My cohort Jose loves Paul Naschy films. This month’s Meatloaf theme was an obvious pick for him. I have never seen a Nashy film until now. They are European monster and occult fare, for the most part. Naschy is famous for being the actor to have played a werewolf the most times on film. So I decided to see one of his hairy horror movies.

Elvira and Genevieve are two young, pretty girls on a road trip that will soon turn sour. Genevieve is doing research on the occult and in particular on a medieval witch for her college thesis. Something or other happens and their stuck on a country road. The soft-spoken yet badass Waldemar Daninsky (played by Naschy) comes to their aid and offer they stay at his home for a few days to rest up. They agree and have dinner with their mysterious host and chat a bit. Genevieve tells Waldemar she’s looking for the grave of this vampire witch buried nearby. They agree to go looking for it in the morning. Waldemar conveniently forgets to tell the girls that he’s also living with his mental case sister and that he’ s a muthafucking WEREWOLF...he conveniently forgets.

In the morning they do some exploring and find the grave. Genevieve decides to open it up and further desecrate it by removing a silver cross and take pictures. While handling the cross Genevieve cuts her wrist with the sharp end of the cross and her blood drips on the remains of the corpse. As I’m seeing the blood drip on the witches open skull mouth I know all too well what will happen next, or soon. I also ask myself if Waldemar is a werewolf and must know about occult things, why he helps them do this shit. At night the vampire witch comes to life, seduces and bites Genevieve, turning her into a creature of the night. They go about appearing and disappearing trying to recruit new souls. At about this point Waldemar changes into a werewolf. I think he does this like three times in the film. It looks pretty good and intense, with plenty of fur and froth at the mouth. He rips some guys throat out. Later on he reveals his secret to Elvira, who falls in love with him and they have sex. He tells her she can ward off the vampires with the silver cross, but she must be careful. Apparently she did not heed this for Genevieve manages to seduce her and turn her into a vampire. Waldemar turns into a werewolf and hunts down Genevieve, and after a scuffle, rips her throat out. That seems to be the primary way to kill folks when you’re a werewolf - ripping their throats out. That works for me. Once she’s dead Elvira is no longer a vampire.

In the third act the vampire witch has captured Elvira and her policeman ex-boyfriend and shackled them inside a dungeon. I say ex-boyfriend because Elvira now has the hots for the werewolf man. How do you fall in love with a werewolf dude in a week, and how is she going to explain that to her ex boyfriend? Waldemar saves the day by freeing them and turning into a werewolf to battle the vampire witch. Elvira then shows the werewolf her love by killing him with the silver cross.

I guess now she can leave with her policeman boyfriend and be lucky enough to survive a one night stand with a werewolf. I remember seeing Waldemar use the cross against the vampires. Wouldn’t it harm him, well his hands? I am not a huge fan of European monster films. I can’t say much because I haven’t seen many unlike my friend Jose. The one thing I enjoyed was Naschy. His performance as the reclusive werewolf man was excellent. If you like these types of films I reckon you’ll like this one. I didn’t feel much tension or suspense and though the settings were great looking it wasn’t enough. The vampire witch character had no depth whatsoever. But I will end on one note. I would not mind seeing Nashy in action again.

- Jorge Antonio Lopez