Ofelia (Maria Eugenia San Martin) is stretched out on a table. Around her are witches and demons. A masked man tries to rescue her but is caught. He is placed on a table next to her. A resurrected witch named Mayra stands over her. She looks like Ofelia’s parent’s former secretary Elisa Cardenas (Lorena Velazquez). The witch’s name is Mayra (Lorena Velazquez). Mayra prepares to sacrifice both of them. Ofelia wakes up screaming. She has been having the same dream for months.
When Ofelia tells her fiancé Arturo (Ramon Burgarini) of her dream he realizes that the masked man she is dreaming about is Santo (Santo). Ofelia also tells Arturo that when her parents died their estate was to go to her provided she lives in the old family mansion for one year. The nightmares started just before she moved into the mansion. Arturo tells Ofelia that he knows Santo and he will talk to him about her dream and her family’s will to see what he says about it.
Before he sees Santos Arturo does some research about witches and about Elisa. He tells Santos Elisa died 15 years ago. He believes that a witch took her place and is pretending to be Elisa. Santo promises to check things out. He goes to the mansion and is attacked by some of the Mayra’s minions but escapes. Later another witch named Medusa (Edaena Ruiz) tries to seduce him but Santo escapes again. Santo goes back to the house with Arturo but no one is there.
On their way back they are attacked and Arturo is kidnapped. Mayra still needs to capture Ofelia and Santo to sacrifice to the Lord of the Shadows. Now Santo and Mayra are in a battle of wits to see who is the strongest Mayra and her hypnotic gaze of Santo and his muscles.
“The Witches Attack” AKA “Atacan Las Brujas” AKA “Santo Attacks the Witches” was released in 1968 and was directed by Jose Diaz Morales. It is a Mexican horror movie and a lucha libra film.
The Lord of the Shadows is a guy in a leotard and boxers wearing a cape and devil head Halloween mask. His contribution to the film is that he just stands there while a voiceover spouts threats. There is also a wrestling match stuck in there. The luchador films always have a ring wrestling match in the film but usually it’s worked into the story in some way. There are a lot of fights between Santos and the minions. At one point, during one of the many fights, it appears that Santo seems to get kicked in the nuts. More than once.
The movie was so-so. It gets compared to “Santo vs the Vampire Women” from 1962. The themes are similar and a lot of the actors are the same so I can see why. “Vampire Women” was a much better film as far as it being a lot more fun and interesting not to mention the fact that the production values for “The Witches Attack” really sucks.
The filmmakers seem to have had a lot of issues with the lighting. Parts of the film flicker between dark and bright even in mid-take so I’m not sure what the reason is for it. Besides the lighting issues the editing was a little jarring and the story itself was basically nonexistent. Unfortunately the filmmakers for this one seem to have just phoned it in.
One interesting point, you get to learn some Mexican witch lore. They are afraid of fire, daylight and crosses just like vampires. They also don’t shave their legs.