L'empreinte de Dracula

On the surface, this movie uses the same basic plot as several other of Jacinto Molina's movies ... he is cursed with lycanthropy and must find a woman who loves him enough to kill him and end the curse. However, it is the setting and the back story which makes "Curse of the Devil" stand out.

Four hundred years ago, an ancestor of Daninsky executed a bunch of satanic witches who swore a rather drawn-out and unfrightening curse upon him. One day, Waldemar is out hunting a wolf and is shocked and saddened when he shoots it and discovers that it is a man. Apparently he didn't know he was hunting a werewolf (why was he using silver bullets then?), and he also didn't know that the person he killed was a descendant of the previously mentioned witches. 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. However, it can be thought of as an improved remake of his first movie "Mark of the Wolfman", and it kind of works as a historical prequel to the other movies as well. It's certainly one of the more entertaining Daninsky movies ... the opening sequence is one of the funniest things I've ever seen (unintentionally, of course), but mostly due to the awful dubbing rather than anything else. Yes, awful dubbing. Awful, awful. Bleurgh. In fact, all pretty much all the problems here seem to be caused with the dubbing. I believe that in it's original language this may in fact be (shock horror) a GOOD horror film. Often these movies can feel like a bit of a chore to watch, but not this one! The period costumes and settings are realistic and cool. There's a very nice castle, for all you archaeologists out there. Most of the women once again wear those flowing sheer nightgowns which Jacinto Molina seems to love so much ... and they, of course, throw themselves at Waldemar screaming "deflower me! deflower me!" The acting seems decent all round, but you can't really tell due to the terrible, terrible dubbing. Director Carlos Aured worked with Molina on several movies, but this was the only Waldemar Daninsky movie he directed -- he did later do some uncredited work on Alice Cooper's "Leviatán". 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. And it has a great ending, too.

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 . The king of Spanish terror cinema as immortal Wolfman Waldemar Daninsky in this passable entry . This time , once again Waldemar stricken by ancient curse that turns into Werewolf at the full moon . 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 . Before dieing in the flames the countess puts a curse on Daninsky and his descendants . Things happen that have never been seen by human beings, the blood flows like vintage wine . Four centuries later, Waldemar Daninsky accidentally shoots a gypsy while chasing a wolf. The angry gypsies, who knew of the curse, summon up the Satan and the gorgeous Ilona (Ines Morales) is chosen to seduce the young lord. During a night of love, Ilona bites Waldemar who turns into a werewolf killing his preys on full moon nights. Waldemar whose ancestors executed a witch is turned into a werewolf by modern-day descendants of the executed witch. His murders are first attributed to a mad killer escaped from the asylum . Meantime a constable (Mariano Vidal Molina) is investigating the violent and ominous killings . Waldemar, who suspects the murderous is none other than himself, falls in love with Kinga (Falcon) , the daughter of a professor from Budapest who lives at a countryside house along with his wife and another daughter . While Waldemar goes on a murderous rampage every time the moon is full and unleashing his powers at night to terrorize innocents round abouts . 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 .

Continental Europe's biggest horror star again with his classic character and horrifying to spectator . 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 . The first entry about Waldemar was ¨The mark of the Wolfman (1967)¨ by Enrique Eguiluz , it was such a box office hit that Jacinto went on filming successive outings as ¨Night of Walpurgis¨, ¨Fury of the Wolfman¨ , ¨Doctor Jekill and the Wolfman¨ , and once again¨The return of the Walpurgis¨, ¨Howl of the devil¨. After ¨The craving¨ it was such a box office disaster that Jacinto was bankrupt. 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 movie has a bit of ridiculous gore with loads of blood similar to tomato and is occasionally an engaging horror movie full of attacks , curses, and several other things. This time Paul Nashy/Jacinto Molina exhibits little breast but he was a weightlifting champion. Here Waldemar takes on villagers , gypsies and a constable in some moving attack scenes. Pretty slow going, but hang in there for the nice make-up Daninsky turning into werewolf . In the film turns up usual actors from the 60s and 70s who starred as secondary cast many Spaghetti , horror , Gialli co-productions such as : Mariano Vidal Molina ,Jose Yepes , Eduardo Calvo and Maria Silva . Acceptable and atmospheric cinematography by Francisco Sanchez . Filmed in Toledo , Manzanares and Navacerrada, Madrid and Talamanca De Jarama, location in which were shot most part these horror movies. Eerie and creepy musical score by Anton Garcia Abril , saga's usual . 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¨ . The picture will appeal to Paul Naschy fans and terror genre enthusiast

