that might be 50% because the little guy is scared of the mummy murders. 
• Overall: This is a really great introduction into the lucha genre of films for anyone. There is only one lucha match to undergo (or fastforward for the weak), the action is pretty quick, not many slow dialogue moments, there are scenes of comedy, and it has all the fun tropes. I would go to this film for new recruits.