The Werewolf and The Yeti - Will's Review

This one is a gap in the run for many who have tried to attempt the DPP72, as it has never been re-released in the UK or the US... I'm therefore forgiving myself the late review, instead being great full that there's a review at all, however untimely. I'll give a full (as I can manage) plot summery at the end of the review, because this is a tough one to get hold of, and you may want to read about it, given that its a tough one to get to see.

Apologies for that by the way - I made the mistake of mixing with the revelers at the recent Whitby Gothic weekend, and therefore caught the near-legendary lurgy that is currently running rampant through the UKs darkling community; I did try watching this movie regardless, but it seemed incomprehensible to my virus-riddled brain (you'll probably understand why when I get to the plot). In-Fact, I was ready to write a review criticizing the impenetrable story, when i read some other reviews that seemed to be of a different movie, and figured I'd missed something and had better leave this one well alone until my immune system had gone back onto standby, and stopped using all of the energy that usually goes to the part of my brain that follows movies...



I'm glad I did, because I actually enjoyed this one; despite the fact that the Yeti was almost indistinguishable from the Werewolf, and even though it somehow managed to be slow at times despite a ridiculously over-crowded narrative.

It somehow merges the feel of a hammer movie with a near perfect 'exploitation' plot line... if it had only had Nazis in the mix somewhere (and if the Turkish bandits had been oriental and lead by Fu Manchu, rather than a Khan) it wold have been the quintessential grind-house story.

So yeah, Plenty of cheese, and good 70's drive-in vibe, lousy dubbing and the worst screams you've ever heard; its sexually charged in places, but again, in much the same way the Hammer movies of the period were. There's little here to get worked up over (save an unconvincing skinning that I suspect was responsible for its appearance on the DPP list).

I'm stunned that no one has picked this up and re-submitted it, Because, really, I think it would pas uncut rated 15 no problem and play great to a revival crowd.

If you can track it down without paying a fortune, and IF you enjoy bad 70's werewolf movies, you should try to check thins one out at some point.

Interesting side note: This is the 8th film in which Paul Naschy plays the wolf-man Waldemar Daninsky, although from what I can tell there is no continuity between the films; certainly he does not carry the curse at the start of this one, and there is no mention that he has ever carried it before...

Interesting side note 2: There is a character in this film named "Larry Talbot". If you don't get that little in joke, it's back to horror-fan school for you!

The Plot (Spoilers ahoy!)

An expedition to find proof of the Yeti's existence is killed (by a Yeti - is that a success?), so a 2nd expedition (to find the first) is launched. This 2nd expedition includes Waldemar Daninsky (Known to Spanish Horror fans as 'The Spanish Wolf-Man, but human here - for now).

Upon arrival at base camp, the weather turns sour, and the planned route is declared impossible. Our heroes soon learn of a guide who is willing to take an alternate route, said to be plagued by "the demons of the blood moon", but only Waldemar is brave / foolhardy enough to go with him, so the 2 set out alone.

Before too long, howling is heard, the guide runs off (and vanishes into thin air - his tracks just stop) leaving Waldemar to take shelter in a cave guarded buy two buxom sisters.

The sisters turn out to be vampires / cannibals and drink from Waldemar, who kills them and escapes.

Meanwhile the guides who were supposed to he helping the rescue expedition have a sudden change of heart, and lead the expedition after all... right into the path of some Turkish bandits.

Waldemar (now a werewolf - presumably due to the vampire attack) shows up in time to kill some of the bandits and save one of the expeditions two female members (Sylvia, daughter of the expedition leader, Prof. Lacombe) from rape at the hands of 3 of the bandits, who he quickly dispatches, but the rest of the expedition are taken by the bandits.

One of the men is tortured, but left alive in order to play exposition keeper to the (human again - the moon is down now) Waldemar, before begging for death, the good professor and the other female member of the group are kept alive because (wait for it) Sekkar Khan (the bandit's leader) has a skin complain, which is currently under treatment from a sorceress by the name of Wandesa.

The Khan wants the professor kept alive in case his knowledge comes in handy for curing the sores on his back, meanwhile Wandesa is treating them by covering them in the skin removed from female prisoners backs.

While all this is going on, Waldemar and Sylvia find a temple where they learn of a cure for were-wolf-ism (Which involves a certain pl;ant and the blood of a woman) and Sylvia is given a special dagger with which to preform the ritual. They are then promptly captured by the bandits.

Sylvia is thrown in with the other female prisoners - those being Princesa Ulka and her handmaidens, for storage until needed to treat Sekkar Khan's dermatological condition. Upon seeing the ceremonial dagger (Which Sylvia still has with her) The princess steals it and organizes a prison-break, killing most of the bandits in the process, before returning the dagger to Sylvia.

Fleeing the Bandits lair, Waldemar and Sylvia are attacked by the Yeti... thankfully the moon rises, giving us the promised fight between the 2 titicular monsters, while Sylvia spots the plant needed for the cure.

The Yeti is killed, but WaldemarWolf is fatally inured - luckily all that the ritual requires is that Sylvia bleed on some petals, and wipe them on WaldemarWolf's teeth, and he is cured and healed!

Now that I come to write all of that down, it's even more insane than I Had released.

Body Count: 24

Boob Count: 1 pair (plus plenty of side-boob)

Animal Body Count: 1 (if a Yeti Counts)

Most Memorable Death: Death by Skinning.

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Night of the Demon: Will's Review

I hate to rag on micro budget movies, getting a film finished and out there is no mean feat, but for some things there's no excuse; There are plenty of good actors who will work for guild minimum, and a coherent script costs no more to write than, say, Night of the Demon...

