HELLISH SPIDERS (1968)

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological*

Despite opening with a snazzy outer-space prologue trying to build up the awesomeness of the film's alien menace-- "brain spiders" from the planet Arachnea-- HELLISH SPIDERS proves to be a dull slog, thanks in part to director Federico Curiel just phoning the work in.

Inevitably the aliens come to Earth, and specifically to Mexico, looking for new brains to suck, and to do so, the spider-people transform into human-looking beings. The Blue Demon, who's the only heroic wrestler in this neck of the Mexican woods, learns of the ETs evil plans and engages with them in some tepid fight scenes. The hell-spiders are led by a rather dull queen (Martha Elena Cervantes) and one of her minions is played by familiar luchador-face Fernando Oses.

Only two scenes escape the general dullness. When Blue Demon and his companion observe a man burst into fiery nothingness, the wrestler gives a very learned lecture on how spontaneous combustion occurs due to neutrino breakdown. Later, when a hell-spider infiltrates the wrestling ring to kill El Demonio Azul, he makes a partial transformation-- that of his hand, which turns into a black spider capable of biting people. Maybe having a hotter spider queen would have sparked a little more enthusiasm in the filmmakers.