LAS LUCHADORAS CONTRA EL MÉDICO ASESINO
(DOCTOR OF DOOM)
dir. René Cardona, 1963
Mexico. 80 min.
In English.

FRIDAY, MAY 3 – MIDNIGHT
WEDNESDAY, MAY 8 – 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, MAY 17 – 10 PM
WEDNESDAY, MAY 29 – 10 PM

The luchador (wrestler) films are cornerstones of Mexican cinema, with such stars as El Santo and Blue Demon. But in this female wrestling horror film by veteran B-Movie director René Cardona (SANTA CLAUS, THE BAT WOMAN, SANTO IN THE TREASURE OF DRACULA), a small town is threatened by a mysterious serial killer who might just be part-Ape. The local police department’s attempts to uncover who is behind the crimes reveals a sinister conspiracy led by a mad scientist hellbent on creating the perfect human specimen.

The origins of primatology are deeply tied to studies in eugenics; DOCTOR OF DOOM’s mad scientist and his quest to improve the human race by reconfiguring the primate body evokes this dark chapter in scientific research. Early primatologists were never as blatantly sinister about their experiments as this film’s eponymous scientist, yet DOCTOR OF DOOM’s allegorical dimension is still ripe with examples about how the general populace imagined such scientists. Working in cahoots with the mafia from a series of nondescript industrial locales, Dr. Doom’s modus operandi is indicative of the perception surrounding the secretive ways in which scientists modeled human problems and human order in primatological studies.