ABOUT THE AUTHOR: When Frederick Burdsall isn’t at work or watching movies while covered in cats, you can find Fred in the front seat of Knoebels’ Phoenix. 

Way back when in a faraway place I like to refer to as “The Sixties” (It existed kids, trust me) my local movie theater would frequently show a Saturday Matinee geared to kids and it was here I was introduced to the wonders of Roger Corman, Vincent Price and numerous monsters that still thrill me today but there was one in particular that really got my 9-year-old juices going.

A few weeks before, the theater was showing a little film called The Mad Monster Party and as always, I was parked in a seat halfway up the aisle with my popcorn enjoying the spectacle. When the dust settled and it was time to go I was handed a clip-on button as I exited that simply said “The Green Slime are Coming”. Slimy and Green, huh? Yes, please.

Well, my friends, an entire freakin’ month went by before I saw it on the marquee…The Green Slime are here Saturday at noon. Setting a new record getting home I rushed into the house and did the most horrible thing I have ever done in my life…I VOLUNTEERED to do chores because the Green Slime are here Saturday and I have to be there. The things we do for our passions. Let’s take a look at this brilliant piece of monster movie fun.

An asteroid is on a collision course and it falls on Jack Rankin (Robert Horton from Wagon Train) to rush off to Gamma 3 to blast it out of the sky. The base is run by Vince Elliott (Richard Jaeckel, one of my mom’s favorite actors) who at one time was a close friend but they clashed over Lisa Benson (Luciana Paluzzi, who played Fiona Volpe in the Bond film Thunderball) who conveniently is one of the doctors on the base. There is quite a bit of macho posturing before he is welcomed aboard.

Upon reaching the asteroid they encounter a greenish ooze which puts a damper on their project and forces them to hoof it back to the ship unaware that Dr. Halverson has some on the leg of his spacesuit. As the suits are decontaminated, it causes the slime to mutate and grow into a one-eyed, tentacled monstrosity that kills with electricity. ( I REALLY need a Green Slime Pop Vinyl figure…someone get on that.) 

Nothing they do seems to harm it and if it bleeds, the blood becomes another monster….how do you kill it? After an attack on the infirmary, they decide to lure them to Block C and try to, at least, contain them but Dr. Halverson has all his research in there and the creatures are soon loose again. Deciding to evacuate, the doors won’t open because there are creatures all over the outside of the ship now and Elliott leads a team out to do battle in a last ditch effort to save their lives. How does it all turn out…Watch and enjoy The Green Slime and find out.

Directed by Kinji Fukasaku of Battle Royale, Tora! Tora! Tora! and the fantastic yakuza film Graveyard of Honor fame.

I can’t deny that there are times that I watch a favorite from my childhood and can’t believe how incredibly bad it really was…this is NOT one of them. I still get tears in my eyes when that psychedelic theme song by Richard Delvy starts up and I turn into a 9-year-old all over again and revel in the campiness of it all. I have a love for this movie that rivals the kind of love you have for family and friends and I hope I always will…..By the way…I STILL have the button.

As always, I’ll see you in the front seat of the Phoenix.

No, not that Trilogy of Terror.

This Brazilian movie creates new versions of stories that appeared on the TV series Além, Muito Além do Além (Beyond, Much Beyond the Beyond): “O Acordo” (The Agreement), “A Procissão dos Mortos” (Procession of Dead), and “Pesadelo Macabro” (Macabre Nightmare).

In the first segment, “O Acordo” (The Agreement), a mother discovers that her daughter has an incurable disease, so she offers her soul to Satan himself. They ask her to bring them back a virgin. This segment was directed by Ozualdo Ribeiro Candeias.

The second story is “A Procissão dos Mortos” (Procession of Dead), which was directed by Luiz Sérgio Person. A young boy’s father is the only person brave enough to face the ghosts that haunt the village.

