Eyes of the Werewolf

Welcome back my fine collection of oddlings! Oh not all of you but apparently some of you would like me to investigate some more Stephanie Beaton films. So, yeah I can do that. She's a pretty nice person from what I am gathering. Owner of Silver Moon Productions and more recently, an etsy shop, FromTheCauldronWitch. Yes I have no issues plugging businesses and maybe my readers will find either cool to gaze upon. So um...the premise of today's film did throw me. The title on its own is open to interpretation. This is Eyes of the Werewolf.

Lasik didn't take.

So my Dad speculated it could be mostly in POV, through the wolf's eyes. My thought was we follow his life story and the struggle to curb the beast and hunger for human flesh. Yeah it, um is neither of these.

Director Jeff Leroy (Creepies 2, Werewolf in a Women's Prison, Psychon Invaders and Giantess Attack) helms our story opens with a gaggle of hunters out in the late day for night with a superimposed moon. Moons happen. Quite a bit. Okay yes we are in Indie Horror country so let's not loose our crap. This lot is tracking a werewolf in full wolf-man form and to be fair, he did score two kills. Gored a guy's throat and lightly massaged a guy's neck to death. I realize he was clawing him but it looked like a very dainty hold. The hunters off the supernatural butt sniffer and take his head as they work for an EeeeEeevil scientist, Dr. Atwill (Tim Sullivan of Deadly Tales, Vampyre Femmes, A Passion to Kill, Camp Blood, Camp Blood 2 and Deadly Scavengers) that is harvesting organs. Good thing they went with werewolves and not vampires and zombies. Pretty sure those organs would be useless.

Rich Stevens (Mark Sawyer of Alice, Cheers, Too Smart for Strangers, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, Fraiser, Math Blaster Episode I: In Search of Spot and Alien Force) has blown up his lab and well his eyes. I mean the eye thing is painful but dammit who's paying for all that mess? ME! Taxpayer! Outrageous. He is whisked to the hospital and is given eyes almost immediately. Damn no transplant waiting list or nothing. Now that is service.

Dude is missing out on this killer smile.

Nurse Sondra (Stephanie Beaton of Wicthcraft IX: Bitter Flesh, Zombie Gang Bangers, Witchcraft X: Mistress of the Craft, Monster in My Car, Eyes of the Werewolf, Witchcraft XI: Sisters in Blood and A Passion) is explaining how fortunate Rich is to have recieved these eyes that seem perfect for him. No tissue rejection and all in the green. Hey Rich! GOGGLES! You don't need a grant for those! You can pick up some solid goggles at Home Depot! They are safety rated for volatile chemicals, dude. About 50 bucks.

Also we go right into a love scene with Sondra and Rich. Now logically he has been in the hospital for some time, Sondra no doubt has fallen for this guy and he with her but this is happening from the last scene with the hunters and the werewolf. No real time in the film has lapsed so may have jumped the gun there. So that's about 3 minutes devoted to that with a weird woeful piano score. Not to mention a serious ethics breach for Sondra. You can get fired for that, lady. The sex better be damn impressive. So bliss setting in and Rich seemed to forget he's married. Awkward Coitus? Oh just a touch. Jerk. Using Sondra like that.

Exposition pillow talk elaborates wife Rita (Deborah Huber of Eyes of the Werewolf, Maniacal, Blood Sisters and The Last Ten Seconds) is kind of a bitch. Yeah doesn't visit Rich in the hospital, doesn't even call to see if the transplant went well, should she pick him up from the hospital, does he need any assistance navigating around the house. Nada. Warmth of a bed pan and just as full of it, Rita establishes this huge change in Rich's life was the last straw and beats cheeks. Yeah she is out on the town. Now normally I would be in Rich's corner but he was just sexing it up with Nurse Sondra moments earlier so really can't take the moral high ground, bro.

Rich goes to visit his best friend Craig (Lyndon Johnson of Eyes of the Werewolf, Pleasure Zone Volume – Promiscuous and Some Body), who also didn't visit him the hospital or look in on him at all. Seriously, does Rich have any friends or family that give a crap?

Wanna neck, baby?

