This early black-and-white Santo adventure was one of the first of his films to be released in America - hence his renaming as 'the Saint' in the English-dubbed version. It's a solid action picture, made on an obviously low budget but with some fun ingredients and a smattering of typical Mexican wackiness to prevent it from becoming a bore to watch. Now before you get too excited about the prospect of seeing some good zombie-killing action up on screen, remember this was made before the advent of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. The zombies here just look like regular guys with vacant expressions who shuffle around a lot but provide surprisingly agile when it comes to fighting. They're animated via remote control transmitters in their belts too! Whereas later Santo adventures like SAMSON IN THE WAX MUSEUM concentrated on providing an almost Gothic-horror in their approach, despite the presence of zombies this is otherwise an adventure film with science fiction elements. The villain (who also wears a mask, a black one to hide his identity), lives in a futuristic but murky lair which includes a television, which he uses to watch his zombies in action.
Otherwise the plot is very basic and predictable, chock full of kidnappings, mystery identities, surprising murders, and the like. The action is what keeps it moving, although the wrestling bouts in the ring (which take up a long twenty minutes of the film's running time, including the never-ending opening wrestling sequence) do drag in parts. It's much more fun when Santo fights the zombies outside of the ring, either when rescuing the children in an orphanage or saving the heroine from being kidnapped. Watch out for the fun bit involving a battle in the ring with a zombie which ends up being short-circuited! Events pick up for the exciting ending which is a little too short and only gives Santo two opponents to face. There are some nice surprises as to the identities of the two villains and a little heartwarming touch at the end in which the detectives speculate on Santo's desire to help out those in need. Sure, the acting and dubbing are below par, but as any fan of Mexican fantasy cinema will know these are only minor detractions to the flow of the movie and come to be expected. Generally this is a pretty watchable yarn, not without its share of stilted moments and scenes which seem to drag, but as a whole its surprisingly effective with some nice creepy music when the zombies attack.
Otherwise the plot is very basic and predictable, chock full of kidnappings, mystery identities, surprising murders, and the like. The action is what keeps it moving, although the wrestling bouts in the ring (which take up a long twenty minutes of the film's running time, including the never-ending opening wrestling sequence) do drag in parts. It's much more fun when Santo fights the zombies outside of the ring, either when rescuing the children in an orphanage or saving the heroine from being kidnapped. Watch out for the fun bit involving a battle in the ring with a zombie which ends up being short-circuited! Events pick up for the exciting ending which is a little too short and only gives Santo two opponents to face. There are some nice surprises as to the identities of the two villains and a little heartwarming touch at the end in which the detectives speculate on Santo's desire to help out those in need. Sure, the acting and dubbing are below par, but as any fan of Mexican fantasy cinema will know these are only minor detractions to the flow of the movie and come to be expected. Generally this is a pretty watchable yarn, not without its share of stilted moments and scenes which seem to drag, but as a whole its surprisingly effective with some nice creepy music when the zombies attack.