Night of the Werewolf (1985)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Very well executed

Best movie ever!

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Three Euro babes are leaving Rome for Hungary, making the trek in hopes to discover the grave of the infamous Countess Elizabeth Bathory. One of the women in particular has a keen interest in the dark arts, and believes she has the power to resurrect the dead countess.But before the ancient sepulchre is discovered, none other than the hombre lobo himself, Waldemar Daninsky, a consort of Bathory's, introduces himself to the group of women.The Craving, aka. Night of the Werewolf is certainly among the best of Naschy's films in which he plays Daninsky the lycanthrope. The movie is very well shot, scored, and is haunting and scary in places. It stumbles toward the end due to a few extraneous characters - grave robbers and thieves who don't serve much purpose - but besides that, it's a must see for Euro horror fans.If you want more Naschy, don't miss Horror Rises From the Tomb. If you want more Naschy as Waldemar Daninsky, see The Werewolf vs the Vampire Woman.

Like many Euro-horrors, this film can be bought under a variety of different names. I picked this little gem up via Amazon.com for a couple bucks, under the title The Craving, and was not letdown.The film opens with Paul Naschy getting staked in the heart with a silver cross while his cohort, Elizabeth Bathory (Julia Saly) is sent to death for witchcraft and murder. Fast-forward several centuries and we get three college girls trying to locate Bathroy's tomb while some grave robbers find Naschy's tomb and remove the silver cross in his heart. Of course, once the cross is removed, Naschy is able to terrorize the countryside as a werewolf again.Paul takes up residence in a castle and offers lodging to the college girls while they search for the tomb. The ringleader of the girls, the ravishing Silvia Aguilar, has desires of her own: bringing Elizabeth Bathory back to life. Paul, who is a decent guy when not a werewolf, tries to thwart Silvia's plans while he falls for her friend Azucena Hernandez. But when Silvia resurrects Miss Bathory, all the fun begins.STORY: $$$$ (We've see his premise before: lovely college girls searching for ruins and falling into evil and the manly clutches of Paul Naschy, but this doesn't detract from the entertainment value. Paul Naschy, who also directed this feature, spices up the genre with more baddies. We get werewolves, vampires and undead Goliaths here).VIOLENCE: $$$ (While in full werewolf get-up, Paul gets to devour some poor folks. The vampire babes make a few attacks but they aren't as gory as the scenes with Naschy in face makeup).ACTING: $$$$ (Paul Naschy is first rate here. He also shows a good hand for direction, creating some creepy images. His ladies are quite good as well. Julia Saly is terrific as Elizabeth Bathory and Azucena Hernandez is wonderful as the good girl that Naschy must keep safe from all the supernatural bumps in the night. Silvia Aguilar is the best of the lot as the twisted twist determined to bring evil back from the grave. Her menacing looks are cold and sensual at the same time, making her a perfect actress for this role of desirable vixen).NUDITY: $$ (Paul kills a topless broad who was about to get naughty with her man in an abandoned castle. Also, Silvia Aguilar shows her amazing breasts when she washes them in a basin before heading off to bed).

Night of the Werewolf (1981) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Countess Elizabeth Bathory (Julia Saly) and her servant Waldemar Daninsky (Paul Naschy) are put to death because of their connections to Satan. Flash-forward several hundred years and a grave robber pulls out the silver cross from Daninsky's heart, which brings him back to life as a werewolf. Soon the Countess also returns to life and before long they are battling.NIGHT OF THE WEREWOLF was the eighth (or seventh, depending on how you look at it) time that Naschy played his most famous role and it's also the first time he directed himself in the part. This here was released in America as THE CRAVING and it's a remake of Naschy's WEREWOLF SHADOW, which played in America as THE WEREWOLF VS THE VAMPIRE WOMAN. For the most part there are a lot of good things here but at the same time there's no question that this falls well short of the original film as well as several others in the series.What I enjoyed the most about this film is obviously the werewolf. I thought the transformation scenes were good enough considering the budget they were working on and there's no question that the look of the werewolf is excellent. There are some really great an striking shots of the werewolf including one of the final ones with a ton of gore spewing out of its mouth. As you probably know, Naschy was an expert at playing Daninsky by this time and he turns in another fine performance. Saly is also very good in her role and there are plenty of beautiful women throughout.With all of that said, there are certainly some flaws in the film including some of the direction. I never really thought that Naschy built up a very strong atmosphere. I'd also argue that the love story thrown in is rather stupid and at times laughable and especially how Naschy and the woman don't know each other one minute and in the next scene they're madly in love! None of the dialogue scenes are all that captivating either but what keeps you glued to the film is the werewolf and thankfully that there is strong enough to recommend the movie.