Finally — and most spectacularly — “Pesadelo Macabro” (Macabre Nightmare) is about a young man who is afraid of being buried alive, which is exactly and to no surprise what happens. This leads to tons of scenes of women being whipped, lizards, bugs and, yes, a premature burial that all feel like they’re the exact kind of bad trip that schoolteachers warned you that those blue acid star temporary tattoos would give you if any drug dealer tried to give you free acid, which I don’t think has ever happened ever. This was directed by José Mojica Marins, who we all know as Coffin Joe, and it lives up to exactly the kind of mania you expect from this man. He was actually the host of the TV show these stories came from for 21 years and sadly, hardly any tapes of them survive.

Federico Curiel was a maniac and I mean that in the very best of ways. He wrote tons of great movies like El Baron del Terror, as well as directing stuff like the Nostradamus vampire movies, lucha films with Neutrón, Blue Demon and Santo, Westerns such as Super Colt 38 and so much more. He’s also the man who brought together so many luchadors for The Champions of Justice series.

Here, he delights us yet again with the tale of El Murcielago, a former wrestler who has become disfigured and obsessed with singer Marta Romano as he sits in his cave, wearing a jeweled robe, playing an organ and being generally awesome. He takes this beautiful girl and hides her away from the rest of the world to watch him fight and kill a series of other wrestlers until Blue Demon decides that he’s going to save the wrestling business.

The joy of lucha libre movies is that astounding things can just happen. Men can be disfigured and take over caves filled with henchman who listen as they regale them with dibble dabble keyboard musings and the rantings of a madman. Beautiful singers can be kidnapped and scream at every rat they ever see. And Blue Demon can show up and solve everything with wonderful violence.

There are also four musical numbers, which feels just about the right amount.

You can watch this on the amazing White Slaves of Chinatown channel on YouTube.

If you have an issue with seeing brains outside of skulls, perhaps this is a movie to avoid, as it seems like the main story thrust of this is to show brains as often as possible, but there’s also plenty of neon-hued labs, swinging go-go dance numbers, Blue Demon wrestling matches, future science that never really came true and Noé Murayama, the son of a Japanese dentist, as a mad scientist with female zombies in his employ.

Director Chano Urueta also made one of the most deranged movies I’ve ever delighted to see more than twenty times, El Baron del Terror. He worked on several of Blue Demon’s movies and the Los Leones del Ring series, which had Jorge Rivero as twin luchadors. He started making movies as far back as 1928 and his career lasted the whole way up until 1974. Ureta also acted in several movies and shows up in Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia.

The best thing about a 1968 lucha movie is that it combines so many things that you love into one big combo. To wit: Eurospy movies, evil — and good — women in miniskirts and high boots (and occasionally berets), Adam West Batman-inspired sets, a caveman wrestling and so much more.

For some reason, it was decided that Blue Demon should have some superpowers in this film, so he learns how to teleport. He also can run through walls which is a great power to have.

I love the solo Blue Demon movies because I’d rather see him as a hero with agency instead of the foil or second banana to Santo. He just seems to try harder than the competition.

Back in Drive-In Asylum #8, I wrote about “John Carradine vs. Mil Mascaras” and this movie is the film where it happens.

Carradine had sold everything he owned to start a traveling Shakespeare actor’s company and when it folded, he was penniless, which led to the kind of roles that we love him in. In fact, the actor would get to go wild in these parts unlike any straight films he’d made. He’d make several movies in Mexico such as Diabolical Pact, Enigma de Muerte, Autopsy of a Ghost and La Señora Muerte, but this time, he’s a vampire!

A Transylvania Airlines plane has crashed in Mexico. bringing Aura to the country — all of the male vampires are dead — and into competition for leadership of the vampire women with Dracula’s widow Countess Véria. They’re also biting luchadors and using them as henchmen, which puts Mil on their trail.

Meanwhile, the women have Count Branos (Carradine). Once he was such a powerful vampire that he was the man who taught Dracula. Yet now, after a vampire hunter put a stake through his brain instead of his heart, he’s become a moronic and sad man, crying in a cage and dreaming of the days when he ruled the world of the undead.

Yet its a ruse, as Véria sacrifices her own life to make him powerful again and man, Carradine goes absolutely wild in the role as an unbound master vampire. Sure, it’s all the way at the end of the movie, but man, it’s great.

Also: a car runs Mil off the road and it’s driven by bats. By bats!

