Night of the Howling Beast (1977)

That was an excellent one.

A Masterpiece!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Having just previously watched Paul Naschy's The Werewolf Versus the Vampire Woman and enjoyed the Hell out of that one, I had the same expectation when seeing this other one in which he once again portrays Waldemar Daninsky, the Werewolf. Well, part of me was bored until Waldemar encounters two women in a cave and makes love to them! There's quite a bit of nudity not to mention perhaps a little more gore than I saw in the previous one. To tell the truth, I wasn't as enthralled by this movie as I was with The Werewolf Versus the Vampire Woman. Maybe the increase of those elements I mentioned got to me or maybe having seen mostly werewolf movies for the past two weeks, I may be a little werewolfed out. Or maybe the print was wretched. I will say no way was I completely bored by this movie so that's a plus! So on that note, I say go ahead and watch The Werewolf and the Yeti or the alternate titles of Night of the Howling Beast or La maldicion de la bestia.

In this Spanish horror movie a group of scientists travel to Tibet to try and track down the Yeti. While there one of their team is infected with lycanthropy and periodically turns into a werewolf.This is my first exposure to the Spanish horror icon Paul Naschy, who stars in the lead role here. Seemingly Naschy made many similar films in a long career. On this basis, his back catalogue could do with further investigation. Despite being a low budget affair, The Werewolf and the Yeti throws a lot of ideas at us and certainly tries to entertain. Aside from the two title monsters there are a pair of cannibal vampire cave-girls, a wicked sorceress and a gang of violent bandits. Sadly, while the werewolf has a prominent part to play in proceedings as he goes round killing bad guys, the Yeti only appears at the beginning and the end. The snowy locations and sets are very nice too and add to the overall atmosphere.This film's main claim to fame has to be its inclusion on the Video Nasty list. It was even one of the titles that remained on the DPP's hit-list right until the very end and so has an added notoriety. However, it really is quite difficult to work out why this should be, as despite some gory moments this is hardly a shocking film. The skinning sequence is probably the most obviously infamous but it's not particularly graphic. Rather than being nasty, this is more of a silly and schlocky film. It should interest werewolf film fanatics and should also offer something to those who enjoy the racier Euro variants on the Hammer horrors.

Werewolf vs. Yeti, cannibal vampire women. Maybe something got lost in the translation, but I really saw no sign of a plot. BUT I loved watching this movie! I would have given it a 10, but this movie has just turned me on what looks like thousands of other Spanish horror movies. I'm sure this CAN'T be the best! My quest begins now!!! There's something about the tone of this wacky 70s horror flick that is just missing from today's movies. I bet they had a hell of a lot of fun filming this movie. Today's movies take themselves so SERIOUS. I suppose if you've got millions of dollars riding on film, that demands seriousness. But I miss the days when making and watching movies was fun. Some may consider this a bad movie but there is no denying the fun.

La Maldicion de la Bestia, or either Night of the Howling Beast as it's known in America & the Werewolf and the Yeti more commonly in Europe, starts with the Newman expedition in Kathmandu. The expedition consists of Professor Newman who is an anthropologist and two other men. They hike across the snowy mountains in search of the famed Yeti. Unfortunately the Yeti finds them instead and kills all three men. The credits run. The film then switches to a house somewhere in London, we get a shot of the river Thames, the Houses of Parliment & Big Ben just to prove it. Actually this little bit is really funny because the filmmakers decided to have bagpipes playing on the soundtrack as well! Sylvia (Grace Mills) introduces Waldemar Daninsky (script writer Jacinto Molina as Paul Naschy) to her Father, anthropologist Professor Lacombe. Waldemar & Lacombe discuss the ill-fated Newman expedition. Lacombe says that officially the three men were caught and died in a snow storm. However, Professor Lacombe has some photographs taken & sent to him by Newman appearing to show irrefutable proof that the Yeti actually exists. Lacombe is organising an expedition to carry on Newmans theories and asks Waldemar to join him, Waldemar agrees. Once in Tibet the members of the expedition meet up. They include Waldemar, Professor Lacombe & his daughter Sylvia, Larry Talbot (Gil Vidal), Melody (Veronica Miriel), Ralph, Norman & finally a guide called Tiger. Tiger informs the group that the weather has turned bad and they cannot travel safely, but he knows someone that might be able to show them a way. No one is interested except Waldemar who takes Tiger up on his offer and hires his friend who both set off alone. Everyone else stays behind waiting for news of their return & possible safe passage around the bad weather. Waldemar and his guide get caught in bad weather and are separated, luckily Waldemar finds a cave to shelter in. Unluckily for Waldemar the cave belongs to two evil Vampire, cannibal, ancient god worshipping, nymphomaniac twin sisters. Don't be too hard on yourself Waldemar, it could happen to anyone! After having a threesome with them, the twin sisters attack Waldemar who manages to kill them both but not before he is bitten by one. Waldemar is now infected with the 'curse of the beast', since when did being bitten by a Vampire turn you into a Werewolf? Back at camp with Professor Lacombe and the expedition, after Waldemar fails to return they decide to try and find him. On their way they are attacked by Sekkar Khan's (Luis Induni) bandits and are all but wiped out in a gunfight. Only Sylvia manages to escape into the mountains, the bandits kidnap Professor Lacombe because he is a 'wise man' & Melody because she's a pretty young girl, hey it would be a good enough reason for me! They take Lacombe and Melody to Shekkar's palace where a terrible fate awaits them at the hands of Shekkar and his evil witch Wandesa (Silvia Solar). Sylvia eventually meets up with Waldemar again, together they decide to try and rescue Sylvia's Father which leads to torture, murder, a daring escape & a fight to the death between two bloodthirsty beasts, the Werewolf and the Yeti! This Spanish production was directed by Miguel Iglesias under the pseudonym of M.I. Bonns and is frankly a bit of a mess, it's almost as if your watching various different Spanish Naschy horror films pasted together. The script by star Molina is bizarre to say the least, lots of things happen but none of it really makes any sense. The English dub version has ridiculous dialogue like "two beautiful young girls, flowering & white" or how about "I'll see if I can relax my nerves". A lot of the dialogue sounds unnatural and very forced. There is very little gore or violence, a few bites, one brief cannibalism sequence and the most graphic part of the film when someone has the skin on their back sliced off. La Maldicion de la Bestia also contains a few scenes of nudity and an attempted rape, too. The special make-up effects are generally poor, Molina's Werewolf make-up or transformation isn't going to impress anyone these days. This film also contains probably the worst day-for-night shots I've ever seen. On a technical level the film is generally bland and forgettable, photography, editing, lighting, acting, music and direction although passable could all have been better. On a positive note the scenes in Shekkar's palace and especially his dungeon are very atmospheric and look the part with their flickering flame torches and crumbling stonework walls. And to be fair the film moves along at a good pace and isn't overly boring. Basically it's just not a very good film, no matter how interesting the outlandish premise sounds. Overall very little to recommend unless you a fan of Naschy or Spanish Werewolf films, which most people sensibly aren't.