Arañas Infernales [Hellish Spiders]

Hellish Spiders

Original title: Arañas Infernales

Directed by Federico Curiel

Mexico 1968

Lucha libre / Horror, 85 min

Of all the antagonists the legendary Blue Demon faced, the question is if the giant brain eating alien spiders of Arañas Infernales don't take the price for being the most surreal! The second of his solo movies, the last of the black and white Blue Demon films, and also the final collaboration between producer/writer Luis Enrique Vergara and Blue Demon, Arañas Infernales was for decades considered to be one of the “Lost” Blue Demon films. But in 1999 a print turned up on Mexican television and later it was released domestically on DVD. So there’s no time for sad faces, as Arañas Infernales has returned from the vaults of the lost, and now can be enjoyed as the delightful cocktail of multiple sub-genres in one supersonic death ray that it is!

Starting off with a wonderful scene of a spaceship shooting laser beams at stuff off screen and then hovering down over earth, whilst the voice over establishes the threat of the alien invaders from the galaxy of Arachnea, the whole thing is cross cut with our hero, Blue Demon in the mandatory opening wrestling match. As you see this is a movie  that catches fans of pscyhotronica, sci-fi or even Lucha libre from the word go.

Blue walks away from the opening fight victorious of course, and as he and his mate drive home their car strangely breaks down, a buzzing light is seen on the horizon and they find a car on the side of the road with a smoking skeleton slumped over the steering wheel. A hot space alien, Queen Arianec [Martha Elena Cervantes], semi hiding in the shadows, hypnotizes some dopey blokes and tells them about the space spider plan to steal humans and feed off their brains. The goons reveal the sign of the spider at the back of their necks (used to reveal who’s bad and not every time the camera zooms in on their spider marks through out the flick) and stumble off to carry out the fiendish plan… the plot thickens, but first another fight, this time a tag team match, and Blue wins this one too.

A poor couple are jumped in a dark alley, he knocked out, and she kidnapped and fed to a giant spider that lurks in a giant web out in the woods. Blue Demon and mates take a trip out to the spot where they saw the strange stuff the previous night, only to be attacked buy the alien queen, stunning rays of audio and caped goons… a fight breaks out and Blue does his thing! Queen Arianec sends her goons off to fight Blue who starts to put one and one together, realizing that there’s something off on the go… something to do with that spaceship he saw earlier on. Struggle, struggle, struggle, plot, plot, plot, busted by Blue, busted by Blue, busted by Blue and so on with a few unfortunate victims falling prey to the giant spider (which you may have figured out is Arianec already), and a sturdy chug forth to a final climactic battle between Blue Demon and Prince Arac [Fernando Osés] who’s come to help Arianec drain the world of human brains.

Turning it up to eleven for the final act, the aliens infiltrate Blue’s next big bash in the ring arming his opponent, the sardonic Prince Arac with a deadly weapon! For each blow Blue serves up, Prince Arac slowly transforms into a spider handed fiend! You have to see it to believe it… or just check out the awesome Ricardo Sáinz special effect below, but if nothing else, this is some fantastically trippy stuff and I love every minute of it!  A classic set up if there ever was one follows as Blue’s mates Joseph [Virel Sergio] and Hilda [Blanca Sánchez] are kidnapped during one the climax of Prince Arac and Blue Demon’s fight – and you know what happens when Blue’s mates get kidnapped, it’s shit kickin’ time, even if it means Blue Demon has to fight off giant spiders, wrestle space aliens and

Show stopping highlights in this wonderfully weird flick are a dog being shot by the space aliens and becoming a smouldering heap of bones (yes, think Mars Attacks), a wicked scene where Queen Aracnia space rays a goon to keep him from revealing them (think Dalek death rays), Prince Arc entering the ring and his opponents laughing at him before he beats them silly with just a few power punches and needless to say the fantasticly goofy giant spider!

Supposedly the scenes of flying saucer scenes where lifted from (yes, as in nicked) from Ed D. Wood Jr’s Plan 9 from Outer Space and Tom Graeff’s Teenagers from Out of Space, but who cares, this is super schlocky sci-fi, Lucha libre fun, a must see for fans of Blue Demon and cheap space invasion flicks. With that said, it’s time to right a wrong, as Gustavo Caésar Carrión at times get’s credit for the eerie space age soundtrack, although this is unfortunately not right. The composer on Arañas Infernales was Jorge Perez Herrera, and quite a lot of the warbly sci-fi schlock comes right off the legendary Dick Jacobs and His Orchestra Themes from Horror Movies LP from 1959.

