Santo vs. Black Magic Woman (1973) Poster

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6/10
Santo vs. voodoo (and a president's second wife)
BandSAboutMovies28 July 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Santo goes on vacation and shoots a movie, then forgets that he needs a wrestling scene and Alfredo B. Crevenna tells him they can fix it in editing, so he just splices in the scenes from La Venganza de las Mujeres Vampiros and says, "No te preocupes, Santo bebé. Van a comenzar en Sasha Montenegro y todo ese metraje del diario de viaje de todos modos."

Santo is battle voodoo because Live and Let Die came out the same year. That means slow-moving zombies, dudes putting snakes on his chest while he's sleeping, voodoo ceremonies in which a goat says, "Is that Ruggero Deodato?" before he's violently killed for real and scientist fathers brought back from the dead.

Bellamira the evil voodoo queen is not beneath using old school tricks like stabbing a Santo doll with pins. I mean, it's an old fashioned attack but if it works, it works.

The end of this movie is astounding, as Santo goes all Wood Beast in Arboria and challenges the black magic woman to a contest of putting their hands into a basket filled with snakes and seeing who gets bit. Santo must have some experience with Charismatic snake churches because he just walks away like nothing happened while our antagonist dies an agonizing death.

With all the dance numbers, you would not be wrong to believe that Santo wrote this movie off as his 1973 vacation. I don't see you fighting Dracula, Satan and blobs, so please give the man in the silver mask his PTO.
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Santo takes on zombies in Haiti
kikaidar8 June 2000
When I picked up this title on prerecord, I received several surprises. First, the film was largely filmed in Haiti, so the "heart of voodoo country" motif was authentic. Secondly, it was lensed in color -- something the packaging hadn't suggested on first glance.

In the island nation, Prof. Jordan (Guillermo Gálvez) has perfected a new explosive which rivals the H-bomb in its power. Among the parties interested in this new discovery is Bellamira (Sasha Montenegro), a voodoo priestess who hopes to sell the formula to a foreign power. Unfortunately for her plans, the film starts with the discovery (via visions seen in a mystic pool of water) that Interpol is calling in Santo to safeguard the scientist and his invention.

Santo arrives and is picked up by the local agent he's to work with (Jorge -- played by Caesar del Campo). While driving from the airport, their car has a flat and -- as they prepare to replace the damaged tire -- they're attacked by several unconvincing zombies. After a token grappling, these are repelled when Santo holds up a gross-shaped tire iron.

The duo go on to the professor's house, where we meet the scientist and his daughter Lorna (Elsa Cardenas). Jorge is involved with the girl, and has a vested interest in keeping her father safe. The researcher is not interest in being protected, and feels he can handle things on his own. Never a good attitude to adopt in this kind of film.

Moving quickly, Bellamira turns the researcher into a zombie. Santo, who has recently arrived on the island, is unable to prevent this. Buried, the professor returns to acquire the formula kept in his safe. There is a nice scare scene here, as His daughter is confronted by the walking corpse.

After winning a wrestling match (during which he was to die), Santo oversees the opening of the professor's coffin. It is empty.

Gaining the last of the professor's secrets at her headquarters (where uranium is being quarried for use in the explosive), the voodoo priestess send the zombie home, where it collapses in front of a horrified Lorna.

Lorna moves out, unerringly choosing to spend some time with her friend -- Bellamira. When she follows the priestess into the jungle, she learns too much. Lorna prevents a voodoo assault on the sleeping Santo and is earmarked as a sacrifice for her trouble.

With a little help of a friendly magic practitioner, Michelle (Gerty Jones), Santo winds up at the cult's headquarters. The priestess agrees to a mystic dual with him. Both place an arm in a bag containing a number of deadly snakes.

Though both are bitten, Santo's nobility prevails and the priestess dies. End of story.

Interesting for a huge amount of footage of parades and happy, celebrating vacationers, though this is also one of the film's weaknesses, in that there's too much of this colorful filler. There're a few nice sequences, but the result is an "average" Santo thriller. Not bad, but certainly not his best.
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1/10
Animal Cruelty details (spoilers) You don't need to see it.
newportbosco11 February 2014
=spoilers regarding animal cruelty in this movie. Graphic.= At about 25 minutes into this movie, a goat is killed during a voodoo ceremony.

The throat is slit with a knife on screen and you see the poor creature kicking. The blood flows out of the neck wound to be collected by the voodoo worshippers. It is not a quick or clean kill. The animal is kicking while two men cut off the tail. Then the people pick up the carcass of the goat and walk around with it. After that, nothing else about this movie mattered. Santo and Blue Demon and Neutron were PAID to hit one another and get tossed around. They knew what was happening. The goat is just plain scared. There are something like 50 plus SANTO movies. They can be as atmospheric as a Universal horror movie or an Italian movie made in the early 60's, or fun and cheesy in their own loopy way. Just pick another one.
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Hairhopper Voodoo Babe & Zombies vs. Santo Wrestler Hero!
Ian Fab!3 October 1999
This is one of the best of the Santo masked wrestler hero films, and almost impossible to find. Santo, El Enmascarado De Plato (silver masked hero)is called to Haiti to fight a match while a gorgeous voodoo queen (Sasha Montenegro, the Raquel Welch of Mexico and wife of a recent Mexican president) brings the dead back to life and plans a nuclear annihilation! This flick has wrestling zombies, dance numbers, voodoo murders, wild 70's latin fashions and the tallest hairdos this side of Sonora! You'll freak at the climactic battle between dueling voodoo goddesses for Santo's very soul! The soundtrack is great too. Plus the everpresent Carlos Suarez as one of Sasha's henchmen. This flick is also known as Santo Vs. Black Magic Woman in some circles. If you can find it, check it out. Sasha also appeared in several other Santo flicks including Santo Vs. The Space Blob (Asesinos De Otros Mundos) plus in about 20 movies of her own.
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