Review: Santo in the Vengeance of the Mummy (1971)
The Silver Masked hero is back to face off against the fearsome forces of darkness! The 1971 film Santo in the Vengeance of the Mummy finds our wrestling champion deep in the jungle as part of a scientific expedition to discover the tomb of an Aztec mummy. Upon arrival at the site, a group of locals appears to warn them of the mummy's curse: "Stay away from the burial site or be doomed!" Of course, Santo and company don't heed the warning and quickly find themselves being picked off, one by one. The movie offers us a nice twist on the old Universal Monsters and Hammer Films mummy movie formula by moving the title monster from Egypt to Mexico and providing audiences with an indigenous mummy, which is a nice departure from the norm. Instead of a stumbling, lumbering pile of bandages, we've got a regal Aztec warrior who is both agile and logical. The origin story is pretty similar to what we expect: forbidden love, ancient curse, doomed to a hell of never-ending t...