Following this delicious black and white battle against spider aliens from outer space, Blue Demon returned in the colourful and lush Blue Demon vs. las Diabólicas (Blue Demon vs. the Diabolical Women) in 1966.

Viva Blue Demon!

Blue Demon vs. the Diabolical Women

Blue Demon vs. the Diabolical Women

Blue Demon contra “Las Diabolicas”

Directed by: Chano Urueta

Mexico, 1966

Luchador

Thought to be missing forever for a very long time, Blue Demon vs. the Diabolical Women is the first of the Blue Demon films to se him enter the crime-busting sphere, it's also the second of his adventures to be shot in colour. Filled with sixties, pop-art vibe, hip music, go-go boots and stereotypical Mexican wrestling film characters.

Being the second part of the so called “Blue Demon against Crime” series, together with Blue Demon contra Cerebros Infernales (Blue Demon vs. the Infernal Brains) made the same year with much of the same cast and crew, Blue Demon takes on some real villains instead of gothic monsters and extra terrestrials of the previous films. The plot focuses on a nifty little intriguing featuring double-crossing bands of thieves, a strange gloved and hat bearing super villain, a band of Luchadoras who go by the name of “Las Diabolicas, and believe it or not another Blue Demon impostor!

The film kicks off with an initial attack sees two thugs nick a woman’s beauty box. She screams for help and the familiar masked face of Blue Demon turns up… but instead of helping her out, he sticks her in a chokehold so deadly that it sends her to the morgue… WHAT? Yeah, that’s exactly the reaction the set up wants us to have.

The thugs take their loot to head villain [Carlos Agosti] who has a cunning plan at bay. The jewels are sewn into a wrestling cape before we head off out to the ring for a delicious introduction to Las Diabolicas, a sexy band of Luchadoras! A switch is made and the Luchadoras – without knowledge of it – now have the stolen jewels on their cape. (Although nothing really ever comes of it oddly enough...)

Detectives Jaime Rayes [David Reynoso] and Bruno (who looks just like Real Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas) are put on the case of the murdered woman, and who better to do their dirty snooping around and getting into places the cops can’t go than Blue Demon. Turns out that the thugs have a nemesis in their criminal counterpart, a mysterious gloved, big-hatted super villain – who passes time woodcarving on the desk in front of them. This masked villain barks out orders and brings ruthlessness to the criminal underworld. The sexy luchadoras don’t really get much to do despite the title – one would have wanted more of them and why not more screen time, especially as they are supposedly the minions of the Super villain (that’s no spoiler, don’t worry)

The double crossing starts, and threats fly between the thug gang lead by Agosti and the gloved super villain, before the kidnapping of detective Jamie’s girlfriend. It’s Blue Demon to the rescue, and a shockingly fast reveal and climax before the masked hero waves goodbye, states that he will return with more information soon and wham, end credits roll.

Obviously, keeping the gloved, hat wearing super villain disclosed for the majority of the film becomes a natural matter of interest – who is it? The thug gang uses a fake Blue Demon who creates a few what the heck moments when our hero does things out of character, such as the deadly headlock in the opening scene. You know things are going to get weird when the fake and true Blue Demon take on each other in the ring before the movie starts building to it’s climax. The use of a false and evil Blue Demon impostor used to trouble Blue demon and was always a problem for him, as these characters often did vile deeds and showed no remorse what so ever. He wasn’t happy with the impostor character that figured in this and few other Blue Demon films. Perhaps it used to remind him of his pre-movie past as a rudo. This is before archrival Santo defeated and unmasked Blue Demon’s tag team partner The Black Shadow. It was a shaping moment, where Blue Demon decided to become a técnico (good guy) wrestler.

There’s a lot of great moments in Blue Demon vs. The Diabolical Women (as there always are), there’s a tense scene where he’s hidden in a boot of a car whilst the baddies shoot slugs into the car, he surprisingly rides a motor bike, two female cast members have a wicked, and fast karate chop sock punch out, a guest appearance by Ana Martín, once Miss Mexico who lost her title in the finals in London due to her being underage. Blue Demon climbs a wall in a way that would put possible inspirational source Adam West and Burt Ward to shame. No tilted camera trickery here, it's all brute force. And the best moment of this film is undoubtedly the Blue Demon vs. Blue Demon fight! Despite being 44 at the time, there’s not much that gives away who’s who when Blue Demon takes on his younger doppelganger. 