With a bit of lipstick faux pas, Rich concludes best buddy and wifeypoo are doing the deed behind his back. Rich gets defensive, flails a cowboy roundhouse and gets knocked on his ass. Yup, he has not been in a fight since Star Trek aired when he was a boy. Full moon occurs and guess who is Rich's first victim? Man, he is going to need some fiber to pass Craig.

With the police hot on the case...like since maybe 9 that morning. Late start I think. Pilates, coffee and bran muffins ain't gonna happen before a homicide investigation, people. That's just science. Lt. Evers (Tarri Markel of Air Marshal, Unstoppable, Criminal Minds, My Mom's New Boyfriend, Intervention and Flu Bird Horror) is hot on the track of the homicide and technically this would probably be written off as animal attack. Cougars, coyotes, mountain lions. They are pretty common, folks. Nope, gotta be murder. By the way, Rich ended up in a field next to a dwarf's house and no that is not a lead in to a Dungeons & Dragons joke. Androse (Kurt Levi of Eyes of the Werewolf) is an expert on the occult and not the tyrannical enemy in Star Fox. He tries to help Rich figure out why his shirt's all torn up and for some reason still has shoes. I mean the feet would expand or bulge, right? Always happened to Dr. Banner via Hulk transformation.

Rich also has an unusual neighbor lurking in his backyard with the name...brace yourselves. Siodmak. Yes that is his name. He seems to be an writer on the occult and supernatural happenings and thank God for that. You want your taxes done or your tires changed by Siodmak? Sounds like a Final Fantasy villain or possibly, Secret of Mana boss. Siodmak claims he saw Rich roaming around as the werewolf and Rich just dismisses him. Gotta say, I agree with Rich. Not the ignorance of wondering if he was a werewolf but the sheer factor a dude named Siodmak gets outside much at all.

Naturally wife is back to be one dimensional bitch again. Yup that always goes well. Just drop her ass off to Crystal Lake, Rich. As a movie monster, you are practically an alumni and Jason will make her death memorable. Most likely impale on a tree stump. With another wolfing out, Androse speculates Rich may be a werewolf.

Will Rich come to terms with his late night murderous ways?? Can he and Sondra have a life together??

Okay typically my readers are expecting me to crucify this film. Something about micro budgets mean start thrashing it. Well, I am not doing that. Instead I will point out some of the highlights.

In spite how we didn't really have alloted time for Rich and Sondra to have a relationship, Stephanie and Mark have good chemistry together. Stephanie can emote and she's got a helluva reaction and scream for crazy werewolf shenanigans. There was a random potential lesbian subplot where Lt. Evers is hitting on Sondra...during the homicide investigation. But it's cool, she said it would be highly unorthodox and unprofessional to make these advances. Yeah it came out of left field leaving me to raise a Spock like eyebrow in utter confusion. The wolf costume isn't bad. A damn sight better than I thought it would be. The blocking around wolf attacks actually worked and it is feasible.

The locations could have tried a bit more. I guess they couldn't film crucial scenes in the hospital, like say an office for some but I scratched my head at that. Borrow an office from a dentist, tax accountant, run down detective agency and just block and don't reveal where you are shooting.

Ultimately I don't what this film is trying to be. Sure Horror but normally a werewolf film is about a victim making victims, the struggle of the two natures: humanity and the beast and well most of these kills were more vengeful than horrific. Is it a tragic tale? Is this a creature feature? Am I putting too much thought into this?

Car trouble?

Rich isn't an interesting enough character to feel more than pity because well the life of a chemist is a loney one. His wife and best friend were total jackasses and he could have a good relationship with Sondra if not for the curse and Lt. Evers trying to butt in with awkward lesbian hints.

Loving the transplant idea and makes you wonder how many lycanthropes the doctor has made by his bumblesome hunters. There are some interesting ideas but not enough screen time to establish all these associations or even causal acquaintances. Still there was story, characters and plot happening. Overall, Stephanie is the name to be watching this for as she busts butt and gives a pretty damn good performance. No, she is not looming over me as I write this with a gun to my head.

Incognito Cinema Warriors XP: Werewolf in a Girl's Dormitory

Howdy doodly doo readers of the blog! Yeah I promise to try not to do an intro that goofy again. So we are back with the boy and bots of ICWXP as the lads partake in a snobby high end coffee sketch. Zany funsters that they are. No sooner does the monkey business end, Dr. Blackwood sends cam feed of him getting tazed and abducted by a hybrid of a hazmat/paramilitary team lead by a man in black. My heavens. Not sure why they had to go with the ball gag but I'm not judging.

