Super
Video | Review by Dan Taylor
No
time is wasted in NIGHT OF THE HOWLING BEAST,
one of the many werewolf flicks starring
Spanish horror icon Paul Naschy as Waldemar
Daninsky. Before the credits even whip by
we're treated to an attack on a ski troop
by what appears to be a yeti. Within minutes,
a professor who looks like a Spanish Efrem
Zimbalist, Jr. takes charge of the situation
and puts together an exploration team to
venture to Katmandu in an effort to capture
the yeti.
Naschy appears as a member
of the exploration team, and frankly, the
guy's an odd choice for a star. He's short,
squat and not exactly handsome... sort of
a cross between William Shatner and John
Belushi with a splash of John Saxon tossed
in.
When bad weather forces the
team to find another route for their expedition,
Naschy and his guide forge ahead in an attempt
to advance the plot. With disastrous results!
If your definition of "disastrous"
is being captured by a pair of bi-sexual
werewolf chicks who keep you in their cave
and turn you into their love slave!
At this point, NIGHT OF THE
HOWLING BEAST throws logic out the window
as Naschy escapes from his lycanthropic
lovers and becomes some sort of avenging
werewolf who tracks down the missing expedition
and attempts to rescue them from the roving
bandits that have captured them and imprisoned
them in some castle where a crazy witch
is slicing the skin off of chained nubiles
and placing it on the back of the bandit
king.
WHEW!
NIGHT was my first sampling
of Naschy's extensive filmography and it
may have ruined me for all future Naschy
flicks. It's hard to beat a flick that features
all of the above, a gunfight with banditos,
old school transformation effects that make
Naschy look like Eddie Munster's "Wolfy"
doll, the ol' chain a werewolf to a tree
trick, wise priests, caged hotties, sorcery,
and even a fight between the werewolf and
– of yeah – that yeti from the
opening credits!
Crazy stuff...