For me, there was a rather interesting moment as chief of police Don Javier [Antonio Raxel] watches the match from home, on his television. I've previously mentioned that Lucha libre films became immensely popular after the Mexican Government banned televised Lucha libre fights in he mid fifties, but i don't know when they returned to airing them... is this just a coincidental moment, had matches started being televised again or is it some form of critique towards the ban. I'll have to get back to you on that one, but it was a head scratching moment for me.

Staying true to formula - or perhaps shaping what would become formula - director Chano Urueta – who directed four of the first five Blue Demon films – keeps pace with plenty of fights – Blue Demon takes on foes both in and outside the ring, Las Diabolicas have a pretty lengthy bout where a full six luchadoras grapple in the ring, and every now and again Urueta chucks in a nightclub scene with dancing mamacítas and horn based rock band The Klan make a musical appearance not once, but twice this time, and there tunes are so groovy that not even the bad guys can sit still. In between that there’s the somewhat thin mystery story and the crime piece.

Gustavo C. Carrión’s score is just as great and catchy as they usually are, and really brings fun to the film with it's up tempo pop jazzy tunes. The same score was also used in the companion piece Blue Demon vs. the Infernal Brains.

Several sources refer to Blue Demon vs. The Diabolical Women as being the first Blue Demon film in Color, although I think that they may be wrong, and it may actually be the second color film. Which means that Blue Demon vs. the Infernal Brain would be the first. Both films where shot in 1966, and predated by the black and white Arañas Infernales (Infernal Spider) a sci-fi horror piece (also released in 1966). Switching the two color films around makes more sense and logic when looking at the films in a chronological flow, as it makes more sense to follow up Infernal Spider which is  sci-fi horror with another sci-fi horror before moving into crime busting and eventually into the spy themed Blue Demon, Destructor de espias 1967.

Blue Demon : Destructor de espías

Blue Demon Destructor de espías

(Blue Demon, destroyer of Spies)

Directed by: Emilio Gómez Muriel

Mexico, 1967

Luchador/Action. 85 min.

Taking a step away from gothic horrors and going up against human foes instead, this secret agent themed thriller sees masked Luchador Blue Demon racing against a band of super villains to find a deadly formula before it’s used to wipe out the human race!

Seeking inspiration overseas – such as the James Bond movies, or possibly the quirky “Flint” movies Luchador films – Luchador films took a short spin into secret agent territory. Starting out with the two Santo vehicles, Operacion 67 and El tessore del Moctezuma, Blue Demon followed with similar movies, Destructor de espias (Destructor of Spies) and Pasaporte a la muerte (Passport to Death). In my book, where Santo may be close to Bond or Flint, Blue Demon is the Harry Palmer of the niche. Down to earth and to the point – but still a charmer with the ladies, and never really holding that self-assuredness where you know absolutely nothing will go wrong. Blue Demon, like Palmer, has an aura of slight vulnerability to him that makes him a much more empathetic character for me.

So it may not be top-notch spy action in the vain of James bond, but at least they tried, and the influences are noticeable but restrained by the obvious differences in budgets. It’s an playful take on those bigger, better budgeted movies, but with all it’s cheap charm and naïve enthusiasm – not forgetting that it’s primarily a movie to showcase the immensely popular Blue Demon – these movies are still fine pieces of matinee cinema.

The main plot centres on a mystic formula, invented by Professor Garfield [Chuck Anderson]. This formula is obviously the most lethal poison gas in the world, and if it ends up in the wrong hands – such as the sinister villain Hans [Jorge Rado, who later starred in several Santo & Blue Demon films, and also Sam Peckinpha’s masterpiece The Wild Bunch 1969. And make note that the villain is supposed to be a European!] – the world is domed to extinction. No agent film is worth it’s name unless establishing the super villain early on in the movie, Destructor de espias does so right from the word go as Hans torments and executes one of the competing spies in an attempt to gain the super peligroso formula. Put on the case to find the formula before Hans with his doomsday plans, we find Blue Demon and Super Agent Julio [Carlos East].