Something got into Rick's hand and it went bad.

Our man in black introduces himself as Kincaid (Because Wesker would have been too on the nose) and tells them they have been experimented on by the Ludovico Corporation and it will be business as usual. Also Rick should give up thoughts of escape and kneel before Zod. With an annoying short in play and the main feature looming overhead, the fellas are a bit nervous. This is Werewolf in a Girl's Dormitory.

Our short, Ghost Rider (Thankfully not starring the ghost of Nicholas Cage's career past) give a deep, sinister look into bus safety from beyond the grave... Chilling, right? Frankly the film called out for more Cage references but I digress, the boys got through it, chins held high.

The Mighty Quinn teaches 7th grade English.

During the host segment the lad and droids decide how to get to Toshi station for some much needed power converters and... Wait, that's something else.   Reminiscing over Blackwood and his nutty experiments Topsy and Cylon proceed to have their own douchy paranormal investigators series. I think it's called Ghost Jackers.  I guess it creeps the dearly departed if you start strangling the bishop right in front of them as they manifest. It would disturb me.   Also the "school" seems to be some potentially depraved old man's standing on what an all-girl school would be or operate. With its high walls and iron gates I just assumed it was a Catholic college.  This film loves three things: Cuts in the film and dialogue, lamps and letters. They are the primary focus of the werewolf movie it would see.

You've got to hide me, Rick!

Got to see Luciano Pigozzi again. Who?! Character actor of such gems as: Pigs with P.38, Evil Eye, Return of the Saint, The Exterminators of the Year 3000, Strike Commando, Zombi 3, Strike Commando 2, Yor, the Hunter from the Futur and Robowar. He will need a lot of hemp before the day is through. For those of you brave enough to watch the flick he looks like a Peter Lorre clone in this flick. So what can we even say about this movie? Well first time I saw it was at 4 in the afternoon and while Rick and the bots were knocking riffs left and right and being very entertaining the pace of this flick lapsed me into a small coma, possibly it was just a nap. I'm serious, I had to sit up to watch this movie it is so poorly paced, it has next to no copy that doesn't look like a copy of Reservoir Dogs from a local Blockbuster and the obsession of lamps was eerie.

I have no idea why the bots just didn't run head on into the path of a transformer or electromagnet. Suppose Rick could have hung himself with his combat boot laces.

Favorite riffs: Must we fight in front of the Lhasa Apsos, CAN YOU HEAR ME THROUGH THE LAMP??!!! and of course, I'LL KILL YOU!!

Make no mistake, gentle readers, we start moving from the counter and explore more story in the series. A true turning point and setting the stage for Season 2. Remember to hit Cinema Warriors homesite for episodes, swag and extensive stats and bio.

Werewolf Week: Cursed

Well hello there and welcome to Day 5 of Werewolf Week and I am told by a reliable source (my Mom) that the last day's film will leave me reeling (film pun) from disappointment.  But, but but... it's a Wes Craven flick and we all know those are brilliant!  Well... except The Last House on the Left. Yeah, that was pretty painful.  Oh and The Hills Have Eyes II but he was under contract for that... oh wait, I hated Shocker as well.  Hmm, come to think of it I was not a fan of Vampire in Brooklyn.  Oh dear, this may suck more than a black hole.  Well let's see a gaggle of youngsters contend with lycanthropes and see if they are not one-dimensional.  Oh crap, Kevin Williamson is writing this as well.   This is Cursed.

Whatevs!!!

Kyle: Whoa, hey Ellie.
Kyle: Hey, '70s retro week is spoiling up. Do we want Keith Partridge or Marica Brady?
Ellie: Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!





