El retorno de Walpurgis

Plot synopsis:
Prologue: It is medieval Transylvania. Irineus Daninsky has just slain
Lord Bathory, head of a coven of witches and worshippers of Satan. His widow
Elizabeth is holding a Black Mass in order to exact revenge when Daninsky and
his troops crash the ceremony. Later, as the witches are all hung and Elizabeth
is burned at the stake, she curses Daninsky. One of Daninsky's descendants will
accidentally kill one of the Bathory descendants and set in motion a curse
which will bring hell on earth to all succeeding generations of Daninskys.Many generations later, Waldemar (the last remaining Daninsky) [Paul Naschy] is out in
the forest hunting a wolf when he accidentally shoots a man (actually a
werewolf). This sets in motion the curse, initiated by the man's family of
gypsies, who select one of them, Ilona [Ines Morales], to infiltrate Daninsky's home and make
him fall in love with her. One night, as Waldemar is traveling through the
Borgo Pass on his way to Bistritz, his carriage comes upon a Ilona lying
in the road. Waldemar cares for her at his castle until she is well. Waldemar's
maid Malitza [Ana Farra] warns that Ilona is up to no good, but Waldemar has already taken
her as a lover. On the eve of Walpurgis, Ilona takes a knife and a wolf's skull
from her things, calls upon the dreaded Grey Shadow, slits her own wrist
baptizing the wolf skull with her blood, and then presses the fangs of the wolf
into Waldemar's chest, just above his left breast. Ilona then runs from the
castle, where she is presently chopped up by the ax of insane murderer Janos
Villeya, who has escaped from police custody and gone into hiding on Daninsky's
land.Some days later, as Waldemar is recuperating from his wound and suffering
emotionally from the betrayal and loss of Ilona, he learns that an engineer
named Laszlo Wilowa [Eduardo Calvo] from Budapest has just moved into the area, along with his
blind wife Irina and their two daughters, Kinga and Maria. One day, as Waldemar
is hunting for rabbit, he comes upon Kinga hanging from a cliff and crying for
help. Waldemar helps her down, meets her family, including her precocious
younger sister Maria. As the days pass, Waldemar finds that he is enjoying
Kinga's company. Meanwhile, Kinga is falling in love with Waldemar.One afternoon, Waldemar receives a note from Kinga [Fabiola Falcon] in which she asks him
to meet her at an abandoned cottage near the mill. Just as Waldemar arrives,
she is attacked by the insane murderer. Fortunately, Waldemar saves her,
stabbing Janos in the stomach. As Janos runs off, Waldemar turns to Kinga, only
to find that it is Maria [Maritza Olivares]. In an effort to upstage her older sister, Maria has
decided to give her virginity to Waldemar. Waldemar tries to resist but, when
Maria disrobes, he sweeps her into his arms. They make love, until the full
moon rises and Waldemar suddenly changes into a werewolf and kills Maria.
Malitza, who has been watching, drags Maria's body into the woods and leaves it
to be found as yet another of Janos's victims.Meanwhile, the mark of the werewolf (a red pentagram) has made its
appearance on Waldemar's breast, and he has been changing into a werewolf on
the nights of the full moon, during which he unknowingly kills some villagers.
On the very night that Kinga tells Waldemar that she is pregnant, Waldemar
kills her father. Blame for the killings has so far fallen on the escaped
murderer, whom some say is a werewolf. Finally, Malitza explains to Waldemar
what has been happening and tells him about the curse. Malitza promises to take
care of it, so she reveals the truth to Kinga and gives her a silver dagger.One night, some children playing ball discover Janos's body in an advanced
state of decomposition. It becomes apparent to everyone that someone else has
been doing the killing, and all eyes turn to Waldemar when they remember how he
was marked by Ilona on the night of Walpurgis. The villagers decide to storm
the castle and kill Waldemar. As the villagers, with their guns and torches and
dogs, close in on Waldemar, Kinga gets to him first and stabs him through the
heart with the silver dagger.Epilogue: Five or six years have passed since Waldemar's death. Kinga and
her son visit his grave, and we are reminded of Elizabeth Bathory's curse --
that it will extend to all of Waldemar Daninsky's descendents.Original Synopsis by bj_kuehl.

