La maldición de la bestia

In this Spanish horror movie a group of scientists travel to Tibet to try and track down the Yeti. While there one of their team is infected with lycanthropy and periodically turns into a werewolf.

This is my first exposure to the Spanish horror icon Paul Naschy, who stars in the lead role here. Seemingly Naschy made many similar films in a long career. On this basis, his back catalogue could do with further investigation. Despite being a low budget affair, The Werewolf and the Yeti throws a lot of ideas at us and certainly tries to entertain. Aside from the two title monsters there are a pair of cannibal vampire cave-girls, a wicked sorceress and a gang of violent bandits. Sadly, while the werewolf has a prominent part to play in proceedings as he goes round killing bad guys, the Yeti only appears at the beginning and the end. The snowy locations and sets are very nice too and add to the overall atmosphere.

This film's main claim to fame has to be its inclusion on the Video Nasty list. It was even one of the titles that remained on the DPP's hit-list right until the very end and so has an added notoriety. However, it really is quite difficult to work out why this should be, as despite some gory moments this is hardly a shocking film. The skinning sequence is probably the most obviously infamous but it's not particularly graphic. Rather than being nasty, this is more of a silly and schlocky film. It should interest werewolf film fanatics and should also offer something to those who enjoy the racier Euro variants on the Hammer horrors.

Waldemar (Paul Naschy), the renowned adventurer, joins an expedition to find the Yeti in the Himalayas. While hiking the mountains, he is captured by two cannibalistic demon nymphets guarding a remote Buddhist temple and becomes their sex slave.

This film ignores the events from the earlier films "The Fury of the Wolfman" (1970) and "Curse of the Devil" (1972), and provided an all-new origin for Waldemar's lycanthropy, having the curse transmitted by the bites of not one, but two, vampire women! The mix of supernatural creatures is certainly a good deal of fun.

The film was banned in the UK by the BBFC under the Video Recordings Act of 1984 and was featured on the "Video Nasties" list. It has allegedly never been released in the UK. But for us lucky Americans, the film is now available on Blu-ray from Scream! Factory. It is fairly bare bones, with no commentary or other features, but we do get to choose between English and Spanish, which is nice.

If you've seen any of Paul Naschy's other 'hombre lobo' films, you probably have a pretty good idea of what to expect from The Werewolf and the Yeti—schlocky dialogue, hammy acting, Naschy once again sporting terrible wolf make-up, some sexy Euro-totty, and a bit of unrealistic bright-red gore. In short, a fun slice of very silly Spanish monster madness.

One can only presume, therefore, that it must have been one hell of a slow day at the office when the BBFC/DPP decided to stick The Werewolf and the Yeti on the Official Nasties list: the film has its unsavoury moments, as do most horror films, but there's nothing to warrant it being lumped with likes of genuinely disturbing flicks such as Cannibal Holocaust, Faces of Death and Gestapo's Last Orgy. Any violence or sadism in The Werewolf and the Yeti is handled in such a camp manner that it's almost impossible to take offence at.

Take the flaying of sexy young scientist Melody (the gorgeous Verónica Miriel) by evil bitch Wandessa (Silvia Solar), for example: the effects are so cheap and unrealistic that one cannot help but find the scene amusing, no matter how repulsive the idea. Likewise, the sight of one of the scientists impaled on a wooden stake (ala Cannibal Holocaust) is rendered laughable by the fact that he is not only still alive, but also capable of holding a conversation with our hero.

Also providing mucho unintentional chuckles: the scene where Naschy kills a pair of semi-naked werewolf/vampire/witch women (but only after having sex with them both, of course); the ridiculous fight between Naschy and dermatologically challenged bandit/warlord Sekkar Khan (Luis Induni); and the rousing finale, in which our hero, transformed into a drooling beast by the full moon, rescues his love Sylvia (Mercedes Molina) from the abominable snowman.

It's all utter nonsense, not at all scary and certainly not nasty enough to deserve being banned, but still worth a go if you're in the mood for a bit of a giggle.

Here's a wacky adventure-horror film with splats of gore, a few sexy ladies and two famous monsters. Made in the 70's, The Werewolf And The Yeti was banned in Britain during the Video Nasty madness of the 80's for reasons even harder to fathom than usual, and stayed banned.