"El Retorno De Walpurgis" aka. "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. While "La Noche..." played in the present (1971), this film takes place in the past, presumably in the late 19th century. 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. Before being burned at the stake however, the devil-worshiping lady put a curse on Daninski's family, vowing to be back for revenge... Several centuries later, the kind-hearted Waldemar Daninski (also Naschy) lives in the castle... More than its predecessors, "El Retorno De Walpurgis" gives a little background information about how the Daninsky-curse came to existence. The film is quite typical for a Naschy-flick. On the one hand the story is often extremely cheesy, but on the other hand it has moments of great style. 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. And this is definitely the case with "El Retorno De Walpurgis". 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. The fact that the werewolf-makeup is not exactly frightening does in no way lessen this film's cult-value. Low-budget Spanish Horror-exploitation from the 70s is a supremely entertaining kind of cinema, and Paul Naschy is its king. While this "Retorno De Walpurgis" may not be a must-see, it is definitely a highly entertaining film that my fellow Eurohorror buffs should enjoy! Paul Naschy Forever!

This not one of your better Paul Naschy/"Hombre Lobo" movies, but it's not a total waste of time either. It begins in Medieval times where Count Daninsky (a Polish count?--okay, why not) kills his nemesis Count Barthory in a joust and then burns alive his wife Elizabeth, a notorious Satan-worshipper famous for bathing in the blood of virgins. Barthory curses Danisky with the promise that one of her descendants will someday curse one of his descendants with lycanthropy (THAT must have worried him). Cut to more or less the present-day where the modern-day Count Danisky (Naschy again)nearly runs over a woman, who has just left a coven meeting (featuring a naked orgy with the shadow of the Devil). 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). The woman runs away and is promptly killed off by an axe-wielding escaped lunatic lurking in the woods for no good reason.

The oblivious Danisky doesn't worry too much about what happened to his bed-mate, but immediately falls in love with the daughter of a neighboring landowner. But of course, he also doesn't turn down the charms of her curious younger sister(who puts the "bare" in barely legal). In one the most memorable lines she tells him that she has "come a virgin but (is) not leaving as one". She doesn't have to worry it turns out because he turns into a werewolf in mid-coitus. Soon the bodies begin to pile up. At first, the killings are blamed on the axe-wielding lunatic and even Danisky himself, protected by a loyal servant, remains oblivious, but then the lunatic is found dead too and the angry villagers start howling for werewolf blood. And what about the satanic coven?--oh, never mind.

Obhviously there is no way to tie all the incredibly random threads of this movie together satisfactorily and they really don't. Basically it ends more or less the same sappy and tragic way as all these movies do. Still if you like the "Hombre Lobo" series, you'll probably like it. It's not as good as "Werewolf Shadow" (which it is supposedly a direct sequel of), but better than entries like "The Werewolf vs. the Yeti" or pretty much all the "comeback" films Naschy did in 80's and 90's. Recommended to Naschy fans if no one else.

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. In "Curse of the Devil", all the events revolve on the Night of Walpurgis. This holiday is kind of like Christmas but exclusively for witches, Satanists and everyone else who's up to no good. 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. This is not the type of movie you watch for its unbearable suspense or the masterfully written dialogues. It's a simple European exploitation effort from the 70's in which a lot of girls get fully naked and even more poor souls have their throats bit open. The gore is plentiful but never really shocking and the acting performances vary from bad to…very, very bad! Naschy's transformation into a werewolf is hilarious instead of creepy and the sub plot about an escaped murderous lunatic is just too implausible. Recommended…but only to Euro-horror fanatics and fans of Paul Naschy. PS: the indicated running time of 73 minutes must be taken from a severely cut version. The DVD I watched (Dutch release) runs 82 minutes and shows every butchering in great and tasteless details. Go for that one!