Tags: violence, cult, murder, romantic, flashback

Review:
Acceptable follow-up with Paul Naschy re-taking his immortal character , the Polish Waldemar Daninsky.
Outing based on the mythic Wolfman Waldemar Daninsky always played by the great Paul Naschy .
Acceptable entry about Werewolf with the unforgettable Waldemar Daninsky-Jacinto Molina , under pseudonym Paul Naschy .
During Middle Age , a nasty inquisitor named Ireneus Daninsky (Paul Naschy or Jacinto Molina) has Countess Bathory ( Maria Silva and in ¨The night of Walpurgis¨ played by Patty Shepard) burned alive on a pole and her women followers hanged .
When Maria (Maritza Olivares) , Kinga's jealous younger sister, manages to love Daninsky and sleep with him , but Waldemar , once again turned into a werewolf seeking vengeance .
Jacinto Molina Aka Paul Naschy ,who recently passed away , was actor, screenwriter and director of various film about the personage based on fictitious character, the Polish count Waldemar Daninsky .
He was forced to turn to Japan for making artist documentaries, as he filmed 'Madrid Royal Palace and Museum of Prado' and he gets financing from Japanese producers for ¨The human beasts¨, the first co-production Spanish-Japan and followed ¨The beast and the magic sword(1982)¨ that is filmed in Japan and for the umpteenth time ¨Licantropo(1998) and finally even directed by Fred Olen Ray in ¨Tomb of the Werewolf(2004) with Michelle Bauer.It's a B series entertainment with abundant sensationalistic scenes , gratuitous nudism and a Naif style and plenty of flaws and gaps .
The motion picture with Spanisth title ¨El Retorno de Walpurgis¨ has various international titles as Curse of the Devil" , "Return of the Werewolf" (informal literal title) "The Black Harvest of Countess Dracula" , "The Return of Walpurgis was written by Naschy and professionally directed by Carlos Aured , a slick craftsman who directed all kind of genres, especially Erotic and Terror for Paul Naschy as ¨Horror rises from tomb¨,¨Vengeance of the mummy¨ and , ¨Return of Walpurgis¨ .
Paul Naschy  the living and already legendary icon of Spanish exploitation cinema  once again suffers from overabundant body hair growth in this entertaining and very gory episode of the "Hombre-Lobo" cycle.
These fun movies don't exactly follow each other, but they all star Naschy as Count Waldemar Daninsky; a noble and honorable man but with the misfortune of transforming into a bloodthirsty werewolf whenever the moon is full.
On this night, poor Waldemar is struck by a terrible curse that was placed upon him several centuries ago, when his Witchfinder-ancestor single-handedly wiped out an entire coven of devil worshipers and burnt their leader.
Following a series of macabre events (a bizarre hunting accident, a bloody ritual performed by a sexy witch), Waldemar becomes a werewolf and kills a lot of people (preferably gorgeous women) in the forest surrounding his land.
As a result of this, the witches finally take their revenge upon him, sending one of their minions to curse him on the night of the Walpurgis ...This yet another stand-alone movie which doesn't appear to fit in with the rest of the Waldemar Daninsky saga.
His directing is pretty good for a Daninsky movie, although the editing and placement of the scenes is a little off sometimes."Curse of the Devil" is one of the better Daninsky movies of the seventies, and certainly among the more entertaining.
So a bit slow is acceptable, in my opinion.I have only seen one other Paul Naschy film (an edited bad print of Werewolf Vs. the Vampire Women) so I can't really compare this film to his others.
While I would say that the original foreign language track with subtitles is ultimately the preferred set of circumstances, the dubbing job on this film is better than most, especially for a lower budget film such as this.I would say that any fans of Paul Naschy who haven't seen this film should track it down right away.
