Curse Of The Devil (1973) + Werewolf
Shadow (1970/BCI/Deimos DVD)
Picture:
C/C+ Sound: C/C+ Extras: C-/C Films: C+
It is one
thing to read how many Horror and Werewolf films Paul Naschy did as Waldemar
Daninsky, but it is another to see it. It turns out that the cycle of these films he
did were is successful, that they served as a de facto Spanish equivalent of
Universal and Hammer at their Horror best.
BCI has slowly been issuing these films, including some of the first
Spanish films on Blu-ray, as this link to the Night Of The Werewolf/Vengeance
Of The Zombie:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6555/Night+Of+The+Werewolf/Vengeance
This
time, we get two varied tales where the famed creature in somewhat familiar
situations, but with even more blood, nudity, sex and violence than its U.S.
and U.K. equivalents. Curse Of The Devil (1973) has Daninsky
accidentally killing a gypsy, a group that has been connected to werewolf
mythos forever, but unleashes a witch’s coven that marks him with something
called “Satan’s Teeth” which backfires when he transforms into a killer
werewolf that they have to contend with.
He does not realize he is transforming, so when he “hunts for the
killer” there will be hell to pay
Werewolf Shadow (1970) has Daninsky has him
saving two young women, but they get into trouble while searching for a vampire
queen! Faster than you can say “let’s
for out for a bite” the two legendary monster forces will be at each other’s
throats. The vampirism angle is amusing
and has a few moments you have to see to believe.
Both
remain within the confines of their genre, though they do some things very well
and you can understand the appeal of these films. Serious Horror fans will want to see them at
least once as they hold up as well as their English-language contemporaries and
are more entertaining than most such films Hollywood has produced in recent decades. Sometimes just sticking to the basics works,
making both films worth a good look with fun highlights.
Both films
are presented in anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 framing, but the Devil print is on the faded side, while
Werewolf looks often colorful and
has some nice shots with detail and depth more typical of releases in this
series. They also both have Dolby
Digital 2.0 Mono in English and Castilian with English subtitled. We look forward to a Blu-ray version. As for extras, both have liner notes by Mirek
Lipinski with illustrations from a paper pullout inside the DVD cases,
paperboard sleeves in the case of the copies we received, and original
trailers. Werewolf adds an English-only edit with lesser picture quality as
an extra released as The Werewolf vs.
The Vampire Woman. You may have
caught this cut somewhere if you are an older film fan.
- Nicholas Sheffo
