NIGHT OF THE EXECUTIONER (1992)

 Eurotrash legend Paul Naschy stars and directs a Spanish DEATH WISH rip-off. Charles Bronson gets name-dropped and we get to watch an almost 60-year-old Naschy working out(showing off his prowess from back when he was a professional weight-lifter) and blow away a ridiculous assortment of rapists and murderers. It's obviously not up to the quality of DEATH WISH but certainly as entertaining as one of the later sequels. The big bad boss reminds me of the bad guy from Inspecter Gadget who never shows his face which certainly fits the more cartoonish aspects of the film. It also has a MAD FOXES-vibe with it's rape/revenge insanity which I loved!

                                     Naschy getting pumped up!:

ORGY OF THE LIVING DEAD (1973)

  Kind of a misleading title there. No "living dead" show up until close to the end and they certainly don't have an orgy! It's alternate title of THE HANGING WOMAN is more accurate as one of those does indeed show up at one point. Paul Naschy is often touted as the star of this but he's actually in a side role as Igor the gravedigger. There are some cool elements in this but they take too long to get to the FRANKENSTEIN-influenced ending. AKA BEYOND THE LIVING DEAD

                                  Released on video as RETURN OF THE ZOMBIES:

and as ZOMBIE 3: RETURN OF THE ZOMBIES despit having nothing to do with the ZOMBIE series:

                                  Released on video in the U.K. as THE HANGING WOMEN:

and theatrically as TERROR OF THE LIVING DEAD:

Released in Australia as BRACULA: THE TERROR OF THE LIVING DEAD

THE KILLER IS ONE OF 13 (1973)

  Obviously modeled after Agatha Christie's 10 LITTLE INIDANS this a very talky giallo from Spain. It's a decent enough mystery though to make it a worthwhile one-time watch if you run out of the more entertaining/outlandish/gory giallos out there. Paul Naschy appears but doesn't have a very big role. Perhaps Italy is the country to stick with for the good stuff in this sub-genre. 

Part of this Blu-ray set that contains movies that were probably forgotten for a good reason!:

 

THE PEOPLE WHO OWN THE DARK (1976)

   I caught this Spanish horror flick as part of a zombie film holiday weekend at a drive-in recently and while I wouldn't really categorize it as a zombie film it was one of my favorite films that played the whole weekend. Rather than zombies we have the survivors of a nuclear war, who are gangs of blind people, that act enough like zombies that I can sorta see the confusion. Also the plot of this is fairly similar to something like NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD where we have a group trying to fight off an angry mob. In this case it's a group of pervy rich folks and their whores(including Eurotrash fav Paul Naschy as a real douchebag) trying to survive the onslaught. Not overly bloody but very nihilistic right up until it's ending this is the sorta 70s movie that belongs at drive-ins everywhere. 

 The U.S. cut of this is a little shorter than the original with some dialogue scenes removed and they threw in some music from THE BLOB which which somehow works fine. 

 

                                                      Original title = LAST WISH: 

A WEREWOLF IN THE AMAZON (2005)

 The great Paul Naschy appears in this as a Nazi-fied version of Dr. Moreau who has to leave his island of mutant creatures and start experimenting on the locals in The Amazon jungle. Oh and, as usual, he's also a Wolfman since he used some of his magic gene-splicing potion on himself. There's also a tribe of Amazon women that Naschy created just for fun and to occasionally have some sex with and some cannibalistic beastly monster folks that he keeps in cages. While this might sound like fun, sadly, since this was filmed in 2005, it's all pretty shoddily put together. You do get some nudity and blood and Mr. Naschy is fine in his scenes but mostly it focuses on a group of fairly annoying young people looking to get high and end up getting killed in typical slasher movie fashion. There's also a bit of strange attempts at comedy thrown in that fall really flat. 
 Director Ivan Cardosa did make the superior, and way weirder, SECRET OF THE MUMMY, back in the 80s when there was still a chance of seeing something good.

SCHOOL KILLER (2001)

 So this Spanish production takes what might be the thinnest idea for a plot ever about a group of teenagers, played by people older than that of course, spending the night in a creepy old school-building and make it into a slasher movie with the great Spanish horror star Paul Naschy playing the killer. That in itself might not horrible but then they throw in a bunch of paranormal/ghost bullshit and that really helps drag things down. In the middle of the movie they flashback to the 70s where it's just a regular gory slasher flick and I can't help but think just that woulda been a better film. Also they forgot to come up with any sort of ending so things just end abruptly with no real explanation. Not Naschy's finest but he does a decent enough job with what he's given to do. For prime Naschy stick with his 70s werewolf opuses.

DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN (1970)

This one is probably better known as ASSIGNMENT TERROR. Calling it DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN is pretty dumb since those 2 monsters never fight and are working on the same team and there is a crappy Al Adamson film under that title and also a Jess Franco film known as such. THE WOLFMAN VS. FRANKENSTEIN woulda made more sense since that actually happens but weird aka's is pretty standard for Paul Naschy werewolf flicks. This is the 2nd(or 3rd if you count the unobtainable/uncompleted? NIGHTS OF THE WOLF-MAN) Naschy flick as Waldemar Daninsky and one of the few ones that actually works as a sequel. The plot revolves around a mad-scientist-type, played by Michael Rennie from the classic THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, and just like in that movie he's actually an alien but instead of trying to warn the Earth about its impending doom here he's actively trying to bring that about by re-animating various monsters including a mummy, a vampire, a Frankenstein-monster(though he's called the Faranksalan-monster to avoid copyright charges?) and, of course, Naschy's Wolf-Man. Instead of conquering the planet though they all seem to just hang out in this old castle. It's a pretty convoluted(part sci-fi/part-horror) mess of a movie that's closer in plot to something like PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE than any of the classic Universal films it's attempting to mimic but for monster fans like myself it's still a great wacky watch and where else do you get go-go dancers mixed into your monster-mash?.

Known in Mexico as OPERATION TERROR!:

FRANKENSTEIN'S BLOODY TERROR (1968)

 I never knew that this Paul Naschy werewolf flick was presented in 3-D in the U.S.A. back in the 70s until just recently. I also never figured I would get a chance to actually view it like that but thanks to a newly refurbished print I caught it in all it's glorious dimensions recently.
 The film itself is a pretty groovy monster-mash done Eurotrash-style. We get Mr. Naschy getting himself bitten and cursed while dispatching a Wolf-Man. Then in order to cure himself he ends up with a vampire couple posing as doctors who specialize in lycanthropy.  It's got sexy ladies, blood and monster brawling(including vampire vs. werewolf and some werewolf on werewolf action!). The only thing really missing is anything to do with Frankenstein. The American producer, Sam Sherman, tries to remedy this a bit by calling the main family Wolfstein but this is a pretty tenuous link. If you can overlook that one little thing though this is a great ride for appreciators of monster cinema and it's especially sweet in 3-D. AKA THE MARK OF THE WOLFMAN, THE WEREWOLF'S MARK, HELL'S CREATURES and THE VAMPIRE OF DR. DRACULA
 This is the 1st of Naschy's Waldemar The Werewolf flicks to be released. There was supposedly an earlier one titled NIGHTS OF THE WOLF-MAN that was never completed due to it's director, Rene Govar, dropping dead.
There are 13 sequels(or more accurately just follow up werewolf flicks) to this including:

1.   ASSIGNMENT TERROR (1970)
2.   WEREWOLF VS. THE VAMPIRE WOMEN (1971)
3.   THE FURY OF THE WOLFMAN (1972)
4.   DR. JEKYLL AND THE WEREWOLF (1972) 
5.   CURSE OF THE DEVIL (1974)
6.   NIGHT OF THE HOWLING BEAST (1975)
7.   THE CRAVING (1980)
8.   GOODNIGHT, MR. MONSTER (1982)(the only one where Naschy isn't named Waldemar Daninsky)
9.   THE BEAST AND THE MAGIC SWORD (1983)
10. HOWL OF THE DEVIL (1987)
11. LYCANTROPUS: THE MOONLIGHT MURDERS (1996)
12. TOMB OF THE WEREWOLF (2003)
13. A WEREWOLF IN THE AMAZON (2005)

TV Terror!:

The only time Frankenstein appears in this film thanks to the American intro:

WAX (2014)

