14. Santo Vs The Martian Invasion (1966)
Have you ever noticed how visitors from outer space always speak the language of the country theyre invading? Not only are the Martians in this entry fluent in Spanish, they even resemble the race theyre attempting to conquer. You can still tell theyre aliens, though the men wear hats without a shirt. The only person capable of stopping them is Mexican wrestler El Santo, The Man In The Silver Mask, who the Martians call the one that dresses strangely (pot, kettle, black, anyone?). He challenges them to a wrestling match, which must be popular on Mars because they accept immediately, then once Santo starts kicking their butts they head back to their spaceship that spoiler alert just happens to have a self-destruct lever in the middle of the room. In a movie with no shortage of did-I-just-see-that moments, the best has to be the sequence where the Martians use their Transformation Chamber to allow them to pass for human, even though all it does is alter their hair and clothes. Furthering their anonymity, they adopt such everyday names as Argos, Kronos and Aphrodite, which is odd because the actors call themselves Wolf Ruvinskis, Natanael Leon Frankenstein and El Nazi.
Ian Watson
Ian Watson is the author of 'Midnight Movie Madness', a 600+ page guide to "bad" movies from 'Reefer Madness' to 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.'
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