El puño de la muerte

Somehow I managed to miss this Mexican Santo flick until just recently. I guess that's not hard to do since he has something like 52 films he starred in. This one is towards the top of the heap though. Coming later in his career you can tell he's becoming a bit old by '82 but that doesn't stop our masked hero from getting in the ring and jumping around like a younger nut. This film might be the weirdest Santo movie I've seen. It involves a jungle cult that's headed by two identical twin sisters with massive bosoms(these are both played by the same actress, Grace Renat, tahnks to a charmingly crappy split-screen effect) that use an illuminated meteorite to see the future. One sister is unfortunately evil(we know this because she wears the black outfit) and with her accomplice, pro-wrestler Tinieblas(who I'm pretty sure plays a good guy in earlier lucha-libre films) they form their own bad-guy cult that worships a C3PO Halloween mask. There's also kung fu vs. wrasslin' and a jungle gal and her wolf(really just a big dog) brother that never do anything all that wild but the thought was nice. The highlight is Santo throing a guy into a rotating plane's propeller that neatly slices him into 2 halves. Good trash cinema!

This movie makes no sense at all, they are in the future yet they are in present time, i had a hard time watching this and turned it off after 40 minutes in, this is how painful it was to watch.

This movie is ridiculous but it is supposed to be serious film. I actually love these types of movies that you can laugh at how bad they are made.

So I recommend you watch this so you can witness a German shepherd that's actually a wolf! And everyone calls it a wolf! Are they blind? Certainly not. Are they stupid? Yes.

And there's wrestling scenes that are just wrong and lazy. Maybe the actors were so tired to do the moves or they weren't paid enough to stay motivated idk.

Almost half of the movie Santo is traveling (why the hell is it taking so long?) And a bald old guy keeps calling him boss and moving like an idiot and that's not even funny.

I think they all need that jellyfish star thing to cure their brains.

I've seen quite a few Santo films and was surprised when I saw "El Puño de la Muerte" ("The Fist of Death"). This is because I had no idea he made any films in the early 1980s, as the famous luchador died in 1984 and most of his movies were made in the 60s and 70s. Here, the masked hero is a bit elderly, though of course it's tough to tell with his mask.

Now Santo is NOT the only luchador who made films. He is, however, the most famous and made 52 weird movies. Other luchadores to look for in films are Blue Demon (who also made quite a few with Santo), Mil Mascaras and several others. All of their movies are strange, cheesy and yet mostly enjoyable a kitsch.

The plots of all the Santo films I have seen are simply insane, as Santo battles the likes of mummies, Dracula, Frankenstein, space aliens as well as Neo-Nazis. But the story in "El Puño de la Muerte: might just be the weirdest. It is set in a strange Asian kingdom, strange because no one looks the least bit Asian and everyone is either a Caucasian or Black who speak Spanish.

As the story begins, you can see that there are two twins (both played by the same gorgeous actress), one good and one evil. To make it easier on the viewer, they usually have the evil twin in black and the good in white! Anyway, the good incredibly buxom twin is using some glowing meteorite to heal various illnesses...including blindness. But the other sister is jealous and she has her henchman, the luchador Tinieblas, beat up folks and steal this 'star fragment'. Now with all this power, who knows WHAT she'll do next?!

After the theft, the good buxom twin goes to tell their god (who looks almost exactly like C3PO and the magic mirror from "Snow White" combined) about the evil buxom sister's deeds. Their god informs her that he's sending a hero from the west to help her restore the stolen artifact...and soon the god communicates with Santo telepathically telling him to come to this freaky Asian land.

In the meantime, the jungle goddess (a blonde who was raised by 'wolves' who look amazingly like normal German Shepherds) is supposed to marry. But this cannot happen until the star fragment is returned, as her fiancee is on this quest as well as Santo.

Does any of this sound normal in any way? If so, please consult a doctor immediately!! But, despite being very stupid, it's also so silly and so over-the-top that it sure keeps your attention!! Utterly ridiculous, cheesy and poorly made* but enjoyable trash.

By the way, although IMDB says that the movie was filmed in Mexico, I think at least part of it was filmed at the famous Coral Castle in Homestead, Florida. Note when the evil twin is on her outdoor throne....and it looks exactly like part of this famous tourist destination. Plus there are some American Alligators throughout the film...a reptile not found in Mexico.

*A great example of this is when the evil twin keeps turning herself into various things. At one point, she becomes a cobra. It was so sloppily done that it is night but the video of the cobra was filmed in broad daylight...and in an entirely different location!!