Cirio H. Santiago

While the movie world was still mourning the passing of Paul Newman (and rightly so, he was a fine actor and a decent guy) another movie legend of an entirely different sort shuffled off this mortal coil with slightly less attention in the mainstream media. He was, however, still exceptionally successful in his own way and was probably a much larger influence on my movie watching habits than most Hollywood legends I could think of.

Filipino filmmaker Cirio H. Santiago was a purveyor of cheap, shameless, trashy exploitation films of the finest kind. While working with many people (including the legendary Roger Corman) and in many genres, he created a seemingly endless catalogue of cheap films that always put fun ahead of everything else, including credibility and coherence in a lot of cases. However, what he deserves special mention for, in my book at least, is his contribution to the world of post-apocalyptic movies, specifically the MAD MAX 2 rip-offs that filled the shelves of your local video rental stores in the early 80s.

Churning out a number of these films, often shamelessly re-using footage from his other films, he supplied the lucky viewer with a healthy dose of violence, nudity and abandoned quarries dressed up to look like post-nuclear landscapes. Sure, he contributed a lot to the Filipino film industry too, but to me he's just Mr Post-Apocalyptic. Plenty of directors entered this genre in the late 70s and early 80s but I don't think anyone put their mark on it quite as much as Mr Santiago.

I've mentioned this story before, but when I was a youngster with an interest in post-apocalyptic movies (albeit of a more mainstream variety) I found myself in a closing-down video rental shop in Harrogate in the north of England. Despite the fact that there were barely a dozen tapes left in the entire shop, I still bought a couple, including Santiago's WHEELS OF FIRE. Sure, I was clearly too young to be watching it (one of the stills on the back cover was of a helpless blonde with breasts exposed, tied to the bonnet of a souped up car), but it was post-apocalyptic so I had to have it.

My eyes were opened to a world of cinematic pleasure. While I was familiar with the films that were being ripped off, I had no idea that such rip-offs existed, especially not in such numbers. This was the film that turned me on to the cheap MAD MAX 2 rip-off post-apocalyptic movie, a very particular kind of movie (usually made by Filipinos or Italians) that I have since spent my life collecting old VHS tapes of.

It has become an obsession, but one that has brought me no end of exploitation movie joy - and for that, I have to thank Cirio H. Santiago, the Filipino master of post-apocalyptic cinema. May he rest in peace.

Tellingly, several other blogs that I read regularly have also reported on his passing, so click on these links to read about Santiago at Video Watchblog, Johnny LaRue's Crane Shot, Quiet Earth and Post-Apocalypse. And if you're still hungry for more, go and search blogs via Google for the last week or so and marvel at his influence.

At some point in the near future I'll have to dig out my old tapes and do a proper tribute, but in the meantime, the Freakpit salutes Cirio H. Santiago.