If you like sci-fi/horror, masked icons, and wrestling, Republic of Lucha is all the reason you need to come to South Pasadena. I found out about the existence of this place firstly through Jorge Gutierrez (Book of Life, El Tigre, & Netflix’s Maya and the Three) mentioning it on his Instagram a few times. Through that, I found their Instagram account and discovered Pénta Zero Miedo (one-half of the Lucha Brothers and owners of the Republic of Lucha). If you’re a horror fan and are not familiar with Penta OM, look him up right now. He recently unveiled a joker-inspired look among his many other amazing looks that I’m in love with.
I was already set on going to visit this amazing store, but my Saturday night has been sealed when I saw they were screening a Lucha horror movie that I can’t wait to talk about in the next couple of paragraphs. About an hour on LA’s metro, and I was basically transported to this amazing place. I was a little early and got to behold the killer collection of Lucha loot for sale before they let us take our seats.
When it was time, we were brought up to the roof where Lucha matches were being played on a white brick wall till it was showtime. I never saw the Lucha Brothers (Pénta Zero Miedo and Rey Fénix) in action before tonight, but Jesus Christ, those matches can get brutal. Here’s all the proof you need.
After the preshow, Rey Fénix showed up. As if he was an apparition that manifested from the footage on the brick wall. He and the Republic of Lucha manager came out to introduce us to the wild movie we were about to watch.
No matter how this movie turned out, it was so worth coming just on the above alone!
If you put a tray of ice, a couple of shots of tequila, and any/all of your favorite Universal monster films in a blender, then your margarita would taste something like Night of the Bloody Apes. The atmosphere the film was shown in was north of a bar and south of an AMC. For a movie this fucking crazy, it’s perfect. A gorilla gets taken by a doctor and his Igor in an effort to transplant hearts with the doctor’s dying son. The doctor is a love child between Orson Welles and Vincent Price (pretty great actor!), and Igor was really a badass.
They must have shown actual heart operations because that shit was gnarly. However, the audience winced harder at the Hammer tier gore scattered throughout the film, which is entertaining in its own right. The result of the heart transplant is that the doctor’s beautiful son becomes a monkey man that abides by an intersection of Frankenstein and King Kong.
The lucha comes in because the love interest of the lead detective is a luchadora that beats the shit out of chicks. She’s dope, and I thought she and the monkey man would have a go in the climax. Everything was so entertaining that I don’t care if the two forces never truly collided!
To sum up everything, I got a proper introduction to Lucha, entertained by a gore/sex-filled monster of a wrestling film, and bought me a plush Rikochet from the animated series that put the ideas of all this in my head as a kid (¡Mucha Lucha!). South Pasadena is now on my radar, and I hope it’s on yours now too…
[REVIEW]: MaXXXine (2024)
[REVIEW] Abigail (2024)