Suffering the evils of being neutered from its R rating and into a PG-13 to get more butts into the theater our story begins thus, in Los Angeles (Haven of all werewolves apparently)  two friends Jenny Tate (R& B artist Mya of In Too Deep, Haunted, Chicago, James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing, Shall We Dance, The Heart Specialist and Cover)  and Becky Morton (Shannon Elizabeth of American Pie, American Pie 2, Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back, Thir13en Ghosts and Catch a Christmas Star) at what looks like Santa Monica pier to get their fortune told about a boy.  No, not whether the movie About a Boy will be any good because it was.  Zela (Portia de Rossi of New York Daze, Scream 2, Girl, Ally McBeal, The Glow and I Witness) warns them of impeding danger and a terrible fate awaits them both.  Annoyed at this information the two girls scoff, snark and take off. Becky gets behind the wheel and is hell bent for leather when she realizes that Jenny isn't with her.

Meanwhile Ellie (Christina Ricci of The Addams Family, Casper, That Darn Cat, Buffalo '66, 200 Cigarettes, Sleepy Hollow and All Over the Guy) drives down to the same pier to pick up her brother Jimmy (Jesse Eisenberg of The Village, The Education of Charlie Banks, Zombieland, Camp Hell, 30 Minutes or Less and Now You See Me) and end up hitting an animal as well as another car.  

 Seeing the car is almost off Muholland Drive and about to be Muholland Falls, Ellie tries to save Beck when she is dragged out of the car and ripped asunder by a creature or creatures unknown and both Ellie and Jimmy have claw marks on them, lucky to be alive.   The police interview them both and their brilliant deduction was it was a cougar attack.  Yet not booze or risque panties on the scene.  Oh, wrong cougar.

Cops are persistent on ticketing!!

 Jimmy refuses to believe it was a large cat but actually some sort of wolf and starts researching about wolves in California.  Yes, they are  abundant in Cali but not normally predators towards humans.    Ellie starts feeling different, almost feral in someways she cannot describe and darn near ravages her boyfriend Jake (Joshua Jackson of Dawson's Creek, Urban Legends, Americano, Bobby, Battle in Seattle, One Week and Fringe) and Jenny apparently did not get vaped as we thought or it was eluded to but dies after an awkward moment at a party when she hits on Jake in front of Ellie.  

Ellie and Jimmy both notice the tendencies in themselves and Jimmy's hand is burned by a silver cake server.  Their dog attacks Jimmy, tasting his blood and becoming a were-creature of his own tearing around the neighborhood.    Who cursed them?  How can they end it?  What of Timmy stuck in the well?

Okay, and now the trivia, facts and critiques of the movie.

Because of the PG-13 edit, most of the story is a bit baffling and because the Weinsteins wanted more rumps in seats and the CGI seems incoherent in the transformations.   I noticed the size of said werewolf and was amused to find horror character actor Derek Mears as the creature.  Oh and less we forget the cameos of Craig Kilborn, Lance Bass, Bowling for Soup and Scott Baio?    Why was this needed?   One could argue to round out the story and surprise the audience but that one would be drug out in the street and beaten to death with a clown hammer.

 This production got stalled due to a re-write so cast member that Craven had worked with before got cut from the project.  Several of the filmed scenes due to the re-writes had to be scrapped as well.
  
The high school used as their set is Torrance High oddly enough used for as "West Beverly High" for Beverly Hills, 90210 and Sunnydale High for Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  Man that district is brutal.

Kevin Williamson has just made the Howling with Scream formula turning Joshua Jackson into Skeet Ulrich's character, the dependable pretty that turns out to be a monster and Ricci is playing Neve Campbell's character trying to defend herself and those she cares for.  So yeah, methinks his muse is on permanent hiatus.

On a side note it was shown that Ellie (Ricci) worked as crew for the Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn but by the time the film was released in February 2005, Kilborn had left the show and Craig Ferguson picked up the spot and he and Jeff have dominated the wee hours since!!!

Phew, I smell a bad script!

Werewolf Week: Half Moon

A big hi there to all intelligent life and as for the rest of you, the secret is to bang the rocks together.  Welcome to Day 4 of Werewolf Week brings us to yet another indy that thankfully has heard of camera stabilizers, provides a decent enough story and humanizes its characters.  Is it one for the kiddies?  Well considering it is a tale of the prostitute and the werewolf I am going with no on that one.  With a minuscule budget, very few well known names and an adult actress as a lead most would put this in the soft core rating and call it a day but hold people, this has a plot.  This is Half Moon.

Sorry, floated an air biscuit.  Apologies.

