The Body Snatcher (1957) Ladrón de cadáveres | Merits of Sin | Region-Free (DVD)

Title: The Body Snatcher (1957)

Alternate Title: Ladrón de cadáveres

Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Plot Synopsis:
A wrestler and a detective team up to stop a mad scientist who is kidnapping athletes and replacing their brains with those of animals to make them stronger and live longer.

Cast and Crew:

• Director: Fernando Méndez

• Writers: Fernando Méndez, Alejandro Verbitzky

• Cast:

  • Columba Domínguez as Lucía

  • Crox Alvarado as Capitán Carlos Robles

  • Wolf Ruvinskis as Guillermo Santana / El Vampiro

  • Carlos Riquelme as Don Panchito / The Mad Doctor

  • Arturo Martínez as Felipe Dorantes

IMDb Link: The Body Snatcher (1957) 

Reviews from Letterboxd:

1. @gaijinrando – ★★★½
   “Engrossing pairing of a gloomy, noir-ish look and vibe with an utterly preposterous plot. I was legitimately saddened in the final act when the mad scientist murdered El Vampiro and replaced his brain with that of a gorilla. Not only did Vamp turn into a combination Frankenstein/zombie/were-ape, but he lost all his formidable wrestling skills and could only lurch around the ring like a terrible Undertaker/Kane knockoff. Tragic.”

2. @user123 – ★★★★
   “The Body Snatcher (no, not the Wise/Lewton one, though one of the big bad’s flunkies does have a conveniently Karloff-esque brow) is a great looking (Víctor Herrera’s cinematography is sometimes quite striking, particularly in the night scenes), very pulpy flick about a madman stealing the corpses of luchadores and replacing their brains for… reasons.”

3. @filmfan89 – ★★★
   “A detective and his cowboy friend team up to stop a mad scientist who is stealing the bodies of murdered wrestlers, and bringing them back to life while electronically replacing their minds with those of animals to make them stronger and live longer. Posing as a successful masked wrestler, the cowboy quickly attracts the attention of the scientist and his henchmen as their next experimental subject…”

Meta Description:
A 1957 Mexican horror film where a wrestler and a detective confront a mad scientist conducting grotesque experiments on athletes.