Professor Romero (Cesar del Campo) is in search of the ancient burial ground of an Indian warrior called Nonoc. He puts together an expedition to search for the tomb. The history of the warrior comes complete with a curse. Romero hires Santo (Santo) help in searching for the tomb. In addition, Romero has with him his secretary, Rosa Bermudez (Alma Rojo), a nutty scientist named Professor Jiminez (Carlos Ancira), an engineer named Sergio Morales (Eric del Castillo), and a photographer, Susanna (Mary Montiel). When the expedition reaches the last town before they get to the jungle Romero hires a local Indian guide (Carlos Suarez) and his young grandson Agapito (Son of Santo).
After trekking through the jungle and descending into a labyrinth of caves the team finds the mummy of Nonoc the warrior. A codex found with the mummy and his treasure talk about the burial and how Nonoc came to be buried alive. Professor Romero has the treasure and the codex removed so they can be catalogued and deciphered. With his tomb now defiled the ancient mummy rises from his grave and begins killing everyone in the expedition.
“Santo in the Vengeance of the Mummy” AKA “Santo en la venganza de la momia” was released in 1971 and was directed by Rene Cardona”. It is a Mexican horror movie and a luchador film.
The plot is your standard mummy story. A man in love with a woman who is to be sacrificed tries to steal the woman away. She is sacrificed and he is condemned to be buried alive. Tomb is defiled. Mummy comes to life. Everyone dies. Here, within the basic story, there is also a bit of a twist at the end which was nice.
In addition to beating up some curse paranoid Mexican supply bearers, Santo gets to have a lengthy battle with a mummy and a black panther. There is also some really cringe worthy comic relief by Carlos Ancira as Professor Jiminez. As with many of the Santo films there is a wrestling match at the beginning and at the end of the film. The mummy effects are actually pretty decent which makes this a better than average offering of the later Santo films.
In 1976, a change of power in Mexican government led to criticism of masked wrestling. The new administration wasn’t fond of the genre which led to a waning in its popularity.
Agapito is played by Santo’s real-life son. Born in 1963 he used the name El Hijo de Santo or Son of Santo. He ended up taking over his father’s franchise after his death in 1984.
For the most part, the movie was very enjoyable, but seeing Santo as a romantic hero, not so much. There are, however, a lot more murders in this Santo offering than in most of his films. Almost everyone dies.