Six lepers escape from a sanatorium near a small western town. The escapees rob some homes and farms for food. The houses that were broken into must be burned to prevent the disease from spreading. The townspeople are up in arms and want the local sheriff (Armando Silvestre) to do something about the situation.
A local big mouth, Camerino (Julio Aldama), tries to stir up the town populous even more. The director of the sanatorium, Dr. Ramos (Carlos Agosti), tries to tell the people that they can only get the disease by actual contact with the lepers, but it does little good. Sheriff Dario calls on the famous crime fighter, Santo (Santo), for help.
The lepers are approached by Camerino and his minions. Camerino uses the sick lepers by offering to feed and shelter them in a cave. Camerino and his men rob and kill the people of the town and blame it on the lepers. Camerino tells the leader of the lepers, Jose (Gregorio Casal), that they will give them half the money they rob so they can get away and start over. In reality Camerino plans on double crossing them as soon as he is done pillaging the locals.
When Santo arrives, he works with Sheriff Dario and his men to find the truth and capture Camerino and his gang.
“Santo vs the Riders of Terror” AKA “Santo contra los jinetes del terror” was released in 1970 and was directed by Rene Cardona. It is a Mexican weird west and luchador movie with some horror elements.
The movie is based in the old west so a modern-day wresting match wouldn’t work for the film. To get around this drawback Santo comes to town and fights a guy in the makeshift ring of a traveling side show and donates the proceeds to the local orphanage. The rest of his time he spends beating up bad guys.
The plot of the film is actually rather good but many of the Santo movies done in the early seventies didn’t have the innocent charm of his earlier films. The cinematography and the production values were much better since the budgets were bigger but for some reason the glossier films lost some of their appeal. In addition, the pacing on this film is a little slow and Santo doesn’t show up until well into the film. It’s an OK movie but not one of my favorites.
Similar to “Santo in the Treasure of Dracula”, “Riders of Terror” also had an X rated version of the film done for the European market. This version was called “The Lepers and Sex”. Supposedly director Cardona did six movies that had alternate sexier versions but I’m not sure if they were all Santo movies. It seems to me “Night of the Bloody Apes” 1969 was one of them, and that one is not a Santo film, but it does have luchadores in it.