Even better, this movie starts off as all Carradine movies should, with him speaking directly to the camera. All movies should start this way.

You can watch this on YouTube.

The first of five collaborations between Don Siegel and Clint Eastwood — which also include Two Mules for Sister Sara, The Beguiled, Dirty Harry and Escape from Alcatraz — this movie tells the story of Arizona deputy sheriff Walt Coogan (Eastwood), who travels to New York City to extradite escaped killer James Ringerman (Don Stroud). However, when he tries to get him out as soon as possible, the maniac escapes, which draws the ire of Detective Lieutenant McElroy (Lee J. Cobb).

While a controversial film due to its violence — there’s plenty of blood and Eastwood continually gets the worst of fights that he’s outnumbered in — this movie became the prototype for the action movies that Eastwood would star in for years. It also inspired the Dennis Weaver series McCloud, which was created by this film’s screenwriter Herman Miller.

This Kino Lorber blu ray release has some incredible extras, like a commentary track by filmmaker Alex Cox and another by Sledge Hammer! creator Alan Spencer. Plus, there are trailers, a radio ad and a poster gallery.

Translate this title as Hellish Spiders and you know what Blue Demon is up against and man, is there any better genre in the world than Mexican lucha libre movies? Get this. Blue Demon is up against the entire planet of Arácnea which is trying to cultivate human brains as food for their demanding queen. How magical!

This movie has an astounding wrestling match where Blue Demon’s opponent Arac suddenly has his hand turn into a spider hand that can bite and instantly kill people. Also, after a match, all sweaty, Blue Demon casually explains antimatter to a scientist and I lost what was left of my mind.

This movie needed a UFO scene so of all the movies they could steal a flying saucer from, Federico Curiel lifted the hubcap from Plan 9 from Outer Space. You know what they say: “El talento toma prestado, el genio roba.”

You can watch this on YouTube.

Alejandro Muñoz Moreno was the fifth of twelve children, the son of farmers, who worked on the National Railroad, who met the famous Mexican wrestler Rolando Vera and became his student. He soon put on a mask and became the Blue Demon, teaming with The Black Shadow as Los Hermanos Shadow (The Shadow Brothers).

After El Santo defeated Black Shadow and took his mask, Blue Demon became a tecnico. Even though this devil was now on the side of the angels, he and Santo would feud with Blue Demon coming out on top, even winning the NWA World Welterweight Championship from his rival. Even though would star together in films, there was always a rivalry.

Blue Demon shows up in the background of The Killers of Lucha Libre and Fury in the Ring, but he started acting in his own movies in 1964, as Santo had asked for more cash and producer Enrique Vergara wanted to add a second star. You can catch Blue Demon in twenty-five movies — nine with Santo — and three great movies where he leads Los Campeones Justicieros (The Champions of Justice) — whose members include El Medico Asesino, El Fantasma Blanco, El Avispon Escarlata, Superzan, Mil Máscaras, Tinieblas and Rayo de Jalisco (who Blue Demon defeated in a mascara contra mascara match in 1988, the year he retired).

Alfredo B. Crevenna (Planet of the Female Invaders, Santo vs. the Martian Invasion and 150 more movies) was the man behind the camera for this tale of Blue Demon — securely a part of the Eurospy world after his last movie, Blue Demon Destructor de Espías — battling an android. That android is a man in a silver suit with oven mitts, which makes me love this movie even more than I knew that I was going to. There’s also an astounding mascara contra cabellera match between a gigantic rudo and Blue Demon that ends with the losing maniac flipping out and attacking even the barber there to shave his head.

There’s also a swinging nightclub scene with a band named El Klan, which isn’t a name that any band would have today.

The brightest scientific minds in all of Mexico have gathered at the home of nuclear physicist Dr. César Sepúlveda to learn of an invention that is going to change everything that we know. Out of the shadows steps El Santo.

You may feel like the scientists in this movie who leave the room laughing when you think about Santo changing the world. After all, isn’t he just a wrestler?

No, Santo is everything: a millionaire playboy, a superhero, a spy, an enemy of the occult and, yes, the man who has just invented a time machine.

You read that right. A time machine.

Don’t they know that Santo already invented Facetime decades before it was on your phone?

