Re:Vision: Lepers & Sex AKA Santo vs The Riders of Terror
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About
This screening will open with Len Lye’s animated short film THE BIRTH OF THE ROBOT. The film was restored by San Francisco Film Preserve and scanned utilizing Scan2Screen’s multispectral scanning technology. The original elements are preserved at the British Film Institute. This restoration was undertaken in close collaboration with the Len Lye Foundation and Ngā Taonga National Archive.
Mexico’s legendary Calderon film empire’s most famous and longest-running series was that of El Santo, the silver-masked wrestling hero (Rodolfo Guzman), who starred in some 50-odd productions from 1959 to the mid-1980s. But one of the most gonzo – and seldom seen – entries in the series is Los Leprosos y el Sexo with our hero battling a murderous mob of escaped lepers in a small town, resulting in a Western-cum-horror-cum-action picture, but with a twist.
Calderon cranked out a handful of alternate “international” (read: sexy) versions of their popular films, generally an excuse for nude inserts to be shown in more permissive film markets, much to the chagrin of Guzman himself (who, along with his wrestling son, often denied they even existed). Los Leprosos y el Sexo became the stuff of legend, as it was rumored to exist but entirely unavailable and, indeed, was evidently never actually released in that form – until the keeper of the Calderon flame, Viviana Garcia-Besné, discovered the original negative for the surprisingly explicit insert sequences in the mid-2010s. The original “sexy” version was finally reconstructed by Cinema Preservation Alliance and Permanencia Voluntaria in 2022, and screens theatrically in San Francisco for the very first time. – Peter Conheim
Reconstructed and restored by Cinema Preservation Alliance and Permanencia Voluntaria in 2022. Courtesy of Permanencia Voluntaria.
Lepers & Sex AKA Santo vs The Riders of Terror will screen with the following short:
PTERYPHLEGIA (Louis Smits, Netherlands, 1986) 7m, DCP
Sci-fi flourishes in Louis Smits’ stunning Pteryphlegia (1986), a minimalist epic of primordial collisions wherein alien lifeforms molt and take flight, facing off with a cyborgian harvester on an unfamiliar planet. The animation is soundtracked and inspired by the symphonic rock group Yes. — Elise Schierbeek
DCP provided by The Dutch Institute for Sound and Vision.
Runtime
1h 38m
Year
1970
Director
René Cardona
Format
DCP
Country
Mexico
Language
Spanish with English subtitles
First Showing
September 26, 2026
Categories
RE:VISION — FESTIVAL OF RESTORATION AND REDISCOVERY
,
Featured
Mexico’s legendary Calderon film empire’s most famous and longest-running series was that of El Santo, the silver-masked wrestling hero (Rodolfo Guzman), who starred in some 50-odd productions from 1959 to the mid-1980s. But one of the most gonzo – and seldom seen – entries in the series is Los Leprosos y el Sexo with our hero battling a murderous mob of escaped lepers in a small town, resulting in a Western-cum-horror-cum-action picture, but with a twist.
Calderon cranked out a handful of alternate “international” (read: sexy) versions of their popular films, generally an excuse for nude inserts to be shown in more permissive film markets, much to the chagrin of Guzman himself (who, along with his wrestling son, often denied they even existed). Los Leprosos y el Sexo became the stuff of legend, as it was rumored to exist but entirely unavailable and, indeed, was evidently never actually released in that form – until the keeper of the Calderon flame, Viviana Garcia-Besné, discovered the original negative for the surprisingly explicit insert sequences in the mid-2010s. The original “sexy” version was finally reconstructed by Cinema Preservation Alliance and Permanencia Voluntaria in 2022, and screens theatrically in San Francisco for the very first time. – Peter Conheim
Reconstructed and restored by Cinema Preservation Alliance and Permanencia Voluntaria in 2022. Courtesy of Permanencia Voluntaria.
Lepers & Sex AKA Santo vs The Riders of Terror will screen with the following short:
PTERYPHLEGIA (Louis Smits, Netherlands, 1986) 7m, DCP
Sci-fi flourishes in Louis Smits’ stunning Pteryphlegia (1986), a minimalist epic of primordial collisions wherein alien lifeforms molt and take flight, facing off with a cyborgian harvester on an unfamiliar planet. The animation is soundtracked and inspired by the symphonic rock group Yes. — Elise Schierbeek
DCP provided by The Dutch Institute for Sound and Vision.
Runtime
1h 38m
Year
1970
Director
René Cardona
Format
DCP
Country
Mexico
Language
Spanish with English subtitles
First Showing
September 26, 2026
Categories
RE:VISION — FESTIVAL OF RESTORATION AND REDISCOVERY
,
Featured
