Synopsis
The movie Night of the Howling Beast (1975), also known as “La Maldicion de la Bestia” or “The Curse of the Beast”, is a Spanish horror film that is the eighth in a long series about the werewolf Count Waldemar Daninsky, played by Paul Naschy [1]. The film has also been known as “The Werewolf and the Yeti” and “Hall of the Mountain King” [1].
This film ignored the events from the earlier Hombre Lobo films and provided an all-new origin for Waldemar’s lycanthropy, having the curse transmitted to Waldemar by the bites of two female werewolves1. A yeti is woven into the storyline (as in The Fury of the Wolfman), but in this film the Yeti is not the direct cause of Waldemar’s lycanthropy [1].
The movie Night of the Howling Beast (1975) follows Waldemar Daninsky who goes to Tibet to guide for an expedition led by Professor Lacombe to look for proof that the yeti exists1. Waldemar gets separated from the main party and captured by two cannibalistic werewolf women in an ice cave, who transform him into a werewolf by biting him1. Waldemar’s companions are kidnapped by a band of Tibetan pirates who torture their victims gruesomely, and in the film’s grand climax, Waldemar (in werewolf form) gets to fight not only Sekkar Khan, the leader of the bandits, but a genuine Yeti as well in bloody hand-to-fang combat1.
Waldemar kills the Yeti by biting his throat out, but in the process he is gravely wounded [1]. The professor’s daughter Sylvia, who is in love with Waldemar, manages to cure him of his lycanthropy by rubbing a small Tibetan flower mixed with her own blood on him1. In the end, Waldemar changes back into a man and goes off into the sunset with Sylvia, making this the only Hombre Lobo film with a happy ending1. Although a Yeti is involved in the plot, it is the two werewolf women (and not the Yeti) who transform Waldemar into a werewolf in this film, thus giving him yet another origin for his lycanthropy [1].
Cast
- Paul Naschy as Waldemar Daninsky
- Mercedes Molina as Sylvia Lacombe
- Silvia Solar as Wandesa
- Gil Vidal as Larry Talbot
- Luis Induni as Sekkar Khan
- Josep Castillo Escalona as Prof. Lacombe
- Ventura Oller as Ralph
- Verónica Miriel as Melody
- Juan Velilla as Norman
- Carmen Cervera
- Pepa Ferrer as Yanika
- José Luis Chinchilla as Temugin
- Fernando Ulloa as Lama
- Juan Ollé
- Ana María Mauri as Princesa Ulka
- Gaspar ‘Indio’ González as Tigre
- Víctor Israel as Joel
- Eduardo Alcázar
Trivia
This film ignored the events from the earlier films The Fury of the Wolfman (1970) and Curse of the Devil (1972), and provided an all-new origin for Waldemar’s lycanthropy, having the curse transmitted by the bites of not one, but two, vampire women [2].
Reviews
On monstermoviekid.wordpress.com, the reviewer notes that “This one is an oddity because on many levels it’s one of the lesser Naschy films I’ve seen so far. The plot seems all over the place and the new origin story really doesn’t make much sense. There seems to be a lot of padding and plot points there are clearly not necessary. On the surface, it’s a bit of a mess. Yet, I really enjoyed this one.” [2].
A review on horror101withdrac.blogspot.com states that “Throughout the engaging adventure, I found myself wondering what might happen were a bigfoot to be bitten by a werewolf…and getting legitimately excited by the prospect. Sadly, the answer is not revealed here, but it remains enjoyably furry fare, directed by Iglesias under his “M. I. Bonns” moniker.” [3].
Cody Meirick on November 11, 2023