Pinguino (Jorge Pinguino) is a tour guide at the Museum of the Mummies of Guanajuato. While showing his last group of tourists for the day he winds his tour up by showing a small group of mummies that are kept in a different room. He notes that these mummies are not as decayed as the others. Their faces are but the rest of their bodies appear to be still intact. He tells the visitors that the tallest one is the 7’2” wrestler named Satan (Tinieblas). Satan’s last fight was with the ancestor of the well known wrestler Santo (Santo) one hundred years ago. When Satan lost that fight he vowed revenge and reportedly sold his soul to the devil so he could return and fulfill that vow. Pinguino notes that today is the one hundredth anniversary of that match and Satan’s death.
After the tourists leave Pinguino believes he sees Satan come to life. Pinguino faints. When the watchman revives him the tour guide heads for the nearest bar. After a couple drinks he tells his friends Lina (Elsa Cadenas) and Alicia (Patricia Ferrer) about the moving mummy. They don’t believe him. He takes them back to the museum at the cemetery to show them. When they get there the mummy of Satan is gone and there are footprints on the floor. They rush to the wrestling arena to tell Lina’s fiancé Mil Mascaras (Mil Mascaras). He is wrestling that night with Blue Demon (Blue Demon) in a tag team event with two other wrestlers. They, of course, don’t believe Pinguino and the girls. Mil takes the girls back to the club while Blue Demon takes a shower.
Meanwhile Satan is roaming around town. He knocks Blue Demon unconscious and enters the now empty arena. When the night watchman comes in Satan breaks his neck. The mummy then leaves the arena and kills an old drunk. Two witnesses tell the police what they saw. The Police Inspector (Juan Gallardo) doesn’t believe them.
The next night Satan kills Pinguino. Pinguino manages to call Blue Demon before Satan attacks him. Blue and Mil rush over to Pinguino’s apartment and find him dead. His neck has been broken. While leaving the apartment they are attacked by three mummies from the museum. Unable to defeat the already dead they head for Mil’s place to figure out what to do next.
Blue gets knocked unconscious again. Satan steals his mask and clothes. He has one of his mummy minions pretend to be Blue and kill a couple people in front of the cops. Now Blue is believed to be the killer. Blue and Mil need to come up with a plan to deal with Satan and his mummy goons and prove that Blue is innocent.
“The Mummies of Guanajuato” was released in 1972 and was directed by Federico Curiel. It is a Mexican Lucha Libre horror film. This is the first of the Lucha Libre films where Blue Demon, Mil Mascaras (Man of a thousand Masks) and Santo all appear but don’t expect to see a lot of Santo. He basically appears at the end for the big fight.
The city of Guanajuato was struck with a cholera epidemic in 1833. Victims were buried in mass graves. In 1865 a tax levied on the dead caused many of the victims to be dug up since relatives either couldn’t be found or couldn’t afford the tax. If you don’t pay your tax, you can’t be buried. Many of the bodies had been mummified due to several factors. They were warehoused until finally a museum was built to exhibit these strange mummies. The world’s smallest mummy is part of the exhibit. It is a mummified fetus whose mother was a victim of the epidemic.
Except for the annoying organ music, the movie is your typical Mexican wrestling horror movie. Yes, there is such a thing a typical Mexican wrestling horror movie. It’s not exactly the best offering of the genre but it’s not bad as far as entertaining goes. The wrestling sequence in the beginning of the film where Mil and Blue tag team against two other wrestlers is actually good. It is choreographed quite nicely.
Jorge Pinguino is in reality Jorge Bauza. Jorge was a musician who was proficient on the harmonica and an actor; however, he only did a few films, all of them in 1971 and 1972. I could find very little on Jorge. I did find that he was part of a Mexican garage band called “Los Cuatro y Medio” (four and a half). Jorge being the half since he was a midget. The group only recorded two singles. One was their version of “Wipe-out” by The Surfaris, and the other was called “El Cigarron” (The Cigarette).
Movie
Wipeout by Los Cuatro y Medio