A second definitive trait of the spy genre is the presence of beautiful women! Destructor de espias has its fair share of delightful women with the presence of Marcia [Alma Delia Fuentes] and Nora [Maura Monti] Monti being the only real contender against Lorena Velázque, for the title of  numero Uno sex symbol of Mexican exploitation. Monti was originally of Italian origin, and enjoyed a rather fruitions career in the film industry. During the nine years she was active, she starred in over thirty films, before her husband asked her to leave the industry, which she did!

Another feature that I enjoyed with this entry is that there’s two funky nightclub scenes complete with bikini clad go-go girls and suave rock music of the era performed by bands The Rocking Stars and Los Johnny Jets. It has nothing to do with it, but I obviously think of Jess Franco’s many smoky jazz club scenes and that’s always a beautiful thing.

Blue Demon starred in two back-to-back productions that mimicked the suave style of the Bond films… well at least tried. But they are good attempts and despite only a few smaller secret weapons, there are some fun gadget’s in the movie which show what they where after. A flamethrower ring, a "fast escape" bed and those trendy wristwatch walkie-talkies, which Blue Demon and Santo used on every possible opportunity in later films to come.

It’s also a movie that takes our protagonists on something of a mini global tour, as they leave Mexico and venture to Chinatown, San Francisco where a pretty dodgy Fu-Manchu like character – who owns the nightclub - makes his entrance. To get the most out of the San Francisco stock footage, and nightclub sets back in Mexico, the dialogue more or less works the name San Francisco in to each and every sentence using every possible minute of production value available. Oh and just wait till you see the show stopping marionette performance that the nightclub owner has performing in his establishment!

Apart from some fairly well staged fisticuffs with Hans’s henchmen – one fantastic punch out in a mortuary - Blue Demon also has a few good bouts in the ring too. Personally I feel that despite being a Luchador film, the action inside the ring takes a back seat for crime solving and superspy busting – and a fantastic final fight that see’s Blue Demon jumping out of a jeep, into a moving airplane to beat the crap out of sinister villain Hans.

Although he didn’t direct the follow-up, Pasaporte a la muerte (Passport to Death) 1968, director/screenwriter Emilio Gómez Muriel did team up with his co-writer on Destructor de espias, Alfredo Ruanova, and this time they took a brilliant science fiction approach to the spy material, but that’s a completely different story and

Blue Demon, secret agents, sinister villains and hot mamacitas – well, you cant really go wrong - which I’ll say that about any Blue Demon movie, because I love them all! Action, fast moves, overdramatized antagonists, wrestling and great fun all the way through. Just check out that stunning artwork on the poster above and tell me that you don't feel the urge to watch this flick! Viva Blue Demon!

 

The Mummies of Guanajuato

The Mummies of Guanajuato

Original title: Las Momias de Guanajuato

Directed by: Federico Curiel

Mexico, 1970

Lucha Libre/Horror

Wrestler monsters from beyond the grave! In the world of cinema anything is possible. Since placing the Luchadors in cinematic narratives to get around the Mexican governments banning of televised Lucha Libre matches in the mid 50’s, the masked wrestlers have taken on an endless surge of enemies and foes. The Mummies of Guanajuato see’s Blue Demon, Mil Máscaras, Santo and a haunting army of mummies under the command of the undead wrestler called Satan. This my friends, is the good stuff!

Instead of the customary opening wrestling match, The Mummies of Guanajuato goes right in to exposition. A bunch of tourists take a tour of Guanajuato’s cemetery, were they see corpses in various state of mummification due to chemicals and minerals in the ground. Guanajuato is infamous for it’s mummies, and is one of the most popular tourist locations in Mexico. Amongst some “fresher ones”, only a hundred years old, stands Wrestler mummy Satan [Manuel Leal], and some semi composed henchmen. The guide, dwarf Penguin [Jorge Pingunio] starts telling the curious crypt dwellers the tale of how Satan and his followers swore to one day to come back and take their revenge after Santo beat him in a celebratory match one hundred years ago… By coincidence the date is todays date, and hey presto, the mummies start to climb down off their exhibit stands.

Curiel has taken his time to establish the plot before bringing in the big guns, as Mil Máscara and Blue Demon step into the ring for the obligatory wrestling match. Unlike say Miguel M. Delgado’s, Alfredo Salazar scripted flicks, there’s no time wasted on showing our heroes win one, loose one, then defeat their foes in the final round as to show some kind of vulnerability within the protagonists. This one goes right for the kill as Blue Demon and Mil Máscaras take their opponents out in two fast matches.

