Mikel3 Saw this one the other night, what a hoot I loved it. It's one of those fun Mexican movies starring the wrestler/superhero 'Santo'. In this one he is called on to help a father protect his daughter from a group of Vampire women who want to make her their next queen. She is about to turn 21 and it's that time for her conversion. It's seems she was destined for this fate from birth and has a vampire bat like mark on her arm to prove it. No not bite marks, an actual image of a bat on her shoulder area. Looks like a bat tattoo. Of course daddy says not to fret it's a common enough type birthmark. He hopes that will relieve her anxiety about it. Yes, I'm sure many girls have vampire bat birthmarks on their upper arm. It's no secret I love these films. This is probably the best I've seen yet starring Santo. For American distributions they renamed him 'Samson'. Yet when he is in the ring the crowd is clearly cheering for 'Santo...Santo...'. Guess they didn't want to bother dubbing those crowd scenes too. Oh and what a surprise the crowd is in for when Samson/Santo unmasks one of his opponents in the ring. The creature under the mask looks like the wolf man ! At least he knew to return to his own corner when the bell rang.There was some very good imagery in the first ten or fifteen minutes of the film when the vampire women first awaken from their 200 year nap. You just have to get past the fake looking exteriors of their castle. Before they gain the illusion of beauty they're pretty darn scary looking. The makeup on the waking vampires had a certain unique even bizarre look to it often found in Mexican horror films. The look of the monsters is a refreshing change from American films of the same time period. This is not a film for everyone. I happen to have a taste for these sort of gems. It does have it's moments and that's enough for me. I enjoyed it and would recommend it for other fans of Mexican horror films.

Aaron1375 This film is from Mexico and features the fan favorite wrestler Santo. So of course, this movie is going to have people saying that this film is good, we Americans just do not understand it and blah blah blah. Some seem to think that just because it is foreign it is somehow good, but let's face it, this film is the equivalent of one of those horrible Hulk Hogan films we make. Sure Santo may be popular in Mexico, but that does not mean a film he is in is good or that he can act or the story is somewhat tolerable. The only thing tolerable in this wreck of a film is the vampire ladies after they get all pretty. For the most part though when the film is not plodding along it is showcasing Santos' wrestling skills which for me is even more boring than the plodding along! The story has a coven of vampire women and their three wrestling vampire men plotting to kidnap a woman and making her the new vampire queen. They still have the old queen, but a new one is needed because I suppose the old one gets bored of being queen or something. Well a professor wishes to protect his daughter, who is the next in line. He asks for an inspector's help and promptly dismisses the man several times during one conversation. Meanwhile, the coven has chants and this and that and about halfway in the movie Samson shows up (Santo). Why one would want a wrestler to protect them is questionable against vampires, but I suppose it makes sense seeing as how the vampire men are all wrestlers. Well Santo is not very effective, mainly able to just flip people away, but he somehow manages to get ahead in the game and burn all the vampire women alive as they close themselves into their caskets...basically helpless.So the main problem is the pacing. The film is so slow and when there finally is action it is simply people being flipped around. This does not make for a good movie no matter how you slice it. It is laughable that a wrestler can match up with a vampire, and even more laughable how he burns the women vampires alive at the end. Wow, how heroic of you, Samson..er Santo, or man in silver mask. We are even treated to a wrestling match during the film, we do not need to see this in the middle of a vampire film! Mexican wrestlers are hailed as heroes in Mexico and perhaps a little kid from that country can see the appeal, but I do not as I do not like wrestling and do not hail them as heroes.So the film is mainly a bore. The only thing making this film a two instead of a one is the very attractive vampire women. The one doing most of the work is the best one, reminding me of that girl in the Roger Corman film, The Undead. I find it funny how they kept acting as if the girl they were after to become the next queen was super beautiful, when she was okay, but not nearly as cute as most of the vampire women. So if you are into Mexican wrestling and can enjoy a very pointless plot and non epic final showdown, give this one a look see. However, I would advise you look away if you ever see it on.

Clay Loomis When it comes right down to it, the "masked Mexican professional wrestler Vs. karate-chopping, wrestling, vampire/werewolf" movie genre has a fairly large void that this movie tries hard to fill. It's a very bad movie, of course, but the "so bad it's good" factor is huge on this one. I'm glad I didn't smoke pot before watching this because death by laughter would surely be the result.I won't even try to describe any of the scenes, but rest assured, each one stands on its own as a testament on how not to make a movie. This isn't Casablanca, people.Now, on to the merits of this film: 1. This is the very best Mexican wrestler Vs. vampire movie I've ever seen (although it should be noted, it's also the ONLY one, so I guess that makes it the worst too).2. It features some extremely good looking Mexican women, which is definitely NOT a bad thing. However, no explanation is given about how one of the vampire women, who was awakened after 200 years, came across her horn-rimmed glasses. (I detected the distinct odor of "Producer's Daughter".)3. I saw the English dubbed version and the dubbing wasn't that bad.All in all, it will depend on your mood whether or not to watch this. If you're up for some fine film making, take a pass. If you're up for some lifelike cartoons involving men in capes and masks doing a lot of fake fighting, dive right in.

poe426 I remember watching this one when I was a kid, and covering my eyes whenever things got a little too spooky (only to peek at it from between my fingers, of course). Then there was Mil Mascaras, wrestling on American television, in the mid-70's. Professional wrestlers- in particular, those wearing masks- were the next best thing to superheroes: they displayed the physical prowess of a superhero and, in a series of movies lensed in Mexico, fought every type of monster known (and unknown) to Man. The combination of masked pro wrestlers and monsters was a natural. (And, in fact, childhood memories of El Santo and Mil Mascaras inspired me to create my own pro wrestling superhero, THE AVENGER. I wrote and drew a series of black and white comics featuring The Avenger several years ago, and he even appears on The Homepage Of The Dead website, in my story THE ISLAND OF DR. ROMERO.)SAMSON VS. THE VAMPIRES is as entertaining as they come. Beautiful sets and sustained suspense, solid performances, underrated direction- it's all here for anyone interested in being genuinely entertained. Much has been made of the "cheesiness" of this movie. Is STAR WARS any less "cheesy"? Or the vastly overrated LORD OF THE RINGS? (Or the much-talked-about upcoming HELLBOY movie?) If you like superheroes slugging it out with vampires, this one's for you.