And any fans of Euro-horror should take a look as well.The DVD is released under the title Curse of the Devil and based on that, the description I'd read of the film, and the opening minutes, I expected a sort of mix between Satan worshiping witches and the werewolf story.
This was my fifth entry from Paul Naschy's signature series of Waldemar Daninsky werewolf films  the others, with their respective ratings, were FRANKENSTEIN'S BLOODY TERROR (1968; **), THE FURY OF THE WOLFMAN (1970; BOMB), WEREWOLF SHADOW (1970; *1/2), NIGHT OF THE HOWLING BEAST (1975; **1/2) and THE CRAVING (1980; **1/2).
As can be seen, they're a pretty mixed bag considering their reputation among horror-film fans; what's interesting in them is that, as opposed to Lon Chaney's Lawrence Talbot series for Universal (which were clearly the template for the later Spanish variant), Naschy/Daninsky gets cursed with lycanthropy all over again with each new entry  and the werewolf make-up is also different from one film to the other!
While I watched all the other films via ragged Public Domain  and, as far as I can recall, pan & scan  prints, CURSE OF THE DEVIL was culled from Anchor Bay's R1 DVD: however, this meant that the extra clarity and tidiness of the transfer also served to expose the film's budgetary limitations (particularly the fake gore) and slipshod technique all the more; the nail in the coffin, then, is supplied by listless dubbing and the ludicrous English dialogue (with a couple of sure-fire howlers  when the police report with news of an escaped lunatic to landowner Daninsky, he can only offer the deadpan remark "Sounds bad" and, later, during a village meeting concerning the brutal killings by the werewolf, the locals lash out at the police's inadequacy  causing the sole representative of the law, ridiculously outnumbered, to rebut this onslaught with the limp protestation "Look, man, I'm all alone here!").
Anyway, the plot starts off with Naschy as a zealous medieval knight who despatches a Satanic cult: a witch subsequently curses him as she's being burned at the stake; the scene then relocates to a few centuries later, where the latest Daninsky lord shoots a gypsy werewolf while hunting: the latter turns out to have been a descendant of his ancestor's enemies and a young woman is thereby commissioned, after having cavorted with the devil during an invocation, to give Naschy the mark of the wolfman.
The second half of the narrative sees our hero befriend a couple of young sisters  one loves him (and is finally instructed on how to kill a werewolf by Naschy's long-suffering old servant-woman), while the other is a nymphomaniac (whom he kills when transformed, as he also does the girls' parents!).There's little more to say except that the film is eminently watchable in a naïve sort of way  but it's certainly not of the quality that the "Euro-Cult" stable could deliver at its best.
"Curse Of The Devil" of 1973 is already the seventh film in which Spanish Horror/Exploitation legend Paul Naschy plays Werewolf Waldemar Daninski.
These Waldemar Daninski films (many of them carry an "Hombre Lobo" title) are not exactly connected with each other (some of them play in the past, some in the present), but they all revolve around Waldemar Daninski, a usually kind-hearted man who is turned into a Werewolf by a curse.
Unlike the title might make believe "El Retorno De Walpurgis" is not a direct sequel to the foregoing "La Noche De Walpurgis" (aka "The Werewolf Vs. Vampire Women") of 1971, the most famous of the Waldemar Daninski films.
It is also not quite clear whether the Waldemar Daninski in this film is the same, or an ancestor of the other - he has quite the same traits of character, however.In medieval times knight Irenius Daninski (Paul Naschy) rid the world of a coven of devil-worshipers when he killed their leader in battle, and had his witch wife burned and their followers hanged.
Several centuries later, the kind-hearted Waldemar Daninski (also Naschy) lives in the castle...
As far as I am considered, a Naschy flick is always worth watching, as they mostly provide a great atmosphere, and practically always provide two elements that all my fellow Exploitation-enthusiasts should appreciate: Loads of sleaze and female nudity, as well as stylish (if sometimes cheesy) gory outbursts.
The film is filled with gore scenes, which are quite nicely done for a budget that was supposedly quite low, and all the female characters have exhibitionist tendencies, most memorably the stunningly beautiful Maritza Olivares and Fabiona Falcón.
