Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		1.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.0

The Panther Women Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 11, 2021

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of Batwoman / The Panther Women.

Years (decades, actually) before North American wrestling stars like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and John Cena started to forge rather successful film careers for themselves, Mexican cinema was awash in so-called luchador outings, patently gonzo films which featured members of Lucha libre, an aggregation of professional wrestlers who wore masks (and often capes). Lucha libre as a term has matriculated to English in a number of variants, with one of them being the title of the Jack Black feature ostensibly about a luchador star, Nacho Libre, and another being the older animated series ¡Mucha Lucha!. A Mexican actor and wrestler named Rodolfo Guzman Huerta adopted the stage (ring?) name El Santo and appeared in a staggering array of luchador films, including 1968’s Santo in The Treasure of Dracula, evidently due soon on Blu-ray from VCI. VCI has been releasing a number of Mexican films on Blu-ray (the first screeners the label sent wouldn’t play in any of my players for some reason, hence no reviews), and has now combined two kinda sorta luchador (or at the very least luchador adjacent) outings into one totally bizarre double feature.

If references to the pineal gland were the kind of admittedly odd tether between The Batwoman and other recent titles in my review queue (see The Batwoman Blu-ray review for details in this particular instance), it's perceived Satanism that links The Panther Women to another recently reviewed title I handled, The Black Cat (note that the link points to a UK release, though a Region A Blu-ray of this film is available from Shout! in Universal Horror Collection: Volume 1). Adding connective tissue between the two films beyond their demonic subtext is the fact that both feature what appear to be subterranean lairs where human sacrifices are "scheduled", and the fact that there's at least a bit of a "walking dead" aspect to both films, as well.

In the case of The Panther Women, there's no huge showdown between two iconic horror stars, as in The Black Cat, with the film instead detailing a bunch of luchadoras (i.e., female wrestlers) who are either battling nefarious cults or who are actually members of nefarious cults. There's also the traditionally boneheaded police (with at least one cop character providing the ostensible comedy relief) stumbling around trying to solve crimes they're obviously incapable of investigating successfully.

The Panther Women Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Panther Women is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of VCI Entertainment and MVD Visual with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Kind of incredibly, the press sheet accompanying this release touts a "4K restoration" without providing information on whatever source element was utilized. Both of the films in this set seem to have rejiggered credits sequences done by VCI, I'm assuming so that things would be in English. This is another pretty wonky looking presentation from VCI, so much so that I'm kind of at a loss for words to describe some of what is on display. If you look at screenshots 5 through 10, you will note what I can only describe as an almost liquified overlay that can either be black or gray and which tends to afflict the darkest parts of the frame (screenshot 9 has a slightly different set of problems, as you will see). It's almost like a combo platter of banding and macroblocking, but it is very weird looking and it recurs throughout this presentation. When there aren't anomalies like that popping up, this offers generally decent looking contrast and detail levels, especially since the film features so many close-ups. This does have the same processed look that VCI's Blu-ray releases often do, with what looks like some pretty aggressive filtering.

The Panther Women Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Panther Women features an LPCM 2.0 mono track in English which, if I'm understanding some of the credits added to this release, was done for this version. The voice work is generally well done, and there was evidently some care taken to at least try to match some of the mouth movements with the English dialogue. Optional English subtitles are available (actual voiceover on the track "translates" Spanish text at various times).

The Panther Women Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Both films included with this release are offered on one BD-50, with a brief assortment of (newly done?) trailers included as supplements.

• The Panther Women (720p; 1:55)


• Santo and Dracula's Treasure (1080p; 1:58)


• Santo vs. Frankenstein's Daughter (1080i; 1:58)

The Panther Women Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Panther Women will be good campy fun for potential viewers in the right (altered?) frame of mind, but this presentation offers some pretty iffy looking video at times. Audio is fine, for those considering a purchase.