Dogmatic

Imagine if you will, heavy darkness perhaps the glimpse of a passing full moon, the creak of a solid wooden door, the sound of heavy footsteps upon old stone floors perhaps a distant whine of the wind or wolf howl and a bosom laden damsel screaming for help. Into this dank world treads Mexico’s El Santo and Blue Demon!

These are the masked crusaders of good against evil fearlessly they fought vampires, zombies, fiends from outer space, mobsters, Nazi conspiracies but still had time for dinner out with voluptuous ladies and never ever let saving the world get in the way of a good wrestling tournament. No way were these masked heroes going to let the fans down. These guys were secret agents with wristwatch communicators, fast cars, sharp suits and the ability to pull birds without pulling off their masks.

The movies were low budget high adventure rituals of pure cult classic indulgence, the antics of Blue Demon and El Santo spawned comic books, crude action figures, replica masks and a lifetime of addiction for me. El Santo and Blue Demon were real athletes and touring wrestlers but it was on the silver screen that they truly ruled the world. Sometimes the teamed up for joint movies other times they went it alone. There are a host of these wonderful excessively garish classics to be viewed on DVD, the effects and the sets are almost Ed Woodish but that’s the love and it’s all good fun. If you were brought up on Universal Monster flicks like me and enjoy your cinema a bit rougher around the edges yet of classically human creativity then you will appreciate the flavour here!

Forget Austin Powers, James Bond or Van Helsing, these mysterious masked brawlers were the best chance the world ever had against evil meddlers and downright dishonest sorts who would keep us all from sleeping soundly at night.

The sons of Blue Demon and El Santo, Blue Demon Jnr and Hijo del Santo respectively have carried on the mantle with their own comics, figures, power drinks, fights and tours. In recent times an animated El Santo stalked Mexican television sets via the Cartoon Network saving Mexico City from yet another evil professor and his abominable creations. The good time Lucha Libre movies rock my world, they are not slick, they are not pretty but if you want glorious insanity then they’ve got it. It’s the stuff of matinee escapism.