Movies
How Lucha Libre Birthed Mexico’s Wildest Horror Films
Though schlocky B-horror is often associated with American films of men in cheap rubber monster suits and small casts running around in the desert, past our southern border Mexican pop culture has a strong, storied history of B-horror surrounding luchadores, masked wrestlers. Movies where the kings of the ring beat down on anything demonic or alien that crosses their path. But those films themselves have a wild origin, stemming from a post-war hunt for identity and censorship on the basis of sex. Truly, the luchador films that became the bulk of mexploitation cinema as we know it today didn’t come from a strong desire to uplift lucha but from attempts to suppress it. To understand lucha libre and how it became popular enough to be banned from television, we have to get back to the first half of the 20th century, with the end of the Mexican Revolution.
Today’s story is one of domino effects. Of how cultural moments and political decisions can send out ripples that no one can see coming, to the most unlikely of places sometimes. It’s about the unpredictable and ephemeral nature of life, on and off film. And about how cool it is to see a guy in a silver mask elbow-drop a werewolf. This is the story of how Lucha Libre birthed some of Mexico’s wildest horror films.
Though schlocky B-horror is often associated with American films of men in cheap rubber monster suits and small casts running around in the desert, past our southern border Mexican pop culture has a strong, storied history of B-horror surrounding luchadores, masked wrestlers. Movies where the kings of the ring beat down on anything demonic or alien that crosses their path. But those films themselves have a wild origin, stemming from a post-war hunt for identity and censorship on the basis of sex.
Truly, the luchador films that became the bulk of mexploitation cinema as we know it today didn’t come from a strong desire to uplift lucha but from attempts to suppress it. To understand lucha libre and how it became popular enough to be banned from television, we have to get back to the first half of the 20th century, with the end of the Mexican Revolution.
Mexicanidad and the Rise of Masked Wrestlers
To those unfamiliar with the particulars of the Mexican Revolution, it stands as one of the most violent times of political upheaval in human history. After the deposition of decades-long oligarchical dictator Porfirio Diaz and his regime, multiple parties began to fight for control of the country as its residents sought economic relief, agrarian reform, and the cession of land back to indigenous populations.
The Revolution saw a revolving door of commandants, a cadre of different political groups fighting for a variety of different reasons, and the loss of (by the most conservative estimates) over a million lives in a civil war never before seen in Mexico. Needless to say, the Mexican national identity had been wounded severely by the conflict as doubt and fear filled the populace, and political figures like Lázaro Cárdenas, who found themselves in power following the Revolution, began to try and restore that identity.
From this turning point comes the concept of Mexicanidad, a push for Mexican pride and a reaffirming of the image of the Mexican people that was driven by the tastemakers of Mexican society in politics and media. And for Mexican men, and specifically Mexican working-class men, that evolved into an emphasis on masculinity, virility, athleticism, and what would eventually evolve into our modern conceptions of machismo.
The Television Ban That Birthed Lucha Libre Horror Films
And so came the revitalization of lucha libre, for many reasons. Wrestling as a sport had and still has a fairly low barrier to entry, making it the perfect cheap entertainment for the working class. It had previously captured the hearts of Mexican citizens as far back as the late 1800s when wrestling made its way to the country. It involved masculine displays of strength and agility, which was perfect for the Mexicanidad crowd to endorse. The sport also had a rotating cast of colorful characters, usually the same guys you saw last week but fighting with different masks on, which was the perfect draw for young audiences who soon began to see their favorite luchadors at the comic stands and in wider media.
The craze of professional wrestling spread like wildfire, and more importantly, it spread to a female audience. As female athletes became a point of cultural interest, luchadoras became a very popular element of lucha libre despite being in the minority of performers. There began a melding between the rigid roles of masculine and feminine energy, undesired by many of the political and cultural elites of mid-century Mexico.
The cultural thermometer rapidly cooled due to lucha, and in 1954, federal authorities imposed a 30-year-long ban on lucha libre on Mexican television to prevent the waters from being muddied by such “dangerous” concepts. Soon, lucha had gone from a sport beloved by all people to a brutish, lowbrow event. Which, couldn’t be further from the truth, but cultural hegemony is a hell of a drug!
CDMX’s airwaves had become a no-fly zone for masked wrestlers, and a lost media massacre ensued that caused little to no recordings of those classic matches from the 40s and 50s being kept in circulation. Whole careers had evaporated from record overnight.
But…that didn’t stop luchadors from going to the movies.
Gothic Horror Revival in Mexican Cinema
The film wasn’t just a smash hit at the box office, it was a superkick to the mouth of Mexican cinema that ended up causing a true gothic horror revival. The film’s producer and star, Abel Salazar, found enough success with the film that the Mexican market was soon saturated with gothic horror of his own design, as Hammer Horror took over the British film market.