 Spanish horror films back in the 70s used to be pretty stylish and artistically made for the most part. This being created in 2014 they throw all that out of the window and make what looks like another Full Moon direct-to-video ugly-looking time-waster. The plot is a HOUSE OF WAX-inspired one where our main villain, Jack Taylor(who does a decent job with what he is given to work with), emulates Vincent Price with some modern-day torture-porn elements thrown in because that's what modern horror fans seem to think is scary. If that isn't bad enough we also get the lame-ass found-footage elements here. Sadly this is considered Paul Naschy's last credit even though it's just his voice that is used and he had been dead since 2009. Charlie Chaplin's granddaughter, Geraldine Chaplin also has a role as a reality TV-show(another thing I despise) producer.
 Clearly the filmmakers have some reverence for the history of Spanish horror just for using Naschy and Taylor, which is nice, I just wish they woulda made a film that reflected what made the classics so memorable.

What an ugly unappealing trailer:



                          Full Moon, the symbol of not-so greatness:

COUNT DRACULA'S GREAT LOVE (1973)

 Paul Naschy makes a better Wolf-Man than he does a Dracula. This makes sense since he played El Hombre Lobo so many times and the most famous vampire of all only this once. Also his body-type is more fitting for a raging, hairy monster than a blood-starved undead Count. This movie isn't a complete waste though. There is a considerable amount of blood-letting and naked boobs. The story doesn't always gel though. Like for instance why does Dracula have such shitty command of his subjects? Shouldn't he be able to kick their asses really easily, being the king of the undead and all that? Besides these strange battles with his vampire chicks and a roving lunatic(Renfield?) character the movie ends on a really silly note with Drac getting all suicidal with himself over his girlfriend. How goth! But as far as Eurohorror goes I guess you could do worse.
 This movie has a shit-ton of aliases including COUNT DRACULA'S GREATEST LOVE, DRACULA'S VIRGIN LOVERS, CEMETERY GIRLS, DRACULA'S GREAT LOVE, THE GREAT LOVE OF COUNT DRACULA and my favorite, CEMETERY TRAMPS.

Elvira digs it!(kinda/sorta):

DR. JEKYLL VS. THE WEREWOLF (1972)

 This is the 6th film in Paul Naschy's Waldemar Danisky werewolf saga, not that there's really any chronological narrative between the films, and it features a meeting of our Spanish Wolf-man and Dr. Jekyll. Jekyll is played by Jack Taylor in his usual wooden-acting style but it actually works OK here.  That's a few wacky things that take place in this movie. The main one is the sight of El Hombre-Lobo running around England, including tearing up a disco, like some-kinda hairy Jack The Ripper which predates AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON by many years except in that movie the monster was a giant ferocious wolf and in this one it's a guy with a furry head and hands wearing a shirt and pants which looks pretty ridiculous. Later on Naschy also gets turned into a Mr. Hyde-character which robs us of the battle promised in the title but is equally strange to see since he looks like he stepped out of the 30's and this part of the film seems clearly set in the 70's. Story-wise the most absurd thing is that somehow Dr. Jekyll figures out that turning a werewolf into a Mr. Hyde will somehow cure him of his wolf-curse? The mythological-logic here is a little hard to follow. On the plus side we get to see Naschy bear-hug a guy to death using his massive barrel-chest which is pretty bad-ass.
 I've only seen the cut version of this but there is a longer version titled DR. JEKYLL AND THE WOLFMAN so I'm not sure what I missed exactly but it's probably some boobs.

HORROR RISES FROM THE TOMB (1973)

 This is a Spanish mish-mash of horrific elements starring the great Paul Naschy. It starts off with a couple of Satanic witches getting executed, which is how a lot of these Eurotrash horrors start out. From there we get some ghostly hijinks, people get possessed and sent on bloody killing sprees with a sickle, a group of zombies show up for no reason except that it's visually cool and the bright red neon 70's blood flows freely over exposed Euroboobs. This isn't my favorite Naschy terror flick but it's still neat to see him play both the evil villain and the goody-good fellow. Of course he gets at least one scene where he gets to show off his chest and get it on with his sexy co-stars. Heads roll, ears roll and hearts get cut out of naked chests. The one puzzling thing is why our main villains go from being witches of some sort to becoming zombie-ish vampires who rip out hearts but I guess you just do whatever Satan wants you to. It's also kinda weird that the antidote to these vampiric monsters is a medallion with Thor's hammers on it. Who the hell would have something like that just laying around?

