Wonderful Movie

Excellent but underrated film

As Good As It Gets

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

More werewolf action from the ever-prolific Paul Naschy, this one takes place in the Himalayas and has Naschy doing battle with some evil cannibal chicks and a cruel band of outlaws who live in the hills and enjoy torturing any would-be prisoners they happen to come across! While it's not up to the standard of earlier Naschy films I enjoyed like WEREWOLF SHADOW and CURSE OF THE DEVIL, this film still has plenty going for it, including a fast pace and lots and lots of mindless violence and action to keep things moving along nicely. All of the elements required to enjoy a cheesy B-movie are present and correct and there's even more sex and violence than ever before. Naschy gets the chance to insert some really sleazy moments of lust and torture into the brew, elements which caused this film to be banned when the Video Recordings Act came into play in the UK the early '80s.While the plot might be similar to earlier Naschy werewolf flicks the transposition of the action from some European locale to the snowy mountains is a clever one which makes this film interesting to watch and sets it apart from the rest. Despite the dingy print which was released in Europe, this film still manages to build up some suspense and feeling of isolation in the snow-enshrouded icy wastes. Those expecting a lot of Yeti action will be disappointed though, as the title is a bit of a cheat; the Yeti only turns up in the first few opening/closing moments of the film. For the most part it's typical fun with shoot-outs, attempted rape, multiple fights, and torture keeping things moving along at a pace which prevents boredom setting in. The film also manages to be frequently exciting, especially in a few of the climatic fight scenes between Naschy and the bald-headed creeps who live in the mountains. Naschy is very active in this film too, jumping all over the place as he leaps on his victims.The acting is typically serviceable, and unfortunately Naschy is given little to do other than go through the paces here; there's nothing in his performance which he hasn't seen in other films. However some of the cast do well, especially the villainous baddies and Silvia Solar, who is pretty good as a ruthlessly wicked sorceress who gets off on torturing innocent girls. The gore is all right but spoiled by the darkness of the print; the only explicit moment comes where a girl has the skin cut off her back (for use as a treatment for the chief bandit's own skin problem!). Altogether, this is predictable Spanish fare, not particularly bad but not brilliant either. Watchable yes, unmissable, no.

Night of the Howling Beast (1975) *** (out of 4) Cheap but fun horror film has Waldemar Daninsky (Paul Naschy) traveling to Tibet to try and locate the Yeti, which has recently been spotted. He ends up in a bizarre cave with female cannibals and other weirdos and soon he's bitten by a she-wolf. The next full moon he turns into a werewolf, which eventually leads to a battle with the Yeti. Better known as THE WEREWOLF AND THE YETI, this film certainly isn't going to win any awards for style but I really give Naschy, the writer, a lot of credit. When you go through this Daninsky series you can fully see all the short comings but at the same time you have to give the star-writer a lot of credit because he's always coming up with some pretty wild ideas that usually translates to some fun. This film is no exception as there are all sorts of wild things going on. The rather long sequence inside the cave where Daninsky goes up against a variety of strange women is so much fun simply because of how over-the-top it is. The scenes of the females chomping on the fake looking arms is rather fun and especially if you don't take it too serious. This movie also offers up some rather nice werewolf attacks. The film benefits from the wintry locations as it's somewhat neat seeing the werewolf run around in this setting. The attack scenes are also rather silly looking but they're mostly well-staged and features quite a bit of gore when viewed in their uncut form. The actual look of the werewolf isn't quite as good as some of the earlier films but it's still good enough and of course there's all sorts of red stuff flowing. The Yeti looks rather bad and sadly the final fight is rather dark and poorly done but it's still decent enough to put a smile on your face. Naschy, as you'd expect, turns in a good and believable performance in his role. NIGHT OF THE HOWLING BEAST suffers from a low-budget but I think in this case it actually helps add to the "B" movie charm.

So we have Paul Naschy joining an expedition in a Tibetan mountain region. Or somewhere, as this movie looks like it's shot for the most part in some forest in Spain. And then we have snow. And then there's sun and plants. I don't know – it might have been shot on some distant planet in outer space were continuity errors are part of your everyday reality.So, Paul Naschy stumbles upon some cave, enters it and finds two vampiric wenches (that's my guess) and has sex with them (both of them, at the same time, thank you very much). I couldn't tell if those sluts turned him into a werewolf, or if Naschy's character was already a werewolf to begin with. Either way, Naschy is a werewolf and he gets to wrestle around in the snow with a yeti (who just happens to wear a similarly looking werewolf costume, just like the one Naschy's wearing). And then I think this movie ended. I think I spotted an image of Buddha in this movie too, somewhere. Can't really remember.Good Badness? I'm inclined to shout "Yes!", but for the love of Christ possessed, I can't remember why... 1/10 and, uhm, I guess, ehrr, maybe 5/10..., meaning 9/10 for being the worst piece of rubbish out of the lot, and 1/10 because I couldn't laugh with it. So, that's 10/20, which would boil down to... Aw, screw it. This movie sucks and Paul Naschy is a sleaze-ball. 1/10, and no goodies for Naschy.

THE WEREWOLF AND THE YETI is really a misnomer, but then NIGHT OF THE HOWLING BEAST (the title borne by the print I watched) doesn't do it justice either as the story spans not one but several nights, none of which is more important than the other! Anyway, this isn't a bad effort in Naschy's ongoing "Waldemar Daninsky" saga - hampered slightly by the disc freezing up momentarily on four separate occasions, particularly towards the end: plot-packed though it is, the film is actually pretty straightforward compared to the others I've watched by Naschy - it is indeed livelier than any of them - and the snowy locales in which it is set are a major asset (despite the minimal budget on hand). Naschy turns in a creditable performance (though he was reportedly dissatisfied with how the film turned out), but the werewolf make-up is a matter of taste as it's certainly not scary-looking; the Yeti, then, hardly bears a mention as its function is almost incidental to the narrative and is not even given a distinguished 'look' to make it stand out during the climactic duel. The director's overall style, alas, is rather flat: the Gothic atmosphere one associates with this type of film is mostly lacking here. Apart from this, none of the characters is all that interesting (wicked sorceress Wandesa is especially annoying) but, at least, there's some gore to keep one watching (a male member of the expedition ends up impaled on a thick pole whereas a girl is skinned alive!) and the fist-fight between Waldemar and the villainous Sekkar Khan is quite energetic; there's also a welcome - and wholly gratuitous - touch of eroticism in the sequence where Waldemar meets two vampires-cum-cannibals in a cave who, apparently, also have the power to infect him with 'The Curse Of The Beast'!!