EL SANTO, BLUE DEMON, AND THE RISE OF LUCHA LIBRE IN HORROR
Despite the television ban, you couldn’t make Mexico forget its masked heroes so easily. The two most significant of which were El Santo y Demonio Azul (more commonly referred to as Blue Demon). Well, technically both of them began as rudos (heels, or bad guys) and later became tecnicos (faces, or heroes). The point is, Santo and Blue Demon’s rivalry was a legendary one, with their masks becoming a piece of indelible Mexican iconography and recollections of their matches being burned into people’s brains.
El Santo was convinced by fellow wrestler, Fernando Osés, to join him on the set of a film he was shooting, as the recent TV ban opened up opportunities in film for wrestlers. Santo was initially signed to star in one of the first lucha films called El Enmascarado De Plata (The Man in the Silver Mask), but backed out last minute because of fears the film would fail and damage his reputation.
Santo’s actual debut pulled him into the world of monster movies that had begun to thrive in Mexico, with his first film being Santo Contra El Cerebro Del Mal (Santo vs. The Brain of Evil) in 1961. From there he went on to do Santo Contra Los Zombies (Santo vs. The Zombies), and by the time he had shot Santo vs. The Men from Hell and Santo in The Hotel of the Dead, he had been locked in as a b-horror icon.
He was of course reunited with Blue Demon throughout his career, and the two often teamed up like superheroes to fight a wide variety of fiends. Ranging from alien spiders to vampire women to Mesoamerican mummies on a rampage, there was nothing they weren’t willing to powerbomb into oblivion. Blue Demon starred in 25 films over his lifetime– Santo starred in more than 50. The two were prolific actors and artists, and despite the often irreverent nature of the films they made and the questionable quality of many of them, the two were horror icons that most of the world is simply unaware of.
Many of their films were not distributed widely, let alone localized to English-speaking territories; only a total of 4 Santo films ever got English language versions. But even if those dubs never came, we can stand and salute the wild history of b-horror that these luchador legends have given us.
Top Lucha Libre Horror Films to Watch Today
Arañas Infernales (Hellish Spiders) is a really fun piece of schlocky, monochrome, nuclear bug horror from the late 60s; the little evil alien spider puppets in this film are so doofy looking, I want ten of them. It’s pure ham and cheese as far as content goes, but it’s impossible to say it isn’t fun.
Santo y Blue Demon Contra Los Monstruos (Santo & Blue Demon vs. The Monster Men) is some oh-so-glorious technicolor nonsense that brings us a six-man grudge match between the heroes, a mummy, a werewolf, a vampire, and a Frankenstein. I don’t even have to say anything else, you know it’s too hype of a concept to turn down.
Santo Contra Las Mujeres Vampiro (Santo vs. The Vampire Women) has some genuinely unparalleled ambiance and set design, with this black and white gothic horror mixing a modernized Mexican aesthetic with the pseudo-Victorian mansion where the finale takes place. Santo dives into a nest of female vampires in white dresses to rescue a damsel in distress, and hilarity ensues. It is probably the most technically competent of all of these when it comes to its directing.
The Mummies of Guanajuato was ultimately one of if not the biggest moneymakers, as it brought the three most famous luchadores together: Santo, Blue Demon y Mil Máscaras united to put the squeeze on some mummies killing Mexican citizens. Those monsters by the way, actually look great thanks to their makeup! All the ring exhibition stuff of them wrestling in the film is impressive as well. This one is my true favorite. If I could only watch one, it would be this.
And that’s all! Well, I’m off to go watch Santo vs The Zombies again, stay chill Horror Press rea–
What’s this?
ITS EDITOR JAMES-MICHAEL WITH THE STEEL CHAIR?
HES COMING IN BECAUSE OF MY HELLBOY ARTICLE BEING TOO LONG?!
LORD HAVE MERCY!
***
Major thanks to Marjolein Van Bavel, a professor of Modern Cultural History at Radboud University, whose writing formed most of the research on the historical part of this article. She discusses luchadoras in much more detail in her article “Morbo, lucha libre, and Television: The Ban of Women Wrestlers from Mexico City in the 1950s”, which I highly recommend you check out. Her writing was one of the major resources used for this article, and as such, deserves a shoutout.
And another shoutout to Brian Schuck of Films From Beyond, who pointed me towards Doyle Green and his book Mexploitation Cinema, which is a huge resource on lucha libre in horror. Both of them are incredible, please show them some love!
And as always, good luck, and happy watching horror fans!