You see, the film starts at the end, and is told in flashbeck, a common enough method, only there are several flashbacks along the way - flashbacks within flashbacks, and while many of the scenes do not feature the main character (the one doing the flashing back) the sub-flashbacks almost all have no survivors, and in one case the guy doing the main story wasn't present when the nested (and witness free) flashback was recounted! So he is recounting the recounting  of a tail which no one could have known about and which he didn't even hear!


That might sound a bit nitpicky - and it might have been, but for the fact that the film is so disjointed that it is at times borderline incoherent. Sometimes chopping a back story into portions and telling out of order is an interesting way to have us share in a protagonist's confusion or gradual discovery, (Memento, A Serbian Film) or to hide an important fact until its reveal would be more dramatic (Sixth Sense) - here it's seemingly done randomly, as the entire back-story would have been better presented in one go as the films second act. It still wouldn't have been a great film (or even an good one) but it would have at least been easier to watch.

Spoilers follow, but I wouldn't recommend you sit through the movie unless you're some kind of freak with OCD that has decided he HAS TO watch the whole DPP list, so I wouldn't bother avoiding them:

Our focus is a group of anthropology students who are investigating reported Bigfoot sightings. It turns out that Bigfoot is real, and once raped a local woman, impregnating her with his mutant offspring. Her father, a priest who witnessed the rape, killed the baby, believing it to be of demonic origin. The woman has lived on her own in a cabin in the woods ever since, and seems to get used in some rape ritual carried out by her late fathers followers, who now worship the Bigfoot. Our students basically emotionally abuse this poor woman and exhume her child's grave(!), without giving it a second thought, until Bigfoot kills all but one of them. The survivor is declared insane.


Effects wise, the deaths are terrible, but the creature himself isn't too bad (for a film of it's age and budget):

It's so patchy and non-linear that it kind of defies review beyond this, So I present an equally patchy and non-linear collection of clips and comments:

Remember that they are in this woman's home:

"Nevermind" ???? NEVERMIND??? Really?

Bigfoot think's he's Jason now apparently 

(He uses an axe on a couple of occasions too):

Best Kill in the movie:

(also the best clip in VNAW history)

Mmmm, those clips make it look better than it is; sorry about that.

AVOID!

Body Count: 13
Boob Count: 1 pair
Dead Animal Count: 0
Most Memorable Kill: see above.

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Night of the Demon - Lisa's Review

*** SPOILERS ***

Well we've got a right stinker this week.  I wouldn't say it was the worst one I've watched so far on the list, but it is definately not one I would ever recommend to anyone else for any reason, other than a desire to complete the nasties list challenge.

Our basic storyline here centres around a very nasty Bigfoot who lives in a forest and likes to go around killing people in various entertaining ways.  Of course there is a willing group of cannon fodder for our monster courtesy of a group of college students (yup... yet again) and their professor who are investigating the truth behind the legend of this particular monster (or Demon if you will).

The movie actually starts by telling you how its going to end.  The professor is in hospital, all bandaged up.  The only survivor of a Bigfoot massacre.  The movie is told through a series of flashbacks, which like another movie we watched recently also made no sense as the person telling the story was not present at all the flashbacks!  Irritating!  Contingency issues is the least of our worries here though.

Where do I start?  The acting in this movie is terrible.  The script is laughable to the extreme, but not in a funny way, more in a 'I can't believe I'm watching this shit' way.  The story is oh so predictable but is full of holes.

One thing which really irritated me about the movie is the way some of the deaths or reactions to them are drawn out.  They in no way change or add anything.  The camera just stays there filming the same scene for aaaaaaaaaaaages.  I could just feel the actor hung upside down with blood dripping down his face, into his eyes and mouth thinking... 'Come on already!!!'   Also there is nothing more irritating than a screaming woman in a horror... jeeeeeeeeez you have your fair share of this here.  I refer to the first death scene which happens to a courting couple who are making love in a car.  The bloke is dragged out and onto the top of the car and murdered out of sight.  His bloody body however falls down onto the windscreen and slithers downwards (as they always do when a windscreen is involved).  The womans reaction was downright ridiculous!  How many ways did the director ask her to react?  Its like her said, 'No, try that again', she did about 20 attempts and they kept them all in!!  This is all while she is completely starkers by the way.  She does pick up something to cover herself with and decides to cover her waist with it....



The gore is ok in places, but it would have been very easy to improve the effects with a little more effort.  Gore includes an impaling on a tree, a ripped off penis when a motorcyclist stops to relieve himself, a throat slitting on a window pane, an impaling on a pitchfork, a disembowlment (this was probably the best one as he proceeds to whip the poor guys innards around the room) and the birth of a half human / half Bigfoot.

So where does the baby come from?  Well our students hear a story that a young woman called Wanda (who has a reputation for being crazy) has had an encounter of the very close kind with Bigfoot where he impregnates her.  Her father (a preacher) witnesses the rape and waits until his daughter gives birth so he can kill the offspring which he believes to be evil.  He's an odd sort, her dad.

Wanda then undergoes a ritualistic reliving of her rape every year by her fathers followers who believe the ritual somehow protects them.  Is it any wonder the girl is a little disturbed?

Our ever understanding students blunder into her home and basically force all this information out of her by way of hypnotism.  When the beans have been spilled, predictably Bigfoot makes an appearance and does away with the cast (I felt a cheer coming on.. GO BIGFOOT!).

Sadly our professor lives to tell the tale in a hospital and we are subjected to this movie.  As always with this kind of experience, everything is put down to 'madness'.

Conclusion?  This is bloody awful.  Avoid.

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