Waste of time

The greatest movie ever made..!

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

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.

The most straight forward & linear Santo film I've seen. Much like Italian horror films of that period. Enjoyable despite its lack of really quirky elements common to Santo films. The special effects are typically dreadful and funny.If Mario Bava directed a Santo film it might look like thisSlow at times & with an annoying near constant therimin squeal; at least the wrestling matches are connected to the plot.Another annoyance is the amount & quality of "day for night" filter filming. This was, of course, a common failure in many B&W films & TV shows of that period.Time travel technique copied from Roger Corman's THE UNDEAD.Love the beehive hair!Not enough beautiful women, unlike most Santo films