Well, to test his machine, which only can send you back in time to watch the actions of your relatives or past lives or whatever magical nonsense that this movie chooses to baffle us with, Santo chooses his girlfriend Luisa, who was — of course — hunted by Dracula at som point when she was Luisa Soler. Somehow, Santo and everyone in our time is able to watch the past as if it were a TV show.

Luckily for those in the past, vampire hunter Professor Van Roth has fought off Count Alucard with mistletoe, which until now I had not realized could defeat vampires and was only an aid to sexual harassment. However, Dracula keeps up on trying to convert our heroine — by showing off all of his gold! — and finally does turn her, just in time for Santo to bring her back to our time where she’s struck by the vampire’s curse.

Meanwhile, an evil criminal known as the Black Hood and his gigantic son Atlas have been watching all of this and plan to steal Dracula’s treasure, which really seems like both the best idea for a movie and the worst idea for reality.

Somehow, this all ends up in a battle between Santo and Atlas in the ring for the ring and medallion of the king of the vampires. Even though the man in the silver mask wins, the Black Hood has found Dracula’s grave and plans to pull the stake out of his heart. If you think that Dracula isn’t going to get a harem of evil women and do a Satanic ritual to win Luisa over for good, then you haven’t watched Mexican lucha vs. the occult cinema.

And that’s where the story would end, one assumes, but director René Cardona had a trick up his sleeve.

While the original 1969 release of Santo en el Tesoro de Drácula was shot in black and white, there was another version of the film in color made for European markets called El Vampiro y el Sexo. Instead of just gowns for all of Dracula’s women, they now appear completely and totally nude in several scenes where Dracula paws at them.

There’s an urban legend that there are six different Santo films that feature alternate nude scenes, while another that Santo made a deal with Cardona to keep this film locked up.

For years, the only evidence that this alternate film existed was posters and photos.

Decades after filming, three original copies of El Vampiro y el Sexo were discovered in a vault in the film’s original production facility Cinematographic Calderón. The film was restored by the Guadalajara International Film Festival, which planned to show it to the public as part of a vampire film series curated by Guillermo del Toro.

Sadly the premiere was canceled due to protests from El Hijo del Santo and Santo’s estate, who claimed that showing the film would damage Santo’s reputation. After some debate, the film was shown twice in 2011 with no issue or stain on the memory of El Santo.

You can get the restored version of this film on blu ray from VCI.

The Cardona family has gifted us with some many wonderful films. The senior was a director and actor who made everything from the incredible Santa Claus to ZIndy the Swamp Boy, Survive! and several Santo films while his son made so many movies that I’m obsessed with like Guyana: Cult of the Damned; The Bermuda Triangle; Tintorera…Killer Shark and so many more. There’s also the grandson who made Vacaciones de Terror and Pesadilla Fatal.

Rene Sr. and Jr. worked together on this Santo film, which teams the man in the silver mask with Jorge Rivero — the star of Conquest! —  to protect Mexico from terrorists. It’s a sequel to Operation ’67 and lives up to my theory that Santo can be in any genre of film. Here, he’s in a globe-spanning — Paris, Hong Kong, Mexico and San Francisco — adventure battling the same Asian gangsters — dare we dream that they are Hanoi Xan’s World Crime League — as the first film.

Actually, there’s a lot that you need to see Operation ’67 to get, like why Jorge has that ring that has a map inside it. And that map? It leads to Montezuma’s treasure!

Every Eurospy movie needs a gorgeous female character and this film has Amadee Chabot, who was a former Miss California, Miss USA World and seventh runner-up to Miss Universe. After a role in the Matt Helm film Murderer’s Row, Chabot showed up in several great Mexican movies like Autopsy of a Ghost, Agent 00 Sexy, Danger …! Women in Action, Las Sicodélicas and Champions of the Ring. She’s a real estate agent today and still looks stunning.

Maura Monti also shows up a femme fatale, which is also welcome, as the Italian-born Monto has already warmed our hearts in films like Planet of the Female Invaders, The Batwoman and Santo vs. the Martian Invasion.

When I say, “This movie has an all-star cast,” this is the exact type of line-up that I am referring to.