Released on video at some point as MARK OF THE DEVIL PART IV: HORROR RISES FROM THE TOMB and according to the narrator of this trailer the title is FEAR RISES FROM THE TOMB:

VENGEANCE OF THE ZOMBIES (1973)

 Paul Naschy plays a few different roles in this tale of a magic-utilizing murderer who employs voodoo dolls and old-timey zombies to do his dirty work. While this isn't my favorite Naschy flick, the plot is kinda convoluted and there are some stretches that I find pretty sleep-inducing, there are at least a couple of cool scenes to recommend this one to horror fans. The main highlight is this amazing dream-sequence where Naschy plays the Devil. He sports the horns, a sweet goat-tee, makes some crazy-ass faces and while some chaotic jazz plays blood is spilled. Overall there is quite a bit of blood shed in this one, a head get lopped off, throats are slashed and zombies bash heads in. Unfortunately no flesh-eating since we're dealing with re-animated slave-type walking dead here.
 The one big stand-out weird thing about this movie is the soundtrack. It's these awesomely funky tunes that don't really fit this movie at all and would probably seem more appropriate in maybe a blacksploitation or some other type of 70's action flick which I think every time the music comes up.

LYCANTROPUS: THE MOONLIGHT MURDERS (1996)

 This 12th film in the Waldemar Daninsky Wolfman series is down there around the bottom of the barrel as far as Paul Naschy's werewolf films go. It's not quite as bad as TOMB OF THE WEREWOLF since there's actual actors, it looks like an actual movie and Naschy gets to actually do some acting here, but it is a close second in the crappiest department.  Two of the main ingredients in Naschy's El Hombre Lobo series(as well as in all good movies anywhere) are sex & violence. Unfortunately in this one there's not even a bare boob to be seen and the violence is pretty lackluster as well. Apparently Naschy wrote a much juicier screenplay and all the good stuff was edited out by the director, who is obviously a moron. It's also a little strange here that Naschy is an older man living with this terrible werewolf curse and yet somehow he's gotten himself married and raised a family and lived to be an older man without anyone shooting his ass with silver bullets or anything. There's also a serial killer running around but he's pretty lame as well. All in all this is very skipable to all but the most die-hard of Euro-Trashy Naschy fanatics.

BLUE EYES OF THE BROKEN DOLL (1974)

 
 I first saw this movie on VHS as HOUSE OF PSYCHOTIC WOMEN and can't say I was very impressed by it. Someone had the brilliant idea to cut out the sexier bits from that release. Viewing it on DVD as BLUE EYES... is a very different experience. This uncut version has a lot more going for it. It basically plays out like a Spanish version of an Italian giallo movie including the standard black-gloved killer and gruesome death scenes. Necks are sliced and eyes are cut out all in super bright 70's blood color. The main highlight of this flick, as with many giallos, is it's crazy ending which, since I'm not a complete douche-bag, I will not spoil except to say it has something to do with blue eyes and broken dolls. Paul Naschy stars here in a role which is slightly different than his usual Wolfman one but he still manages to screw most of the female cast and kick some ass along the way. A good entry in the genre of Spanish horror.

THE WEREWOLF VS. THE YETI (1975)

 This time out Paul Naschy aka Waldemar Daninsky aka El Hombre Lobo ends up in Tibet where some Abominable Snowman action is going down.  We don't get to the titular match up until the very final reel but this is still a pretty neat adventure with Spain's #1 Wolfman.  Most of the movie deals with Naschy's quest to find the elusive Yeti monster.  He runs into some naked cannibal cave-chicks who he has sex with, of course since no one can resist Naschy when he takes off his shirt, and then gets bitten by them cursing him with his werewolf problem.  I'm not exactly clear on how naked cannibal ladies pass on the Wolfman gene but whatever.  Naschy's Wolfman is mostly portrayed as a good guy here since he breaks up a rape and kills lots of bad guys.  The bad guys are soldiers of evil warlord Sekkar Khan which of course reminds us all of this horrible 80's hit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XV5_WagxZg. Khan also has an evil sorceress hench-lady who enjoys torturing prison girls and ripping their skin off in her spare time.  This film covers all the bases with boobs, blood and beasts and is an enjoyable view for Eurotrash or monster-mash lovers.  Also I think it might be the only werewolf movie in history to end on an upbeat note.  AKA NIGHT OF THE HOWLING BEAST