The yeti attacks some folks in Tibet before the credits have rolled, immediately establishing the pace for the film: fast! Within minutes the good guys have thrown together a major expedition and are trekking through the Tibetan mountains in an attempt to find out what weird stuff is going on up there. The answer is complicated. The superstitious sherpas won't stop raving about demons in this land, but the real problem is the shrine-guarding vampire women who like a bit of male-straddling on the one hand and snarling like hyenas as they fight over bloody entrails on the other. The hero does manage to escape from this delicate web of sex and violence, but not before he's been afflicted with the curse of werewolfism! As if life isn't complicated enough, the yeti's still at large and evil raiders are starting to attack folks indiscriminately all over the mountains. This all makes for the sensation of as much action as it sounds like it would. Somehow the film achieves a consistently tense feel, more by the portentous way that everyone talks about the situations they're in than by the actual portrayal of those situations. This isn't to downplay the considerable amount of action that there is, including gunfights, swashbuckling, dungeon torture and monster combat. But I do regard this likable film as a triumph of what's good about exploitation - getting maximum cinematic effect out of modest resources. Technically it's good too. I don't know if some mountain stuff was shot day for night, but the intense blue scenes in the snow are atmospheric, as is the oft-scary score. Note however that the use of 'Scotland The Brave' on the soundtrack over establishing shots of England is of a different kind of scary, as is a lot of the dubbed dialogue.

Macroscopic logic isn't The Werewolf And The Yeti's strong point, but few films throw together as many elements as this one does and still achieve something basically coherent, fun and with good exploitation bang for your buck. Seeing this film made me wish they still made stuff like this today.

Creepy meeting between the infamous Wolfman and abominable snowman from remote Tibet .Again the renowned Waldemar stricken by two demon cannibalistic nymphets that turn into Werewolf at the full moon. Atypical Daninsky film where he returns as El Hombre Lobo for the umpteenth time and once again battles enemies . Waldemar, the notorious adventurer , joins an expedition led by Lacombe (Gil Vidal) or Larry Talbot (homage to Lon Chaney Jr) accompanied by his daughter Sylvia (Grace Mills who starred ¨Exorcismo¨ as a Linda Blair-alike) , all of them to find the mythic Yeti in the Himalayas. They arrive Katmandu and after the bunch goes to Karakorum . While Waldemar along with a scout (Victor Israel) hiking the mountains, he goes into a cave where is captured by two wicked sorceresses guarding a Buddhist sculpture and becomes their sex-slave . They transform him into a werewolf setting him loose to roam the mountain where Waldemar continues a murderous rampage every time the moon is full . Later on , Waldemar meet a Buddist monk who lives in a monastery full of luminous candles , he helps him against his illness. While the expedition is captured by a sadistic bandit named Temuljin . The prisoners are given to Mongol chief named Sherkan-Kan (Luis Induni , a baddie similarly characterized to Fumanchu) , whose palace lives the perverse Wandesa (Silvia Solar). Meanwhile , Daninsky falls in love with Sylvia and she tries to cure his Lycanthropy with love and a flower (such as the first classic version ¨the Wolfman¨ by Stuart Walker with Henry Hull).

Acceptable Werewolf movie with the unforgettable Waldemar Daninsky-Jacinto Molina ,under pseudonym Paul Naschy . Continental Europe's biggest horror star again with his classic character and frightening to viewer . Jacinto Molina Aka Paul Naschy ,who recently passed away, was actor, screenwriter and director of various films about the personage based on fictitious character, the Polish count Waldemar Daninsky. The first film about Waldemar was ¨The mark of the Wolfman (1967)¨ by Enrique Eguiluz , after that , went on the successful ¨Night of Walpurgis¨ by Leon Klimovsky , ¨Fury of the Wolfman¨ , ¨Doctor Jekill and the Wolfman¨ ,¨The return of the Walpurgis¨, ¨Howl of the devil¨, ¨The beast and the magic sword(1982)¨ that was filmed in Japan and finally ¨Licantropo(1998).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¨ that was lavishly produced for the Paul Naschy standards.

¨The curse of the beast¨ or ¨ the werewolf and the Yeti¨ is a B series entertainment with abundant sensationalistic scenes , comic-book style and a Naif-gaudy realization . This exciting terror movie contains adventures, action , some nudism and lots of blood and gore . The movie has a bit of ridiculous gore with loads of blood similar to tomato and is occasionally an engaging horror movie full of zooms, witchery , beheading , impaling and several other things . This time Paul Nashy/Jacinto Molina exhibits little breast but he was a weightlifting champion . Here Waldemar takes on vampires and Mongols in some unforgettable fighting scenes with bounds and leaps . The picture is plenty of sadism taken from Sax Rohmer stories and Robert E.Howard's Barbarian rampages . Pretty slow going, but hang in there for the Werewolf versus witches , vampires and Mongols. In the film appears a secondary cast who starred innumerable films of Spaghetti and horror genres during the 60s and 70 as Victor Israel , Silvia Solar and Luis Induni . Good and loud cinematography by Pladevall with chillon , yellow colors in Maria Bava or Hammer style and is accompanied by a correct remastering . Colorful and exotic outdoors filmed in Valle Aran , Aragoneses Pyrinees and Bañolas. The motion picture is professionally directed by M. Iglesias Bonn , a lousy director but here he makes an acceptable film . The flick will appeal to Paul Naschy fans and terror genre enthusiast. Rating : 6, passable and amusing