The Night of the Werewolf – review

Director: Paul Naschy

Release date: 1981

Contains spoilers

This is, on DVD, another Deimos Entertainment film and, as always, they have done us proud. The print of this is superb, it is dubbed and subtitled, plus has lots of extras. Deimos certainly know how to pull a nice DVD package together. As for the actual film…

Well it is a well produced Naschy werewolf vs. vampire flick with some nice effects, comparatively. It’s just, well we’ve seen it before as the film pulls heavily from other sources. Our werewolf, Waldermar Daninsky (Paul Naschy), owes much in temperament to Larry Talbot. There are scenes reminiscent of Hammer and even Black Sunday moments.

None of this is too bad – it is more referential than anything. The biggest problem is that the plot, with a few character twists, is essentially the earlier Naschy vehicle Werewolf Shadow and, whilst the effects are certainly more professional in this, Naschy as director cannot draw the same thick atmosphere as León Klimovsky did in his film.

The film begins in Hungary in the 16th Century and the trial of Erzsébet Báthory (Julie Saly). Convicted of witchcraft, vampirism and dealings with the devil, Báthory is to be buried alive. She curses at the officials, saying she will return. Her cohorts are to die in a variety of ways – we are more concerned with the cursed nobleman Daninsky who bears the mark of the pentagon (note pentagon, not pentagram). He will be forced to wear the mask of dishonour and then pierced through the heart with a silver dagger.

Modern day and Karen (Azucena Hernández) and Barbara (Pilar Alcón) are by the pool discussing their upcoming holiday to Transylvania with a couple of lads. They mention how their friend Erika (Silvia Aguilar) has contacted the spirit of Báthory. As for Erika, she is round at her professor’s home, played by Narciso Ibáñez Menta, and asks to take the medallion of Astaroth – said to be able to bring Báthory back. When he refuses she admits she is a student of the dark arts and strangles him. Meanwhile a couple of grave robbers have stumbled over Waldermar’s grave and remove the dagger from his corpse to be immediately killed.

The girls get to an inn and are trading to get a car. The man tries to dissuade them from their route but the conversation is overheard by three bandits who intend to rob and rape the girls. The girls drive through the countryside but a tree (actually more a large branch) falls before them in the road. When they stop the bandits come. Erika tries to grab a gun but it is knocked from her hand. We see a crossbow in the woods and the three bandits are taken care of. The girls, after Erika slaps some calm into Barbara, drive on.

They reach the ruins and explore. Karen comes face to face with a woman with horrific burns, Mircaya (Beatriz Elorrieta), and runs from the ruins. Outside she sees Waldermar and falls into a pit, sinking into unconsciousness. Meanwhile Erika and Barbara find Báthory’s tomb.

The film then cuts to a dinner party with Waldermar – using an assumed name – and we wonder how the girls met him. We piece this together but it is not good exposition and seems quite a jar in the plot’s flow. However we discover that Karen is being cared for, Erika keeps her find from Waldermar and Mircaya is Waldermar’s servant. How he found a liveable castle is beyond me. Erika has realised who he really is and knows he can truly die by being stabbed through the heart by the dagger on the night of the full moon by the hand of one who loves him. We cut to some werewolf action.

Mircaya has foreseen that Karen is the one who can kill Waldermar (something he truly desires) and the couple begin to fall for each other. Meanwhile Erika waits for the right time to raise Báthory and Barbara seems oblivious. One night Karen hears noises and we cut to a rather too protracted change scene, with Naschy chewing up the acted agonies of transformation. Karen comes face to face with her new love changing and is saved by Mircaya holding the werewolf off by means of the silver cross. He leaps through a window and when he returns, after some mayhem as a wolf and transforming back into a man, they embrace.

Meanwhile Erika raises Báthory. The scene is fantastic and worth the entry fee to the film. Firstly she hypnotises Barbara with the medallion and then strings her up above the tomb. She gets a dagger and slits her friend’s throat, allowing the blood to pour onto the tomb top. This is, of course, reminiscent of the raising of Dracula in Dracula, Prince of Darkness.

Smoke pours from the tomb, then the lid levitates off and Báthory sits up. She immediately puts her fangs into Erika in a well shot bite sequence. Of course this is what Erika wanted but, unfortunately, the effect of vampirising Erika means that in the remainder of the film she is sidelined from an interesting villain to just another vampire woman as Báthory takes centre stage.

Báthory then turns her attention to a nearby grave. With a flick of her hand her brother, Otvos, explodes from the earth as some sort of zombie, mummified corpse creature. Báthory wants the werewolf back under her control (she wants his power but also, we suspect, she fears the creature that can kill her) and sends Erika to seduce him. Meanwhile Karen and Waldermar search for the vampires. The game of cat and mouse is on…

Lore wise things seem standard, with a couple of changes for the story’s sake. Certainly the vampires have no reflection and have eye mojo at their disposal. Báthory also seems to have some form of telekinesis. They fear sunlight, though these vampires are not stupid enough to get caught in the sun, and someone killed becomes a vampire, whilst just bitten becomes their thrall.

The cross (standard) burns and the burn mark remains. The special silver cross, however, is able to ward both vampires and the werewolf. A stab from its pointy end will kill a vampire stone dead and through the heart of the werewolf (in the circumstances described) will kill him. In some respects they merged a lot of vampire lore into the werewolf lore here and Naschy acknowledges that when his character dreams of being staked (by wooden stake) by Báthory.

I’m not sure exactly what Otvos was meant to be (we’ll stick with zombie) but the cross will kill him too. In fact he was a fairly pointless character who attacks once and is quickly despatched. The film does jump a little, relying a little too much on the viewer’s expectations of such films. That is almost understandable as the film is so referential but annoying nonetheless (bear in mind that the Deimos DVD is the most complete and uncut release of the film).

Everything looks good but, as I said at the head, we’ve been there before. However, this is an above average night’s entertainment. 6 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.