SANTO VS. LAS LOBAS (1976)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical*

Researchers better than me have speculated that this choppy film, boasting two directors, may have been started as early as 1972, abandoned for a while, and then finished up in 1976. This doesn't sound like the usual assembly-line production for other entries in the long-running Santo series. But then, LOBAS is barely like any other Santo film I've seen.

Of the two directors, Jaime Pons also has credits for both writing and executive production for the film. and one reviewer even speculates that Pons may have a minor acting role in the film's early sections. It seems axiomatic that someone decided to make a moody werewolf film with Santo in it, in contrast to the many more action-oriented movies in which the masked wrestler contended with less formidable fiends. I'd also say that the first half is the better organized of the two.

LOBAS begins with what proves to be its best scene. In a mundane car park, a young blonde woman (Erika Carlsson) is accosted by an older female. The old woman, name of Luba, says that her time is at an end and that the blonde must become the new Luba. Possibly using magical persuasion, Old Luba compels New Luba to stab her to death. Then, out of the shadows spring various shaggy women, who proceed to feast on Dead Luba. From then on, New Luba is totally a monster through and through, and she makes a beeline for Santo, the Silver Mask, to prevent his interference with the wolf-cult's plans.

  Luba approaches Santo in his dressing-room at a wrestling-ring, trying without success to seduce the hero. After she leaves, a werewolf-hunter tries to convince Santo to oppose the werewolf-cult. This version of Santo has apparently never met any monsters before, for he scoffs at the possibility of lycanthropes. However, while Luba later ambushes and kills the werewolf-hunter, in his room Santo is attacked by what is supposed to be a wolf (though it's clearly a dog). Santo's bitten and this convinces him to investigate further. He goes looking for another of the hunter's allies, but while they talk, a young woman in a swimming-pool signals that she's having trouble. The hunter-guy goes to her rescue, but it's another ambush, for she almost drowns the fellow, obliging the luchador to rescue him. Hunter-guy also informs Santo that if he doesn't kill off the leader of the werewolf cult by the time of the Red Moon, the wrestler will become a lycanthrope as well.

Everything in the first half suggests that Luba, repeatedly called the Queen of Werewolves, will bring about the coming apocalypse, in which werewolves destroy humanity. However, Luba is killed, so Santo needs a new Big Bad. He leaves the big city for a country town where the brother of the original hunter lives, and learns that there's a Werewolf King, name of Licar, who's going to bring about the chaos. After a lot of running battles with wolves and wolf-people, and a few scenes of werewolves trying to usurp regular mortals as Young Luba was possessed, Santo finally slays the King and wins his own freedom.

The makeup in LOBAS is the weakest element, but nevertheless both directors created a lot of forbidding scenes that feel more like a regular horror-flick than a masked wrestler movie. If the hero were just a strong guy without the charisma of Santo. I might have labeled LOBAS a horror-drama.