Dr. Frankenstein's daughter, Freda Frankenstein (Gina Romand), is following in her father’s footsteps. She has been working on creating a man out of parts of dead people. She has also done experiments to transfer the blood of a gorilla into a human hoping for a stronger human. The result was not what she was looking for. Her experiment, which she calls Truxon (Gerardo Zepeda), turned out to be more beast than human and is getting worse. Over time it has become more and more gorilla-like. Right now she keeps it in line using hypnosis but Freda knows that there will come a time when she has no control over it at all.
In addition to playing God she has also been working on a formula that restores youth. She uses the formula on herself, her associate Dr. Yanco (Roberto Canedo) and her minions. The problem with her serum is that it is temporary. It also seems that the body gets use to the serum and the time between doses gets shorter. Freda has been using the formula for years and now she needs an injection every two weeks and the time between needing another shot is getting less and less. To add to that, the injections are extremely painful and are getting worse.
By accident she has learned that the blood of luchador Santo (Santo) has special properties that allow him to heal faster than normal people when he is injured. She calls it a TR factor. It is his superpower. Freda says that she needs the blood of Santo to refine her formula. Freda knows that Santo has a girlfriend Norma (Anel). She sends her henchmen to kidnap Norma knowing that it will make Santo come running. Santo does come running but Norma’s sister Elsa (Sonia Fuentes) insists on coming too.
In the meantime Freda’s patchwork monster comes to life. She calls him Ursus (Gerardo Zepeda). When Santo gets to the castle of Freda Frankenstein he not only has to deal with her and her minions but Truxon the man-beast and Ursus the patchwork monster while rescuing Norma and keeping Elsa out of Freda’s clutches and, hopefully, making it back to the arena in time to defend his world medium weight championship position against the Japanese wrestler Yamaguchi.
“Santo vs Frankenstein’s Daughter” AKA “Santo vs. la hija de Frankestein” was released in 1972 and was directed by Miguel M. Delgado. It is a Mexican luchador horror film.
And it’s a lot of fun. It’s also kind of gruesome in some spots. One monster actually gets impaled. There are lots of fights and quite a bit of blood. The sets are also quite good. Although the budgets on these films are not huge they have been getting progressively better the more Santo does. By 1972 his films are in color and boast some better sets. The caves beneath the Frankenstein mansion and the cemetery shots are all properly spooky, torch lit and foggy.
Freda, being sadistic as well as insane thinks nothing of denying one of her minions her life extending serum and watching him turn to dust just for questioning one of her orders. In her defense, Freda has a lot of problems and considering everything on her plate I’m not surprised. Her father only had to worry about creating a human from body parts. Freda, on the other hand, was also working on gorillasploitation and creating the fountain of youth as well as creating her monster. It’s no wonder she’s a little cranky and takes it out on her henchmen.
Reportedly, this is the only film in which Santo is unmasked. Of course he is chained up with his back to the camera at the time. I’m not even sure if it was the real Santo unmasked or if it was a body double.