This was a really fun watch. This combines both a period piece and gothic aesthetic perfectly. Candlelit rooms, tombs, skeletons, cobwebbed bodies, fireplaces, smoke, red colors, silver daggers, and more cool gothic things you can see. This movie has the best werewolf versus vampire fight I've ever seen. I love the werewolf design which is modeled on the classic Wolf Man look. All these weird legends involving medallions, daggers keeping bodies dead, and blood sacrifice. This has everything I'd want in a gothic horror movie. If there is any disappointment it was the lack of gore and more sleazy elements I'd expect from a Naschy movie.
Paul Naschy in werewolf makeup. Looks awesome!
The movie starts in the 15th century where werewolf Waldemar Daninsky (Paul Naschy) is sentenced to death for being a werewolf. Daninsky was doing the bidding of Countess Elizabeth Bathory (Julia Saly) who heads a coven of witches. They are all executed. In a very Black Sunday move Daninsky has a silver dagger placed over his chest and a metal mask molded to his face to prevent him from biting. In the 21st century the film picks up with a jarring scene of some college aged students at a pool. Meanwhile the friend of the two of the women, Erika is doing research with a professor. She says she has been studying black magic and kills the professor to get Elizabeth's medallion.
The three friends, Erika (Silvia Aguilar), Barbara (Pilar Alcon), and Karen (Azucena Hernandez) start traveling to the castle. After going to a bar they are cornered by robbers in the woods who are all killed by a mysterious person with a crossbow. While traveling near the castle Karen sees Daninsky and falls into a hole near a cavern. Daninsky and his maid Mircaya (Beatriz Elorrieta) offer them a place to stay .Mircaya has a scarred face and the makeup is awesome. Soon at the castle Daninsky falls in love with Karen. Mircaya warns him about Erika whom she says has evil in her soul. In a foreshadowing for later Daninsky says she is beautiful and tempting despite her evil.
Throughout the film there are many images I can remember. The vague amount of natural light that seems to go into the caverns and tombs, the candlelit castle at night. There is an awesome establishing shot of Daninsky in a room with Mircaya and you see the candles and just how the big the room is and it is an awesome shot. I really haven't seen many movies at all that get everything right when it comes to gothic and period lighting while making it look good. There are many shots of the vampires in this movie opening doors with white in the background and smoke and that contrasts particularly well when they open Daninsky's room and the red colors in the room become bright and then dark when they close the door.
The battles between witchcraft, vampirism, and lycanthropy is interesting as well. For most of the movie you think the battle between the wolf and head witch and vampire is going to happen but you never really know. Unlike Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man this fight doesn't disappoint. For most of the film Daninsky seems afraid to fight against Bathory and her vampires but really he is afraid of his werewolf form.
Spoiler Section
In the second half of the film Erika sacrifices Barbara by hypnotizing her with the medallion. This awakens Bathory and her servant. Bathory cannot get her full power until the full moon and orders Erika and Barbara to seduce Mircaya. Mircaya is able to fight them off for a minute but not completely. Mircaya then orders them to seduce Daninsky back to their side but Karen uses a silver dagger given to her by Mircaya to kill Barbara and hold off Erika. Meanwhile as the wolf, Daninsky kills two traveling cigarette salespeople, and two others. Eventually Elizabeth sneaks in and bites Karen herself. When Daninsky says he will make crosses to surround her room she knocks him out. Daninsky then realizes that the coven is living inside the castle and finds them in a wine cellar of some kind. He uses a stake to kill Mircaya. Then he throws Erika and impales her on a stake. While Bathory tries to hypnotize him to her side it doesn't work and she sends flying coffins at him and he jumps from the top of a giant vase and grapples with her until he finally bites her. Karen, now seemingly back to normal after Bathory's death is bitten by Daninsky but stabs him and kills him with the dagger and he dies while turning back into himself.
I'm really surprised this movie isn't more well known. I've only heard about this because it has Paul Naschy, not because it happens to be a great vampire, witch, and werewolf movie. I couldn't even find any scenes from this on YouTube and people need to see that final fight because it is legendary. Paul Naschy is the perfect werewolf type. Love his heard. Love how unstoppable he is as a werewolf. The fight moments and when he kills all three of them were all separate fist pump moments for me. The crossbow moment had me pumping my fists as well. The opening looking straight out of a Bava film with some awesome period piece knights in armor type clothing and the castle later on just made this feel like it was in a different world and time. Since witches are usually associated with women this could be an example of masculine versus feminine. The witches and vampires use seduction and trickery to get things done but the werewolf uses brute force. It is interesting that both are more associated differently with each gender. Men are almost always werewolves while women are usually witches and as vampires they rely on seduction rather than strength and power. This movie is an example of that strength, bolstered by Daninsky's true love of Karen can win against the seduction and trickery.
There isn't that much blood during the wolf bites. The bloodiest part would be when Bathory gets a blood bath from one of her sacrifices though you don't see any blood or effects on the victim so far as I remember. Erika gets topless at one point and I literally put in my notes nice boobs, like really nice. Apart from that though the gory and sleazy elements are absent and that is something missing.
Rating: 8.5/10
Trivia: The Music playing during the opening and closing credits is from Stelvio Cipriani's score of Tentacles.
No comments:
Post a Comment