Low-budget Spanish Horror-exploitation from the 70s is a supremely entertaining kind of cinema, and Paul Naschy is its king.
Paul Naschy, Spain's numero uno horror star of the 70s, hams it up in this cheesy slice of Euro-schlock.From the impressive opening scenes (in which we get a beheading, a cut throat, several hangings and a burning at the stake) right through to the end credits, this fun film delivers the goods  gratuitous nudity, some none too convincing gore and hammy acting from all involved.Waldemar Daninsky (Naschy) falls foul of a curse (placed upon his family by a coven of witches centuries before) and becomes a werewolf when the moon is full.
His only hope of salvation is to die by the hand of his true love.Curse of the Devil boasts pretty good production values and at times is very stylish in execution; at other times it is unintentionally funny.
Paul Naschy made a hell of a lot of horror films and, unfortunately, many of them are somewhat less than brilliant.
I'm not a fan of either film at all and I feared this may be another bad example of the cycle, but to my surprise, Curse of the Devil is actually quite good!
It's Walpurgis: Origins as we get the story of how perpetually-cursed Waldemar Daninsky and his lycanthropic ways came to be.
One witch in particular curses the ancestor's family to be cursed forever, although there seems to be some sort of delay I guess as the Daninskys enjoy several centuries of happiness before the curse falls squarely upon modern day Waldemar when he pissed off a gypsy clan by accidentally shooting one of them while hunting.
Paul Naschy portrays his signature role of cursed Polish nobleman / tormented lycanthrope Waldemar Daninsky for the seventh time in "Curse of the Devil".
In this instance, Waldemar finds himself falling for two very sexy sisters.The Daninsky series are fairly self-contained stories; one does not have to worry if they watch the films out of chronological order.
Here, we do get a little more back story as to how an ancestor of Daninsky's was first cursed by Elizabeth Bathory (Maria Silva).Naschy is the heart and soul of the film, delivering an engaging performance that earns ones' sympathies.
The story by Mr. Naschy is good, and the werewolf makeup, hearkening back to Jack Pierces' memorable work on "The Wolf Man", serves its purpose.
The atmosphere and production value are comparable with many other European horror features, although it admittedly would probably play even better if one were able to watch a version with the original language, rather than a dubbed incarnation."Curse of the Devil" isn't in the slightest bit scary, at least not for this viewer, but it's still fun.Seven out of 10..
Curse Of The Devil is the first of Spanish horror star Paul Naschy's movies that I have seen.
Curse Of The Devil does deliver the goods though for cheesy B movie Euro trash horror.
He takes her home and, of course, ends up in bed with her where, after he falls asleep, she takes the opportunity to put a lycanthropic curse on him in an elaborate ritual involving blood and a fake wolf skull (the only potentially greater mystery than why Naschy is catnip to all the beautiful women in these movies is why he keeps sleeping with THEM when something terribly always seems to happen).
Much like Hammer's Curse of the Werewolf, the backstory presented in Curse of the Devil is nice as it provides a reasonable (well, as reasonable as horror movies can be) explanation behind lycanthropy.
These early scenes also have a nice Gothic feel to them and an attention to detail that really adds to the atmosphere.But then Daninsky changes into a werewolf and the whole thing goes downhill.
Most of the werewolf victims in Curse of the Devil look like people who have, for whatever reason, poured marinara sauce on their faces.
Good For What It Is. Don't ask me why but I found myself watching yet another film in the series starring Paul Naschy as Daninsky the werewolf .
If I'm pressed to say why I think there's a subconscious part of me trying to find out if there's a film as bad as that one as aliens try to take over humanity by using the Universal monsters so found myself watching this one known under various titles but probably best known CURSE OF THE DEVIL I was pleasantly surprised by the production values .
Some fans of the Daninsky series might find it slow and talkative but gives a background to the character totally lacking in the other films I've seen but that's the problem if you watch a franchise out of order .
