Night of the Werewolf aka The Craving (Paul Naschy, 1981)

A truly good time at the movies, Night of the Werewolf is a Gothic Spanish horror that's atmospheric, unpredictable, creepy, silly, full of great images, funny without being campy, and serious without being ponderous. It also has some of the most amusing exposition I've ever heard. If you have to have your characters deliver chunks of plot information in a flow of conversation that actual humans would never engage in, do it Naschy-style.

Most of the many titles applied to this film give the werewolf all the attention, but I think the '80s VHS title, The Craving, is the most appropriate, covering the thematic and character bases of a movie that has more bases than the U.S. military. We've got a 17th century prologue followed by a comic relief scene in the present, grave robbing, scientific study, reanimated dead, a werewolf, vampires, Elizabeth Bathory, a castle in the country, rat-infested tombs, crossbow vigilante justice, bandits, many beautiful women, a count that looks like he stepped off the cover of a paperback romance novel (with a little burly pro wrestler thrown in), Satanism, bathing in blood, a lot of sex, glowing crosses, a devoutly religious disfigured woman who survived being burned at the stake and who knows the occult lay of the occult land, ritual, black magic, and even a few poolside hijinks. There's a lot going on here, and most of it's really fun.

Night of the Werewolf was the ninth of the 12 times writer/director/actor Paul Naschy played Count Waldemar Daninsky between 1968 and 2004, with, confusingly, each movie giving a different origin for the Count's werewolfery. In this movie, Waldemar has been turned into a werewolf by Elizabeth Bathory, the 16th and 17th century countess who supposedly bathed in virgins' blood to remain youthful. This movie positions her as a Satanically powerful uber-vampire. Waldemar here is a nice guy who hates wolfing out. He's relieved in the prologue when the Hungarians execute him, and he's not too enthused when a grave robbing incident gone awry reanimates him in the present.

Meanwhile, three gorgeous Spanish scientists, Erika (Silvia Aguilar), Barbara (Pilar Alcon), and Karen (Azucena Hernandez) travel to the Carpathians to research the newly discovered tomb of Elizabeth Bathory (Julia Saly). They don't bring any scientific equipment, so I'm not quite sure what the hell the research is all about, but it's not important. Erika has been communing with the spirit of Bathory and secretly turning Satanic, so Barbara and Karen have no idea of the insanity to come. 

The women survive a bandit attack with help from a mysterious stranger and make it to the castle. They meet the reanimated Waldemar, who helps them out and lets them stay at his place. Waldemar is assisted by the aforementioned disfigured woman Mircalla (Beatriz Elorrieta), who knows that Waldemar wants to stop wolfing out, that Karen will fall in love with him and has a shot at saving his soul, that Erika is secretly evil and plans to bring Bathory back to life, and that shit is about to go down. Mircalla is also in love with Waldemar but her devout Christianity and clairvoyant skills make her realize she's got to stay in her third wheel role if she wants Waldemar to be saved. As the J. Geils Band once sang, love stinks. Alright, I think that mostly covers it, although at least 15 other major things happen.

As the film progresses, Naschy slowly cranks the Gothic dial to full Gothic. The fog rolls in, the vampire women appear in dark silhouette or white pancake makeup and float through the frame, candles and torches light the night, large silver bejewelled crosses are wielded, costumes and sets are lavishly decorated, bright red blood pours.

Night of the Werewolf does a great job blending classic and modern sensibilities. It's an old-fashioned throwback to Hammer, Universal monster movies, the Gothic tradition, the elements of classic horror fiction, and Naschy's own '60s and '70s Euro-horror past, but it has just enough '80s self-awareness to put a little sting in its tail.

I also need to mention the insane opening credits sequence. After the 17th century prologue, the film freezes on the death mask placed over Count Waldemar's face, the titles come up, a kick-ass prog/funk/Eurodisco track kicks in (for whatever reason, the composer is uncredited) the title disappears, and the freeze frame remains on screen for a full minute as the score plays. No other credits. Just the frozen image and the music. The other credits eventually appear, one at a time, very slowly, while the track plays out. It's like Naschy was vibing so hard to the jams that he had to stretch out the credits to get the full track played. I salute this decision.

I had a great time watching this. That's pretty much it. No smartypants analysis to make. I was coming off a horrendous week (a freak ice storm made my wife and I lose power in our house for an entire week, including all of last weekend, and a big tree branch damaged our roof), so I was in a pretty amazing mood last night with power restored, beer in hand, and movie on the TV, so any movie reviewed this week was probably going to seem like the greatest thing I'd ever seen. Despite all that, I think you're going to enjoy this one, too, if you're a physical media type (it's not currently streaming anywhere), and you want to see something with a little bit of everything. Naschy lives.