The Coffee Table hit the U.S. streets in 2024 and imprinted itself on the brains of Horror fans (I am Horror fans). If you have not seen it, I can guarantee it’s like nothing you’ve seen before. The film follows a couple, Jesus and Maria, who have just become parents, and decide to buy a new coffee table. This decision has unexpected consequences. I highly recommend checking out this movie; you will be changed. You can catch it streaming (at the time of this article) on Tubi, AMC+, Shudder, and VOD. When I watched it for the first time, I rented it, and it was worth every penny.
I contacted Casas’ team and sent over a few questions about his inspiration for The Coffee Table and a memory with his dad. Please note that the responses have been translated from Spanish to English.
An Interview with Director Caye Casas
Jazzmin Crawley: What was your inspiration for The Coffee Table?
Caye Casas: I hadn’t filmed anything in five years, and I hadn’t come up with any projects. I thought I’d never be able to make another film. But I wanted to try to make one last film, one that would be powerful and that anyone who saw it would never forget.
I had the script for The Coffee Table in a drawer, written years ago. I knew I could do it on a tight budget, and a friend let me use her apartment for free, so we dove in and shot it in only 10 days. I wanted to tell a great tragedy with touches of dark humor, and based on some real news stories about these types of accidents, so we wrote the film.
We wanted to make a terrifying film, but not a typical horror film. Here, there’s only a dining table and a cruel fate, and a tragedy that can happen to any of us.
What was your favorite part of making this film?
My favorite part was getting back to filming after so much time. It’s something I needed at the core. I always say that having a passion for filmmaking is a curse, since it’s so hard to get the money, and life goes by, and you shoot very little. And if you ask me specifically about this film, my favorite part was shooting the kitchen sequence with Maria’s (Estafanía de los Santos) laughter. It was very funny, and I think it’s a sequence of cruelty and dark humor.
The design of the coffee table is interesting! Was it created for the film, or was it something you found? Is there a story behind this design?
We didn’t have the money to create a table, but we knew we wanted it to be kitsch, ugly, and different. Luckily, an antique dealer friend had this table in his warehouse. We asked him if he’d sell it to us at a good price, and he gifted it to us! We painted it gold, added the “unbreakable” glass, and it became the star of the movie.
Now I have it in my house, but without the glass.
I’m writing this article for Father’s Day. Do you have a memory with your dad you’d like to share?
Honestly, my best memory of my dad is when he used to take me to Camp Nou to watch FC Barcelona play. I’m a huge Barça (short for FC Barcelona) fan, and that’s thanks to my dad. My greatest passions are Barça, movies, and retro toys…in that order!
You have a history of working in the comedy and horror genres. Why do you like this medium?
Dark humor is my brand; it’s what defines me. I like to mix genres and put dark humor into a great tragedy, like life itself. Life isn’t just one genre, it’s many. I always use the example that sometimes you’re at a funeral, and humor comes up. Life can be contradictory, and the same thing happens in my films.
That’s why I’m passionate about mixing those two genres; for me, it’s really fun.
What would be your dream project?
Shooting the next film! I have various scripts written, and I’m looking for financing. There are multiple projects. Aside from that, I’m developing a script for a U.S. film. I hope something comes out of all this! You never stop chipping away at the stone in this business, at least in my case. My dream project is to make films for a living.
If you can talk about this, what’s next for you?
As I’ve told you, I have my own projects, some commissions, but nothing’s confirmed. We’re working on it, looking for money, investors, you know, that tedious phase of looking for money under every rock. But I assure you, the films made will be as talked about, if not more so, than The Coffee Table.
End of Interview
It was great to get an opportunity to ask Casas questions and get insight on this darkly funny project. The Coffee Table will live rent-free in the minds of Horror fans everywhere. We must fund and support independent filmmakers. If Casas could make something like The Coffee Table on such a small budget, imagine what he could do given ample funding.
Independent filmmaking is where some of the most unique ideas live. I hope we are able to see what Casas has in store next. If we want to see new and refreshing films, we have to support the teams behind them.
Movies
This Queer 2015 Slasher Desperately Deserves A Cult Following
Dive into “You’re Killing Me,” a 2015 queer horror slasher that’s equal parts romance, comedy, and bloody thrills. Follow Joe, a budding serial killer, as he navigates love and West Hollywood’s apathetic social scene in this vibrant, satirical coming-out allegory. A must-watch for queer horror fans!
This Pride Month on Horror Press, one of our main missions is to spread the word about queer horror movies that have actually, explicitly queer characters. Throw your queer theory textbook out the window today and put away those notes about the subtext of Fright Night. Today we’re diving deep into an example of one of my favorite movie genres (slasher) that features one of my favorite human genres (queer people). That’s right, we’re here to talk about 2015’s You’re Killing Me, a movie that celebrates the 10th anniversary of its OutFest premiere in July and desperately needs to have developed a proper cult following by the 20th anniversary, if there is any justice in the universe. Or the 15th anniversary. Or hell, the 11th.
