The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

An ancient tomb is discovered deep in the Mexican jungle and a expedition team is assembled. Professors, overseers, chef, porters, camera girl, secretary, and a masked wrestler. You never know when you might need those luche libra skills, and need them bad. Warning outside the crypt: Do not enter lest the curse --- Of course they enter. Then on the Olmec mummy: Do not touch the sacred necklace or --- They remove the necklace. Deaths follow soon and often, as the mummy proves adept with bow and arrow. Plot races by, and the mummy back story has stock footage of an uncredited Aztec movie. Lengthy wrestling matches in Mexico City Arena bookend the film.

Santo and his tag-team partner win two out of three falls and then it's off to the jungle with a party of scientists in search of an ancient tomb. The local villagers, of course, think that Santo and Company are mucho loco en de cabasas, but that never stopped Santo nor any of his scientist friends before... En route to the aforementioned final resting place, Santo tussles with a (very young) black panther, tossing the child around like a bean bag. They finally find the mummified body of "Nonoc, the great Opache prince," and in a flashback that incorporates a couple of nice stock shots from another movie, we learn of his fate (which parallels that of another Mexican horror star, THE AZTEC MUMMY). Before long, the mummy is wreaking havoc on the group. "Fear is a bitch," the stalwart overseer tells Santo- just before he gets killed. The extended tussle between Santo and the mummy is good and there's a bit of a twist ending. Also notable is the fact that the boy is actually Santo's real-life son. Not bad.

'Santo In The Vengeance Of The Mummy' is bookended by sequences of Santo, the silver masked wrestler turned crime fighter, wrestling opponents in front of a large and enthusiastic audience. However the movie is mainly concerned with an expedition led by Santo's friend Professor Romero. Romero wishes to explore the tomb of long dead Indian warrior Nonoc which is hidden deep in the jungle. Despite warnings that there is a curse on anyone who disturbs Nonoc's remains Romero doesn't hesitate in his quest for knowledge. Romero's crew includes his secretary, an eccentric fellow scientist Professor Jiminez (responsible for lots of lousy "comedy"), Sergio an engineer, a female photographer (love interest for Santo) and a local Indian guide and his young grandson Jorgito, who becomes Santo's protege (and is in fact played by Santo's real life son who subsequently took over the long running franchise after his father's death). Romero and Santo become baffled when their colleagues are picked off one by one, seemingly the victims of a resurrected Nonoc. I can't say I enjoyed this as much as 'Santo And Dracula's Treasure' but it was still reasonably entertaining, despite an unconvincing surprise ending. Santo is very cool and macho, and the movie has quite decent production values. Not great, but fun.

Bouyed by interesting pink and green advertising art which shows a close-up f the mummy's distorted face and a color insert of Santo fending off the monster with a blazing torch, this promises to be an exciting lucha title. While mummies had been heavily used in Mexican cinema (and, in fact, Santo faced them in another outing), the ad art on this film suggested a decent budget and an ambitious presentation. The mummy mask/make-up was also worlds above the job done on the Aztec mummy, being both unsettling and actually a bit alarming.While the film is good, it's inexplicably one of the few Santo features which pulls its punch. Considering the wild excesses of the lucha film genre, the twist ending, which does anything but satisfy, makes little or no sense.Santo is enlisted for Professor Romero's (Caesar del Campo) expedition to the lost tomb of Nonoc, an Aztec warrior. As usual, this is a cursed tomb and the dead warrior had been entombed and cursed for loving a maiden designated for the gods' use. This aspect is scarcely new, having already been covered in the Aztec Mummy series and other genre films.The expedition also includes an old native guide (Amada Zumaya)and his grandson, two girls, and hunter Sergio (Eric del Castillo).Arriving at the tomb, they find a scroll which explains that, by entering, they are now officially cursed. Nobody attaches much importance to this announcement, which is a mistake. Shortly thereafter, the party is being stalked and killed off by the avenging mummy -- or so it seems.A decent adventure flick. Worth the watching.