The story itself , Satanists putting a curse on their executioner is very Hammeresque and the production values and feel of the movie - save for some full front female nudity - very much resembles that of Hammer films of the period I can't say CURSE OF THE DEVIL is a great movie but for what it is a , European trash horror movie , it works well enough and I might give the Daninsky films another chance.
Curse of the Devil (1973) ** (out of 4) Disappointing entry in Paul Naschy's Waldemar Daninsky series has his character falling victim to a curse put on his family centuries earlier.
The actual look of the werewolf is quite good as there's a lot more hair this time out and there are several scenes where the blood just gets caught in it for a rather nice effect.
Paul Naschy is Waldemar Daninsky, in what is the 7th in the series.
However, this one gives us a glimpse back to the beginning and the origin of the Daninsky curse when an ancestor runs afoul of Elizabeth Bathory.There are plenty of luscious women and lots of full frontal to enjoy as the movie proceeds.Certainly there is sufficient gore for the most rabid horror fans..
The movie continues many years later as a descendant, Waldemar, kills a wolf which was actually a male member of gypsies who call upon the Devil(a man dressed in a black suit and gloves..quite a surreal sequence in a cave)to have sex in a cavernous worshiping lair swearing to torment him with a curse.
By the end of the film, most of the film's cast are destroyed by Waldemar, in werewolf form.Not too bad, I thought, as far as the series goes.
El Retorno de Walpurgis, or Curse of the Devil as it's more commonly known amongst English speaking audiences, starts in Medieval Europe where Irineus Daninsky (Jacinto Molina under his usual Paul Naschy pseudonym) has a sword fight with some evil spawn of Satan bloke & ends up decapitating him.
Centuries later & Waldemar Daninsky (Jacinto Molina again) accidentally shoots a Bathory descendant which sets the curse in motion.
From that moment on Daninsky is cursed to turn into a Werewolf at every full moon & kill, things become even more complicated when he brutally kills Maria Wilowa (Maritza Olivares) the young sister of Kinga (Fabiola Falcon) the woman he has fallen in love with...Directed by Carlos Aured I thought El Retorno de Walpurgis was a very poor film, both technically & conceptually.
The editing is very poor, the film cuts & moves all over the place & at one point a sequence is edited in such a way that it appeared to me that Daninsky wasn't the Werewolf when in fact he was.
Te Return of Walpurgis is probably one of the best films of the extensive career of Paul Naschy.The movie enjoys a good quality in terms of settings and sets, costumes and story usually with enough media and actors and with excellent photography and dark lighting.The direction of the unjustly forgotten Carlos Aured is very appropriate, with accurate plans and a good narrative pulse that is agile and fresh.The story tells us through a prologue set in the Middle Ages as an inquisitor named Ireneus Daninsky is cursed by members of the Bathory family for interrupting a satanic ritual of these and executed, said curse specifies that if some descendant of Daninsky lineage murders another from the Bathory family this will transform into a horrible monster during full moon nights.The film has a really sublime and disturbing atmosphere, full of darkness, which fits perfectly with the nature of the lycanthrope, which shows a careful makeup, while walking the mountains murdered people.The film contains a bit of gore, castles, many deaths, nudes and maintains a good rhythm during its rather short duration.A good Spanish horror movie, showing that Spain did not have much to envy to other international productions, and that here you could also make quality films.Recommendable..
I like the way Naschy always has to have as many different monsters as possible in his films, it certainly adds something and makes them more fun.There is some truly atrocious dubbing in this film, especially in the scene where he meets his lover's family.
Lots of people get killed and have blood covering their faces, there's also a maggoty body which Naschy liked to include in his films (hey, well all love maggoty bodies!).Naschy himself is once again good value for money, always the likable yet tragic hero of the story.
Outstanding production values (and some nice full frontal nudity throughout) help make Paul Naschy's THE RETURN OF WALPURGIS watchable.
"Curse of the Devil" is one of the best entries in the series.**SPOILERS**During the Spanish Inquisition, Irineus Daninsky, (Jacinto Molina) leads a raid on a Satanic Cult's hideout and captures the entire group, sentencing them to death.