THE NIGHT OF THE WEREWOLF
Also Known As
EL RETORNO DEL HOMBRE-LOBO
THE CRAVING
RETURN OF THE WOLFMAN
Directed by Paul Naschy
Spain/1980 – 93 Minutes/Wide
DVD Provided by BCI Eclipse
Article written by Mark Engle

My very first exposure to a Paul Naschy film was during the mid-80’s in a dark theater. At that time, I had no clue that I was seeing a Naschy movie or who Naschy was for that matter. I loved horror movies and a new werewolf movie called THE CRAVING was at my local theater. After my third time seeing the thing in one week, I still wasn’t sure what the plot was all about (the movie was seriously cut), but I did know I had seen something I loved, something special, something Hammer-esque yet more bloody, more risqué and more insane than I had seen the likes of before. Granted, we’ve come a long way from 22 years ago, but one can only imagine what it was like for me to pop this uncut version in and paste in all those continuity gaps from my memory. Well, THE NIGHT OF THE WEREWOLF does have more, but whether or not it makes much more sense, I’m still not quite sure. Despite that, I still love this insane tale continuing the Waldemar Daninsky saga of the torn werewolf who can only be killed by his true love.

This crazy plot goes something like this…Three female students venture off to a Spanish castle that supposedly contains the remains of Countess Bathory and her werewolf slave Waldemar Daninsky. One of the students wishes to resurrect the Countess in order to gain immortality and power, even if it means killing her professor to get the amulet she needs to do so. Once there, they discover Naschy, who is already resurrected by some grave robbers that plucked the silver blade from his chest. Our greedy women proceed to resurrect Bathory via a virgin blood sacrifice (a great scene I might add). Naschy and one of the girls fall in love, naturally, or this wouldn’t be a Daninsky tale. Now it’s up to Naschy as the werewolf to destroy Bathory and her new horde of female lesbian vampires before becoming enslaved by the powerful bloodsucker. Will he be able to escape her control? Will he be able to end his curse and save his girl? Being a Naschy fan, we’ve seen much of this in his earlier works, particularly WEREWOLF VS. VAMPIRE WOMAN with touches of CURSE OF THE DEVIL and NIGHT OF THE WALPURGIS. Only this time out, we’ve hit the 1980’s, which allowed a bigger budget, more exploitation and more Naschy insanity, making this a kitchen sink werewolf/vampire movie with everything we all grew up to love in a mix of Spanish flavored gothic horror and zaniness.

I’ll admit, Naschy’s outings are of a distinctive taste. Some fans find them campy, some don’t care for his output at all. Others, like myself, love every minute of it and NIGHT OF THE WEREWOLF definitely fits the bill as one of my personal favorites of his werewolf titles. Granted, it may be more nostalgia than actual delivery, but I don’t think so. There’s so much style that the entire proceedings drip with Gothic imagery and savagery. The Spanish locales definitely help and the women are beautiful. Naschy, of course, is great, despite hitting every mark that we’ve seen before, but he makes such a likable hero, you even root for him when he gets hairy and pissed, snarling those fangs and ripping out throats, with blood galore.

In the correct spirit, BCI Eclipse goes all out with a very beautiful anamorphic transfer, completely uncut, and loads on the extras (minus the interview that came with their release of EXORCISMO). You get the usual fun-spirited introduction by Naschy himself, some deleted scenes, the original U.S. theatrical trailer, Spanish credit sequences, tons of stills and promotional materials in the gallery. There is also an informative liner note section by Naschy.com alumni Mirek Lipinski, containing some more rare stills. In the end, this is Naschy doing Naschy. You either love it or can leave it. I, for one, have no problem recommending it to genre fans. If you haven’t discovered Naschy as of yet, maybe this is a good place to start. It was my first Naschy movie and it made me a lifelong fan of just about all of his films. I can’t think of a better recommendation than that. NIGHT OF THE WEREWOLF definitely gets a special Eurohorror spot on my DVD shelf alongside several of his other movies.