Curse of the Devil

Curse of the Devil (El Retorno De Walpurgis) (1973)

Runtime: 84 minutes

Directed by: Carlos Aured

Starring: Paul Naschy, Fabiola Falcon, Mariano Vidal Molina, Maritza Olivaras, Jose Manuel Martin

From: A few different Spanish and Mexican companies

It was finally time to see more Paul Naschy. He’s a famous European horror star who precious little has been seen of. There are more famous or well-regarded efforts but Devil was on Shudder; as for that, July is a time where more from Shudder and Arrow’s streaming site needs to be tackled. Getting my money’s worth out of constantly subscribing to them is only the logical thing to do.

As he was wont to do often, Naschy (who sometimes dressed like a prototypical Han Solo!) portrayed Waldemar Daninsky, who either already had the curse of lycanthrophy or an event would result in him becoming a werewolf. The latter happened here via a creative method. Yellow-hued flashbacks opened the picture; an old relative from long ago was a witch-hunter and killed a member of the Bathory family. A curse was placed on the lineage; Waldemar slaying a wolf that was actually a werewolf triggered the curse.

The film will be too languid and lacking in incident for some. Me, I can enjoy the film for doing various things decently. That includes the performances, the score, the sets, the score, the atmosphere, and for some, the presence of full-frontal female nudity! I find charm in such things, along with the presence of a random axe-wielding villain who is mainly present as a misdirection for the film’s characters, i.e. who is butchering random people.

No matter your opinion of the film, at least the Vinegar Syndrome print looks rather resplendent.