Amusingly enough our story is actually in L.A. as our writer/director Jason Toler takes us out on the hunt via the mean streets with a series of young ladies of the night making ends meet and hopefully their "Johns" won't be psychotic or homicidal when the rumor mill is talking about girls going with a fella and winding up dead.    Two girls are peddling their wares as they chat.  Tammy (Adult actress Nicki Hunter) explains about this client she sees every so often is into a little bondage, passionate and all in all a gentleman.  She watches out for her friend Rose (Adult actress Tori Black) in the hopes that her naivety doesn't get her killed when Tammy gets picked up off the street by a cop.  Rose scared to be alone tonight but knows she has to make her quota for her pimp takes Tammy's gig and hopes for the best.

Gonna be at least $350 if the film crew is gonna watch.

She meets Jacob (Marek Matousek of In with Thieves, Never on Sunday, American Fetish, The Brazen Bull and Pulse of the Indigo) a tall drink of water that as an air of refinement, charisma and taste.  Rose is confused on how this man would ever need a hooker when his charm could seduce even the most frigid of ice queens.    He pays up front for the night, has room service brought in and simply converses with the girl.    Their interaction of course leads to a tame love scene with little to no nudity.  Rose goes to clean herself up when she spies a small satchel with zip ties, rope and tranquilizers leading her to believe this is the killer.     Can Rose get away in time?  Will her pimp demand money from her as she narrowly escapes with her life?  Will Jacob track and hunt her down?

A few words on the film itself.  Being an indy production our director had the right idea in scooping up girls that do not have an issue with nudity.  Using the residing neighborhood and a stage set which doubles as a haunted house once a year worked well as most of the scenes the budget is workable and I was actually pleasantly surprised at the chemistry of Tori and Marek. This film is primarily dialogue driven and sets a nice steady pace with a bit of exposition but moves nice and even.  This is actually little to no gore and the love scene's nudity is light as well.

Admittedly going into this film I am expect the cliches of rampaging beast slays hookers as some sort of easy prey, hooker barely gets away and teams up with cop/werewolf hunter and blah blah blah and this is nothing of that sort at all.  A simple story of a cursed man meeting a lost girl and there in lies a moment of connections of both heart and body.

 Unlike yesterday's shaky cam seizure inducing deluxe, our crew know their jobs, the lines, sound and lighting.  Some decent hand held, little bit of tri-pod and studio camera.   I cannot believe I am writing this but this was actually an enjoyable movie and I hope Tori gets some more movie roles.

Behold! The dangers of masturbation!!! Hairy everything!

Werewolf Week: Werewolf: The Devil's Hound

Welcome back again fellow fans of film and enjoy Day 3 of Werewolf Week.  (There wolf.  There castle.)   Looking at the cover of this flick and the title alone it sounds like it may be worthwhile but this little white duck has been down this creek so many times I am a trifle jaded so let's put on the elephant enema gloves, a gas mask and painter's coveralls then tackle this movie house masterpiece.  This is Werewolf: The Devil's Hound a.k.a. Lycan.

Dad pants show off a competent hunter!

Our opus opens with three guys looking like they are on an outing for airsoft when they are attacked by choppy camera work attempting to give a fast zoom effect with no stabilizer or the ability to undercrank the film by 1/4 its speed.  Looks like it is shot on HD handheld for picnics and family outtings.   Our elite cadre of werewolf trackers/hunters tranq the creature in someone's backyard.  The filming locations claim Conneticut had to put up with this gathering of summer stock rejects that project too loudly and are as subtle at staring at the camera as much as the cast of Sleepaway Camp III.    After the great white hunt, our trackers UPS the critter in the box and airship it to the states from the remote areas of suburban Europe?   Next time get a more believable house and guys that can do accents please.


Our story is mostly revolving around a young pyrotechnician named Kevin (Michael Dionne of Crippled Creek, Whirlygirl, Blood Descendants and Little Soldier) who is happily married and loves his job.   Apparently he and his buddy are repairing these fairly made prosthetic park droids and their fireworks rigs that got smashed by the Vandals??  That band isn't struggling for headlines that much, are they?   So racist phone call later as Kevin's wife Liz (Jennifer Marsella of Werewolf: The Devil's Hound) calls Chinese firecracker specialists and you know they are Chinese thanks to the mandolin music in their warehouse or I might have mistaken them for Puerto Ricans.  This film drags for about an hour after werewolf wench scratches little Kevin and we go for an hour of strobing and flashing with fast zoom camera effects to kill just about any photophobic.