The vulnerability comes in a haunting scene after the bout where Satan, with ease sucker punches Blue Demon, leaving him stone cold in the hallway of the arena. Nobody likes seeing heir favourite hero be slapped around, especially when smacked around by a fiend possessing the power of Lucifer. There’s also a pretty sweet subplot concerning Julio, an orphan kid who Blue Demon has adopted. Mil Mascaras – who as per usual, changes masks for each new scene he’s part of, has his loved one Lina [Elsa Cárdenas]… you only need to have ever seen one Lucha libre movie previously to know that these are the week spots that will be used against the two masked keepers of justice.

The mummy thugs, lead on by Satan, terrorize the people of Guanajuato, as the police laugh off the inhabitants terrified pleads to help them. The cops stand around their office talking about the case, and chit chat about the mysterious deaths taking place all over the village. They are not having any of the stories of mummies, but  they are pretty convinced that the murderer is connected to the wrestling arena as all victims have broken necks.

There’s a favoured moment when Penguin meets his fate, but first he has the time to call up Blue Demon and plead with him “Blue, it’s Penguin, the mummy is here, it’s going to kill me. Help Me!” Hilarious! It shows that the Mummies have an agenda, kill people, try to pin the blame on Blue Demon and Mil Máscaras, hence forcing them to call up their buddy Santo… remember the sworn vengeance from the initial set-up?  Well just wait until you see their sinister plan unfold when they lay their hands on Blue Demon’s mask and wrestling pants!

Naturally Santo does turn up, but not due to the crimes committed or the sinister plot to lure him there, but when he unannounced pays a surprise visit to his old pals as he drives by Guanajuato in his car. In reality, writers Rafael Garcia Travesi and Rogelio Agrasánchez, intended the movie to be a Blue Demon/Mil Máscaras flick only, but in the last possible moment, Agrasánchez  - who also produced the film - wrote Santo into the script, as he feared audiences wouldn’t come for Blue Demon and Mil Máscaras alone. Climax fight approaching, panic reigns as the mummies walk the streets and the fuzz act like cretins and shoot at the terrified villagers. The final cemetery and make shift flamethrower battle is stuff of legends. Despite it being Blue Demon and Mil Máscaras ‘s film, nobody ever saves the day better than the silver angel, the undisputed king of Luchadore movies, Santo, and nobody says it better than Lina when she tells the two guys that they could have saved everybody a whole lot of trouble if they’d only had called Santo right away.

Gustavo César Carrión’s score is unusually funky compared to the stuff he’d be composing and perform to the Luchadore films just a few years later. This was cinematographer Enrique Wallace, who also shot Rene Cardona’s Las Luchadoras contra el medico asesino (Doctor of Doom) 1963, final film and one can only guess to whether he thrived or despaired with the many tall shadow street location shots that make this movie look so damned great.

I love this movie so much that it’s stupid. This is one of my top five Blue Demon movies and it was also the first time that three of the Lucha Libre scenes biggest stars where banded together in one movie. And for this same reason, The Mummies of Guanajuato became a pretty big box office success in Mexico. The starting point of a mesh trend that would culminate with the Destroy All Monsters of Lucha Libre flicks: El triunfo de los campeones justicieros (The Champions of Justice) 1974, which features a whopping total of six luchadoras.

There was animosity between the wrestlers, and a growing disappointment for Blue Demon as he was losing his place as the leading star he desired to be – at the start of his career he stood on his own merits, before being teamed up with Santo, whom he never really was a close friend with. But Blue Demon delivers, and has something of the lead part in this one, even if Santo does arrive as a miracle cure in the last act. The major part of his 25 movie career, saw Blue Demon frequently standing in the shadow of his silver masked friend, which obviously was a deep concern for him. Ironically it’s those nine tag team films that are amongst the most famous ones. Never the less, when Santo was off shooting his own movies, Blue Demon stepped up and became the team leader in three of the Champions of Justice films before the two re-united in the string of successful Miguel M. Delgado films of the mid-late seventies. Blue Demon ended his career with Gilberto Martínez Solares  Misterio en las Bermudas (Mystery in the Bermuda Triangle) 1979, which saw him reunite with Mil Máscaras  and one final time play second fiddle to Santo.