The Diabolical Hatchet is a movie you should watch in the dark when you're home alone. While it's not as good as Santo in the Wax Museum, The Diabolical Hatchet is much scarier. The satanic villain in this movie has the ability to pop up anywhere. His lair, where he worships a bat-demon is straight out of a nightmare. The whole movie feels like a bad dream. And the fact that the main character Santo is a crime-fighting wrestler just makes it even more bizarre.It's interesting how Santo's origin (in this movie) is like that of The Phantom. The silver mask is handed down from father to son. It would have been fun to see more movies about Santo's ancestors!If you like scary old black and white horror movies, wrestling/fight scenes or heroes like Batman and The Phantom, watch this.

Santo, the favorite Mexican action hero (besides Mario Almada) gets into a new and more dangerous quest. This time he should face a super evil villain who is not the diabolical ax as suggested but oh well, you hve to watch it to understand!. Santo's origin and purpose is explained although not in a satisfying manner but it should please some die hard fans. Think about "Batman Begins" but in a less fashion way. Santo looks badass and even when walking slowly while investigating inside the castle. He has now more magic tricks. As if his wrestling techniques weren't enough! Sure, you can say all you want about the cheese factor but this time it tried to be less obvious. I mean, the direction, cinematography, and f/x were intended to be stylish and that's always something good.Not the best Santo effort but it's a great addition to his great legacy.

Significant entry in the Santo canon because it manages (through the use of time travel, back to the year 1603) to provide our hero with an origin story. Like The Phantom ("the first costumed super hero") and The Green Hornet (a descendant of none other than The Lone Ranger), El Santo comes from a long line of masked heroes. (As with the origin of The Lone Ranger- as shown in the television episode, ENTER THE LONE RANGER-, Santo1603 never shows his face. He first appears wearing a silver domino mask and later, during a duel, is careful not to present his mug to the camera. Huerta, like other performers before him- Clayton Moore as The Lone Ranger, who rarely appeared in public sans mask, or Harpo Marx, who wouldn't speak in public- understood the value of Image... and so hid his own from view.) The only real problem I had with this one was the time travel angle: I would've preferred a straight period-piece telling of his origin. A quibble, perhaps, but a quibble, nonetheless.

This B&W adventure isn't quite as enjoyably goofy as most of the other Santo titles recently brought to DVD, but true fans of El Enmascarado de Plata will definitely want to check it out. In EL HACHA DIABOLICA ("The Diabolical Axe"), the wrestling superhero not only faces a most unusual villain but has his origin explained as well. Finally, the question "Where did Santo come from?" (at least the luchadore's movie incarnation) is answered. Turns out he's the Mexican version of America's purple-suited crimefighter The Phantom, inheriting the superhero mantle down through the ages. And did you know that Santo's wrestling costume has magical properties? These revelations occur in the shoddiest-looking cave set in film history - it's just badly painted plywood and a little stucco. (Yes, even the caves in EEGAH! and DEATH CURSE OF TARTU were better.) The rubber bats used here make the critters in SCARS OF DRACULA look like CGI.