"Night of the Werewolf" is one of the more entertaining entries in the series.**SPOILERS**Working on a project, university students Erika, (Silvia Aguilar) Karen, (Azucena Hernandez) and Barbara, (Pilar Alcon) head into the Hungarian mountains, looking for a special grave-site. Told of a special route to get to the castle where it's held, they luck upon it and decide to explore the area. Inside, they come across Waldemar Daninsky, (Paul Naschy) who nearly startles them but offers whatever hospitality in the castle they have. Realizing that he's a werewolf, their feelings are suddenly put to the test when the others discover that one of them has raised Countess Elizabeth Bathory, (Julia Saly) who Waldemar was a servant for, from the grave to take over the world. Using love as a prime force, they try to put a stop to it before they wind up enslaved in their clutches.The Good News: This here is a rather pleasing Gothic affair. The fact that this one takes place mostly inside a grand castle, filled with all the touch-marks of old-school Gothic gloriousness, is a great site and one of the film's biggest pluses. The ruining castle set looks fantastic, complete with the crumbling stone walls, a graveyard on-site, the catacombs entrance and supports over the cob-webbed filled ruins that are fully realized and quite believable. From there, the film gets even more Gothic with the insides. This one has plenty to go on, with the interior rooms, candle-lit locations and the other really big sets in here make this a real sight for the eyes, which allows the film a lot of really impressive scenery. The impressiveness extends over into other areas of the film, especially the individualistic scenes in here. The shot of the two vampires bursting through a door before two victims bathed in an eerie white back-glow is simply impressive, as is another shot of a victim being covered from head-to-toe in blood for a ceremonial black mass sacrifice ritual and a shot of the vampire and werewolf fighting on a precipice that nearly falls over several times. This one here has a generous helping of impressive scenes that get a lot better as it goes on. The film's best period is definitely in the end, where it engages in one long, lengthy well-paced fight between the main villains. The action is well-choreographed, making it look great and has plenty of spots that are just fantastic. The hurl onto the casket is especially note-worthy, there's plenty of grappling and a whole host more to enjoy about this particular sequence. That's so long and fun is part of the fun, and altogether this one of the highlights of the film and one of the main reasons to see this one by itself. The werewolf make-up doesn't seem that bad, looking like it actually covers the face a lot better than previous incarnations and getting rid of the ridiculous fangs that were too big to go back to a more traditional-style look that goes into the chest as well. The last big positive is the big body count. It's not huge, but it's got a lot more considering the small cast, and there's a couple of brutal ones as well. Nothing like the others, but still good enough. As it is, though, this is a great Gothic masterpiece.The Bad News: There isn't a lot wrong with this one. The fact that it isn't as out-and-out gory and sleazy as the past incarnations, despite offering up plenty of opportunities to do so, is something that might cause irritation. During the course of the film, there's barely anything from these two elements which will come as a pretty big surprise. The amount of kills on display would've had some sort of blood in the proceedings, and being as graphic as the kills are, a little more at the least would've been fine, considering how the others were before it. Despite the high amount of scenes that required nude participants, that there's only a couple mild points here and there for only a few smatterings placed into several inconspicuous scenes that have a couple of little moments in them. This one misses out on opportunities to bump up the film, and is something to be missed out on. The only other problem is that, by dwelling so pertinently on the Gothic flavors, this one feels a little slow-paced, especially at the middle segments. The romance angle eats up some of it, especially with the longer time nearly making it unbearable. These here are the film's big flaws.The Final Verdict: A Gothic masterpiece at a time when it wasn't fashionable, this one is a marvelously fun and enjoyable experience without a whole lot wrong. Highly recommended for Naschy fans, as well as those who enjoy the more Gothic sensibilities of films, while those who aren't foreign fanatics won't find much with this one.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Nudity, Language and a mild sex scene