Your breath smells like Beer Nuts. Go away.

The band of supernatural paramilitary hunters with as much training as a gaggle of ten years old playing war have subject us to exposition, back story, crappy accents and more prat falls than a Stooges marathon.  The creature transformation has enough post production effects to drive a photophobic into a coma.  Personally, I thought I was going to yack on the keyboard.


Complaints about the film at this time.  This isn't even shot on 35 mm HD, just a format for home movies.  They know next to nothing about lighting, I hear more wind than dialogue so no sock for the boom mic and our terrifying werewolf vixen was wearing sneakers in more than a couple of shots.  Nice blocking, doofus. Directors/writers Gregory C. Parker and Christian Pindar could benefit from some technical experience on a film or TV set or heck, here's a nutty idea.  GO TO FILM SCHOOL, JACKASSES!!!

 
The stunts are less credible than a backyard wrestling fiasco and my head is nicely throbbing from the half assed attempts at arty camera techniques. USE A STABLIZER!!  One, it will make your film a bit smoother.  Two, it offers easier run in the woods without looking like there is an epileptic behind the camera and most importantly, people prone to seizures don't die from your flick and their families don't sue you!!!   This story was flat, the characters one dimensional, the action aside from the funky rigged robots was laughable.

Down Chewie!!

Stephen King Week: Silver Bullet

Howdy King fans and welcome to Day 1 of Stephen King Week.  I thought I would ease us into the terror with an adaptation of a novella involving a small town in Maine (THE TERROR STATE OF AMERICA!!!!).  Yes, according to the disturbing corridors of Stephen King's mind, all of Maine has these pockets of immense evil.  The real estate market must be hell to move any newcomers in.  Getting back to Tarker's Mills, Maine a quaint little town of close knit community has suddenly be barraged with a series of murders and only two kids and their zany uncle know the score.  This is Silver Bullet.

Heads up!!!

Uncle Red: I mean uh, what the heck you gonna shoot with a .44 bullet at anyway...made out of spoiler?
Mac: How about a werewolf?

This is the story of not of love but a series of unsolved murders and two sibling children coming to terms with one another.  Jane Coslaw (Megan Follows of Boys and Girls, Domestic Life, Anne of Green Gables, Longmire and Reign) narrates our film as she tells us of a summer of excitement, disappointment, bonding and terror.  She views her parents coddle her handicapped brother Marty (Corey Haim of Murphy's Romance, Lucas, The Lost Boys, Watchers, Fast Getaway and Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star) and is deemed the favorite so she and Marty are typical in squabbling and snark at one another.  Living in Tarker's Mills is pretty average town but then people start having accidents and then the sheriff (Terry O' Quinn of Stepfather, The Rocketeer, Wild Card, The Good Fight, Earth 2, Millennium and Lost) concludes some of these deaths could be murder of a most grisly manner.

Little pig, little pig, sizzle in my pan.

Marty's bestest bud stays out past curfew...to fly a kite?  I kinda figured it would be drinking some swiped hooch off of Dad's liquor cabinet or toking some weed but okay...a kite.  Flying said kite he is stalked from 360 degrees and handheld zoomed to death, mauled with a paw.  Our local gun toting, liquor drinking chugs feel the cops aren't doing enough and they will take the law in their own hands...assuming they have evolved enough to have thumbs.   The town reverend, Lester Lowe (Everett McGill of Quest for Fire,Twin Peaks, Heartbreak Ridge, The Peope Under the Stairs, Under Seige 2: Dark Territory and My Fellow Americans) tries his level best to get the mob to cease, desist and go home to reflect on how wrong this is.  They ignore their pastor and head out into the woods where several of these good old boys meet a gruesome end.
Curfew in town the annual fireworks show is cancelled so the kids are bummed.  Fortunately their kooky former Vietnam Vet uncle, Red (Gary Busey of A Star is Born, The Buddy Holly Story, Lethal Weapon, Predator 2, Point Break and Piranha 3DD) give the kids some explosives and built Marty motorcycle/wheelchair they dubbed "Silver Bullet"

Our brother and sister team start to put the clues together that these murders could not be the work of a madman but a monstrous creature of legend, a werewolf.   The two work together to smoke out the creature before any more murders happen.