TOMB OF THE WEREWOLF (2004)

  This is by far the worst of all the Paul Naschy werewolf flicks. It's also the last one and it was made in America instead of Europe like the rest of them. Just about everything about this movie is shitty. It looks like a TV show since it's shot on video, the music sucks, the fx are terrible, Naschy's Wolfman outfit looks like it belongs on a Saturday morning kids show from the 70's, Naschy also gets about three lines of dialogue in the whole movie before being relegated to a background character(Elizabeth Bathory, played by Michelle Bauer is really the main villian here). Most of the acting in this is around modern porn quality(which makes sense since there are a couple of porn stars in this). Director Fred Olen Ray has mostly made crap his whole career so it isn't a shock that this is so lacking in quality. The only plus is there is plenty of nudity, lesbianism and that sort of thing so if you're looking for one of those late-night, soft-core cable movies and you don't mind a really dumb werewolf movie thrown in this might be for you. AKA THE UNLIVING (uncut version with extra boobies!)

The extra sexy version!:

via RedGIFs

EXORCISM (1975)

 EXORCIST-rip-off movie starring Paul Naschy as a devil-fighting priest.  According to Naschy he wrote this story before that other slightly more well-known devil-possession movie came out.  While that sounds to me like a load of horseshit and way too big of a coincidence there are a few slight differences in here, like a whole Satanic group that perform human sacrifices and have naked orgies, lots of LSD use going on and people getting murdered by a mysterious killer, so maybe he came up with a giallo-type film and the producers shoe-horned the more familiar EXORCIST-aspects into it later on.  Either way this movie is mostly just filled with boring dialogue and nothing very interesting happens besides maybe those fleeting Satanic cult sequences and the mimicking of stuff from the Linda Blair classic.  I think overall this is my least favorite Naschy film that I've seen so far.  I feel Naschy's best stuff is when he does straight up monster mash type stuff like THE WEREWOLF VS. THE VAMPIRE WOMEN or his blasphemous stuff like EL CAMINANTE.  Stick with those and if you want a way better Spanish EXORCIST-rip-off check out Amando de Ossorio's THE POSSESSED which features a nasty little girl ripping off a guys testicles.  That's exactly what this movie needed more of.

CURSE OF THE DEVIL (1974)

 A pretty typical werewolf flick starring ol' barrell chest himself Mr. Paul Naschy. I think I like his wolfman flicks best when he fights vampire chicks or abominable snowmen or even samurais but you don't get anything like that here. There is an axe-weilding maniac running around in the woods chopping off women's heads but he's not much of a foe and is taken out by Naschy in human form very quickly. There are also some witches at the beginning but they get promptly hung and burned at the stake which sets everything in motion. The werewolf attack scenes are fairly lackluster but you do get a bit of super bright red blood here and there. I think the highlight for me was seeing a werewolf in a suit looking like a proper gentleman which is just silly.  In general Naschy's wolfman here looks very poodle-like and oddly goofy with his neatly-coiffed hairdo which doesn't help with the scary vibe they were aiming for. The naked euro-bush was a nice touch though.

EL CAMINANTE (1979)

               "Good Lord! How could you give your life for these pigs? I don't understand."

Before seeing this movie I had only known Paul Naschy as that Spanish Wolfman guy and for his various other monster movie roles. This film is by far Naschy's best acting job that I've seen yet and is now my favorite of his films overall.
He plays the devil here and the story is basically an inversion of the story of Jesus with Satan taking human form and hanging out with us scummy humans. Also like Jesus things don't always turn out so well for our main character. It's also a pretty nihilistic film with some great quotes about the evil of mankind and ends with the idea that man is far more evil and devious than even the lord of Hell. There are some funny bits including Naschy stealing from a guy taking a shit in a field and carving a lovely upside down cross in a couple of asses. There's also one scene with a sped-up Benny Hill-style(or maybe it's closer to A CLOCKWORK ORANGE) orgy. You also get some man-on-man rape, nun-humping and lots of murder. To top everything off a nice helping of naked boob and euro-bush are on display cuz those are the kinds of things Satan enjoys. AKA THE TRAVELER and THE DEVIL INCARNATE(DVD title).