Blue Demon: El Demonio Azul
Entry updated 12 May 2025. Tagged: Film.
Mexican film (1965). Filmica Vergara S.A. Directed by Chano Urueta. Written by Fernando Osés and Rafael García Travesi. Cast includes Jaime Fernández, Cesar Gay, Guillermo Hernandez, Altia Michel, Alejandro Moreno, Mario Orea, Fernando Osés and Rosa María Vázquez. 77 minutes. Black and white.
We see two lovers killed by a Werewolf. The doctor (Gay) conducting the autopsy concludes they were killed by a wolf, but his friend Dr Gruber (Orea) – a scientific investigator – observes some of the wounds are not suggestive of a wolf attack; for instance, bones are broken, as if by a hug. A third man insists history is repeating itself, for 50 years ago villagers were killed by a Mad Scientist who turned into a wolf on the full Moon. Though semi-retired, Dr Gruber looks into the background of the Scientist referred to: named Fernando Salgarol, his research sought to awaken the beast which resides inside man. Discussing his findings with the doctor, the latter insists it is impossible for a man to turn into a beast; but Gruber points out science has achieved much, adding that Salgarol – who had mysteriously disappeared – originally came from Transylvania, a mountainous region similar to this part of Mexico; both areas are home to wolves and mandrake roots, each elements in Salgarol's experiments. The doctor sarcastically suggests he informs the police, but Gruber responds that this is a case not for the police, but for the Blue Demon!
The Blue Demon (Moreno) is a masked wrestler, often caped: a man of mystery with extraordinary strength and courage who has solved impenetrable enigmas. When Gruber confides in him, he wonders if there is a connection with the recent disappearances of several wrestlers. They decide to visit the now abandoned mansion used by Salgarol (which looks like a castle). As they approach they are attacked by a werewolf; the Blue Demon wrestles it to death, and on its reversion to human form he recognizes as one of the missing wrestlers. They enter the mansion and experience several Clichés associated with castles in Horror movies, including an unrecognized murder attempt, then depart.
The mansion houses Professor Lauro Carral (Fernández), who is continuing his grandfather Salgarol's work – and also courting Gruber's daughter Marina (Vázquez). We share his thoughts as he wanders the laboratory: to awaken the beast we carry inside is but the first step; his ultimate ambition is to awake the angel in us all and to create the superior man, a race of Supermen. He reads from Salgarol's 1910 diary (a big tome with its title written in very large letters on the cover) about keeping a beast's brain alive by using electromagnetic currents (see Brain in a Box), then feeding it juice extracted from mandrake roots: a concentrate is then extracted, which when injected into a subject makes them temporarily revert to their animal origins on a full moon (see Biology; Devolution). Salgarol posits that a similar process, using the brain of a genius, will achieve his ultimate goal.
Carrel's two henchmen are wrestlers; one (Osés) is shortly to have a bout against the Blue Demon and is injected with a variant of the formula to make him immensely strong without turning into a werewolf, with instructions to kill our hero during the match. However, not only is the henchman defeated but he becomes a werewolf and is shot by the police. Shortly after, Carral refines his original formula so that it transforms the victim temporarily into a werewolf, regardless of the lunar phase; after testing it on a rabbit (anticlimactic as instead of a were-rabbit we only see it become agitated), and with his remaining henchman Ursus (Hernandez) unwilling to be a human guinea pig, Carral injects himself. It seems to be a success, but later – under the full moon – he transforms into a werewolf, with fatal consequences for the barmaid (Michel) he is having an affair with. Meanwhile, the Blue Demon revisits the mansion and finds the secret entrance to Salgarol's original laboratory: within is a skeleton and the final volume of his diary, where he acknowledges God (see Religion), admits that he has become a danger to humanity and so plans to commit Suicide.
Ursus kidnaps Dr Gruber; his brain, once removed, will be the "genius" ingredient for the creation of the superior man. The Blue Demon returns to the mansion, but is caught unawares and restrained by Ursus, to await Carral's return; the latter arrives still in werewolf form, to Ursus's cost. The Blue Demon escapes his bonds and the ensuing fight ends up in the forest, where the local villagers, armed with flaming torches and accompanied by Marina, are hunting the werewolf. During a pause in fighting, Marina is briefly carried off by the creature before the battle recommences: the werewolf is defeated, then shot by the villagers. As Marina weeps over the corpse The Blue Demon departs.
Blue Demon: El Demonio Azul is modest fun. Like many Mexican genre films of the era it is heavily influenced by the Horror movies produced by Universal and other Hollywood studios in the 1930s and 1940s; but such Luchador (which see) movies were given a Mexican spin by adding a masked wrestler lead – essentially a Superhero who is never seen unmasked – with wrestling scenes throughout. Alejandro Muñoz Moreno (1922-2000), as the Blue Demon (Demonio Azul in Spanish) starred in about 25 Luchador films, second only to El Santo – see Santo the Silver Mask vs The Martian Invasion (1967) – who starred in approximately 50 (these figures include the nine where they co-starred). Moreno began wrestling in 1948, adopting the Blue Demon persona the same year, and retired in 1989. Though he had appeared in two earlier films, Blue Demon: El Demonio Azul was his first starring role; his subsequent films often had genre elements, including Arañas Infernales (1968; vt Hellish Spiders; vt Cerebros diabolicos; vt Blue Demon vs. the Hellish Spiders), where Alien spiders seek human brains for their Queen, and Blue Demon y las Invasoras (1969; vt Blue Demon y las Seductoras), in which alien women abduct Earthmen to save their species. [SP]
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