Santo vs. The Vampire Women (Santo contra las mujeres vampiro)

A black and white still image of three women with long white dresses. The woman on the right is seated wearing a crown and there is a bat above her with wings outstretched. — "Santo vs. the Vampire Women" (1962, dir. Alfonso Corona Blake). Courtesy of Filmoteca UNAM and Clarovideo/AMX Contenido.

In this cult classic and one of luchador El Santo’s most well-known films, a young girl’s father discovers she is next in line to become the Queen of the Vampire Women and recruits the famed luchador to protect her from the wicked vampire women. These monstrous women threaten not only the professor’s daughter but the patriarchal order through their performance of masculinity. This film blends discourses of nationality, sport, gender, and sexuality to impart a moral lesson on its viewers. That said, can we read the film against the grain? Is Santo’s formulaic victory of the vampire women a story of heroic resistance to a real threat or misogynist repression of non-conformity?

Free admission! Sponsored by the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program.

Part of our "Imaginaries of Resistance" series. In Spanish with English subtitles.

Courtesy of Clarovideo/AMX Contenido and the Filmoteca UNAM.

Three organizational logos in black against a white background.