Santanico Pandemonium

The name Santanico Pandemonium is the stage name of the character, her real name is Esmeralda . The pseudonym is borrowed from the Mexican film Satánico pandemonium ^[2] . Esmeralda is a stripper, as well as the owner of the Titty Twister nightclub. In the presentation of the impresario of the club: “Queen of Darkness, Goddess of Evil, the most cruel soul destroyer that the earth wore.” Like all vampires from the world “From Dusk Till Dawn”, in her battle form, Santaniko looks like a reptile-like humanoid. On performances, she appears in a swimsuit strewn with brilliant stones. The piquancy of her image was given by the fact that the body of the actress was encircled by a living snake ^[3] . An interesting fact - Salma Hayek has herpetophobia , fear of snakes; on the set of the film, the actress, according to the media, forced herself to dance with a snake through force ^[4] . At the same time, the dance itself is a pure improvisation of the actress.

Robert Rodriguez in his interview said that the image of Santanico and the vampires from the film was inspired by snake-like creatures from Aztec mythology , as well as a blood cult in the Mayan culture. In the Aztec mythology, there was a skull-headed goddess entwined with snakes ^[5] .

• Santaniko, performed by Salma Hayek, is featured on ZZ Top 's She's Just Killing Me video.
• The poster for the film was drawn by Frank Frazetta ^{[6] [7] [8] [9]}

As shown in the third part , she was born in 1894 in Mexico from the connection of the mortal and the vampire queen of Kixla. For a long time, she lived with her cruel father, who hated her, because of her origin. In 1913, she was abducted by local bandit Johnny Madrid, who escaped from his own execution. Soon, Johnny, the kidnapped Esmeralda and Johnny's accomplices take refuge in a tavern, which in fact turns out to be a hornet's nest of vampires, but at the same time Esmeralda’s mother rules there. In the course of the plot, some characters die, and Esmeralda, Ambrose Beers , Johnny, Rhys and Esmeralda's father are taken prisoner. Vampires turn Esmeralda into a similar one, after which she turns her father into a vampire. The latter manages to kill Kixla and help Biers and Johnny get out of the environment and escape. The role of Santanico was performed by the American-Mexican actress Araceli Valdes . The directorial version of the film also has a scene in which Santanico sits on the lap of a biker tired of the road. Looking at him, she opens her mouth and digs into it with a blood-sucking organ, sucking blood. Further, according to the chronology of events, the first part should be considered, in which the vampire already bears the name Santanico Pandemonium and is the main attraction of the Titty Tweested roadside establishment. After her performance in the hall there is a brawl with the local Gecko brothers. Excited by the thirst for blood, Santanico takes the form of a vampire and bites Richie, after which Seth kills her.

An alternate version was played by Asa González in the television series From Dusk Till Dawn , in which the story of Santanico was changed. According to the series, Santanico is an Aztec girl who was cursed by her fellow tribesmen because she rebelled against their bloody rituals . Here she is a positive character.

Santanico Pandemonium performed by Salma Hayek received positive reviews from critics and viewers. In 2012, Empire magazine published a ranking of the sexiest movie heroines, including Santaniko, who took 15th place out of 25 ^{[10] [11]} . In 2011, in the rating of FashionTime's Internet publication Top 10: The Best Heroes of Robert Rodriguez, Santanico took the 3rd place ^[12] . On the eve of Halloween 2009, Pearl & Dean conducted a survey to determine the best movie vampire. Santaniko performed by Salma Hayek took 8th place ^{[13] [14]} .

According to reviews of most articles, the sensual dance performed by Salma Hayek became one of the most memorable scenes of the film "From Dusk Till Dawn" ^{[15] [16]} . In the ranking of Playboy magazine, the 10 best bloodsuckers of all time, Santanico took 5th place ^[17] .

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• Santanico Pandemonium on the Internet Movie Database
• Paul Green. THE MARIACHI AESTHETIC GOES TO HOLLYWOOD // Encyclopedia of Weird Westerns: Supernatural and Science Fiction Elements in Novels, Pulps, Comics, Films, Television and Games. - McFarland, 2009 .-- ISBN 0786458003 .
• Charles Ramírez Berg. THE MARIACHI AESTHETIC GOES TO HOLLYWOOD // Latino Images in Film: Stereotypes, Subversion, and Resistance. - University of Texas Press, 2009. - ISBN 0292783000 .
• ST Joshi FROM DUSK TILL DAWN // Encyclopedia of the Vampire: The Living Dead in Myth, Legend, and Popular Culture. - ABC-CLIO, 2011 .-- ISBN 0313378339 .