The Queer Classic That Is You’re Killing Me
In brief, You’re Killing Me is a romantic comedy about social misfit Joe (Matthew McKelligon) meeting George (Jeffery Self). The pair fall in love and Joe insinuates himself with George’s West Hollywood friend group, including George’s co-star in his online videos, Barnes (Bryan Safi). It’s all very sweet, except for one wrinkle. Joe is a budding serial killer, and every time he talks about coming into his own as a murderer, his new boyfriend – who is too busy thinking about his favorite subject, himself – just assumes that he’s kidding.
Not only is You’re Killing Me a movie jam-packed with queer characters, it tells an entirely unique queer story through the allegory of Joe’s murders. Its true intentions may be hidden behind rivulets of blood, but it’s a coming-out story, too. It’s a rather unique “hero killer” story (to steal a phrase referring to movies that have their killer as the protagonist from Brian Collins, who may – in all fairness – have stolen it from somebody else). While the story does have a strong dash of Dexter to it, it’s got a much more focused coming-out metaphor, about trying to self-actualize and live one’s truth while surrounded by people who aren’t pushing back but rather could not give a shit about anything beyond the surface level of a person or a situation.
A Slasher With Heart
While the movie clearly has a lot of affection for the characters that it is lovingly satirizing, it harshly critiques their inability to connect with Joe properly, and their punishment for not listening to him is an increasingly deadly rampage. Joe mistakes their lack of processing as actual encouragement, and his self-actualization is allowed to spin wildly down a destructive path. However, by making the scenes where Joe commits his murders more lush, colorful, and beautiful than everything else, the movie hints that the character is much more alive than the dead-eyed WeHo-ites who surround him, by dint of actually living his truth.
While I’m not saying the movie justifies murder, per se, it definitely calls out the evil inherent to apathy, and that’s another way that it is much more queer and textured and interesting than the average slasher movie. So why isn’t it a cult classic just yet? You tell me! It just boils the blood. But I’m trying to build said cult here, so allow me to continue my pitch.
The Queer People Behind You’re Killing Me
As much as there is ample queerness to be seen in You’re Killing Me, there is just as much offscreen. Just like the West Hollywood culture the movie heavily satirizes, this group of gay people has a strong tendency to trend white, cis, and male (though longtime ally and LGBTQ+ advocate Mindy Cohn is also floating around the cast!), which, sure, could be a knock against it, but let’s take a quick journey through who we have here!
Director/Co-Writer/Producer Jim Hansen
Jim Hansen (not to be confused with the muppet pioneer of almost the same name) is primarily known for his work in the costume department of various major projects, including being the costume designer for Another Gay Movie and a costumer for Bring It On, Kill Bill Vol 1 & 2, and Wizards of Waverly Place.
He is also the co-creator of The Chloe Videos, which feature Drew Droege (who also appears in You’re Killing Me) in drag as Chloë Sevigny. Currently, You’re Killing Me is his final directorial feature, because the moral arc of the universe does not bend toward justice. However, his career is still ongoing, and more recently he has been the costume supervisor for shows like One Day at a Time, Bunk’d, and Happy’s Place.
Co-Writer/Star/Producer Jeffery Self
Comedian, actor, and writer Jeffery Self is best known to me as Liz’s gay cousin from 30 Rock, but he has a wide range of credits under his belt. Star of Search Party, author of the young adult novel A Very Very Bad Thing, host of the MTV aftershow Scream: After Dark, writer of salacious Fire Island recaps where he details the fact that he used to date one of the stars… this man has done it all. He’s also currently in theaters playing a supporting role in Christopher Landon’s Drop!
Notably, his Self-insert character (so to speak), George, is perhaps the most wicked person in this movie about a serial killer. This speaks to a willingness to make oneself the butt of the joke that is refreshing in screenwriters providing parts for themselves.
Star Matthew McKelligon
McKelligon is a mainstay of YouTube web series turned Logo TV web series turned Netflix series EastSiders, which was created by Kit Williamson and co-starred Constance Wu!
Star Bryan Safi
Actor and general man-about-town Bryan Safi played a major role in You season 3, but he is perhaps best known as the co-host (with Erin Gibson) of the LGBTQ+/women’s news comedy podcast Attitudes! (formerly Throwing Shade).
Supporting Cast
In addition to Drew Droege, of course, You’re Killing Me also features notable queer supporting players including Matthew Wilkas (star of Gayby and thus former onscreen love interest for Adam Driver, as well as being a former real-life love interest for gay Olympian Gus Kenworthy), Jack Plotnick (who has lived the gay dream, starring in both Gods and Monsters and Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and Sam Pancake (gay character actor extraordinaire who you’ve seen everywhere from Friends to Arrested Development to Search Party to Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde).
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