I had a few observations on some goofs I noticed.  this story is supposed to take place in 1976 and yet I saw Diet Coke cans, vehicles clearly from the 80s and the bloody newspaper was dated 1980 so I had a few snickers on this one but the biggest goof was Reggie Jackson's Angels poster in Marty's bedroom.  Reggie didn't join the Angels until 1982.   So with period pieces you need to cover that a bit better with your background.  Not the nastiest werewolf film but a decent story, memorable characters and a good gore tone is established.

Stay back Grandma and NO I DO NOT WANT TO RUB YOUR CORNS!!!

Horror of 1970 Week: The Werewolf Vs the Vampire Woman

Hi there kids and welcome back to Day 3 of Horror of 1970 Week and again I want to apologize for Mark of the Devil, I also was not prepared for that level of Eurohorror.  Today is a total different story as seen from the absurd title alone so grab your silver bullets, prep a flame thrower and get some garlic.  This is The Werewolf Vs the Vampire Woman.

Hey, do I have anything in my teeth?

Beware of the moon, for it brings spoilers in the night!!

Journey into the realms and recesses of the mind of writer Paul Naschy (Seven Murders for Scotland Yard, The Mummy’s Revenge, The Man with the Severed Head, Curse of the Devil, Vengeance of the Zombies, Devil’s Possessed, House of Psychotic Women and Countess Dracula’s Orgy of Blood) a Spainard warped by the love of Universal horror movies, Hammer films and comic books such as Eerie Tales and Tales From the Crypt causing him to write more than 40 different movies for Spanish and Eurohorror films as well as produce and direct.  With his very dark humor and satire he brings an unusual blend of unintentional comedy with his horror and vice versa.  Mixed with director Leon Kilmovsky (Desert Warrior, Leap to Fame, Django, a Bullet for You, Vengeance of the Zombies, The Dracula Saga and Devil’s Possessed) the two have worked hand in hand trying to push the horror envelope without a huge budget to work with.   As for our movie this is a continuation of the title: Fury of the Wolf Man.

Necking takes a new meaning.

A now dead werewolf, Count Wladermar Daninsky (writer PaulNaschy) slays the two doctors performing an autopsy on him after removing the silver bullets from his heart.  Well that is gratitude for ya.  Heading back to his ancestral home, the disheveled Count hides and manages to look civilized.

Making their way across the French countryside (which is shot in Madrid) two students and friends Elvira (Gaby Fuchs of Girimm’s Fairy Tales for Adults, As You Like It, Die Geisha and Tatort) and Genevieve (Barbara Capell of Lolita, The Love Mad Baroness, All Kitties Go for Sweeties and Madame Pompadour) explore the lands and stop at a foreboding castle and go in to visit only to be greeted by our Count who feels the need to tell the tale of a forgotten vampiric countess that ruled these lands in the 13^th century.  Yeah that is a different ice breaker.  Rarely do I take people around the house and tell them about a possible double homicide.

So intrigued by these tales of sin and debauchery that the girls go and investigate the tomb of Countess Nadasdy (Patty Shepard of Glass Ceiling, My Dear Killer, Hannah, Queen of the Vampires, Ella and Edge of the Axe) Elvira accidently resurrects the countess causing Daninsky to morph into the wolfman to do battle with the countess.

I had just a few comments on the film.  Now given budget wise this B movie has good pacing, excellent sets and even good lighting and camera work.  Given their timeline and lack of deadline this movie did the very level best that it could on a shoestring budget.  The only real annoying aspect of it was the English dubbing was a bit painful to hear but watching it in Spanish with subtitles gave it almost an art quality. 

Join us!.. we have cookies.

Take my advice people, skip the dubbed version.  Yes there is a fair amount of blood given well gee it is a werewolf/vampire movie but it is actually tastefully done.  There is brief nudity so the fellas will be thrilled of course but all in all it was pretty fun and I dare you to not laugh at the first appearance of the terrifying lycanthrope.  I spat up my drink and sniggered for a few.