MIL MASCARAS VS. THE AZTEC MUMMY (2009)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological*

At this time this is the only solo feature I've seen for the luchador Mil Mascaras ("Thousand-Masks"), and as it happens, this was one of three movies filmed in English  and directed by two Americans, ostensibly as a tribute to the luchador tradition. This particular wrestler came to the game of superhero films slightly later than Santo and Blue Demon, and his character was swiftly caught up in the teamup trope, as with 1971's CHAMPIONS OF JUSTICE, which is the earliest film I've seen with the thousand-mask hero.

Not having seen the earliest solo films with "Mil" (as the hero's supporting characters call him in MUMMY), I don't know how closely this work hews to the movies of the late sixties. But the script for MUMMY does not make Mil a "man of mystery" to the extent that Santo and Blue Demon are. True, Mil has a heroic wrestler-ancestor, which is probably a trope borrowed from some of the Santo movies. But though Mil is a connoisseur of fine wines and at least an amateur scientist, he's first and foremost a man who wrestles for a living and who becomes a superhero as needed. One of MUMMY's earliest scenes shows Santo at a restaurant with his girlfriend, getting the big kiss-off because the lady doesn't think she can live with his heroic career. Mil has moments of doubt and talks a bit to his ghostly ancestor (or imagines that he does). But when duty calls, Mil steps up to defeat the new menace, joining forces with the necessary authorities-- the police, the U.S. military, and a scientist-buddy named "Professor." (The scientist's pretty daughter Maria ends up being Mil's romantic consolation prize by the film's end, though she's maybe a third the age of the wrestler.)

As the title indicates, the enemy this time is an Aztec Mummy, though he's nothing like the shambling horror from the "Aztec Mummy" series whose first entry came out in 1957. Modern-day cultists use a blood sacrifice to bring back this unnamed corpse back to life, and the Mummy proceeds to use a magical scepter to sap the wills of his pawns, with the long range end of conquering the world. I confess I never quite understood the evildoer's scheme, for he spends a lot of time with some rather low-level crimes-- possibly in line with the film's budget, even though production values look better than those of most Mexican luchador flicks. But the Mummy's makeup looks great, so I believed that eventually he and his cultists could eventually pull of his ambitions. Mil battles the Mummy's forces and eventually is captured by the villain's forces. Mil then escapes thanks to a rescue by a bunch of other wrestlers (some of whom had been in their own film-serials, like Neutron and El Hijo del Santo), and fights the Mummy in a strong climactic battle.

Since the villain is not even marginally similar to the monster from the earlier serial, the Mummy's presence doesn't contribute to this film's qualifications as a crossover. The appearance, however short, of luchadores who had appeared in feature films does ring the crossover bell, though I would imagine that the wrestler billed as "Neutron" was not the guy who portrayed the hero back in the 1960s series.