Il licantropo e lo yeti

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.

While most of the 'Waldemar Daninsky'/'Hombre Lobo' Werewolf flicks starring the great late Spanish Horror legend Paul Naschy cannot really be described as masterpieces, they are all entertaining and have a certain inimitable charm that can only be found in Naschy flicks. Being an enthusiastic Naschy-fan, I must say that "La Maldición De La Bestia" aka. "The Werewolf and the Yeti" (1975) is doubtlessly the most ludicrous and preposterous, and sadly also the least entertaining of the 'Hombre Lobo' flicks that I've seen; and yet it is immensely entertaining and definitely worth watching for my fellow fans of the man.

Usually, Waldemar Daninsky (who recovers from Werewolf-curses and, often, death with every passing film) is turned into a Werewolf by an ancient family curse, or by an unlucky coincidence. In this film, Paul Naschy's most famous character is an adventurer and scientist, who joins an expedition to the Himalayas, in the course of which his colleague's sexy young daughter falls in love with him (of course). He then becomes a werewolf after being held in a Himalayan cave by two sex-hungry and cannibalistic pagan priestesses... "The Werewolf and the Yeti" is highly camp and cheesy (also in comparison to the other "Hombre-Lobo" flick, all of which have a delightful camp factor), and occasionally extremely illogical and confused. In about 90 minutes, the film includes cannibal priestesses, the Werewolf, demonic witch doctors and an insane Himalayan warlord who wants to be Fu Manchu, as well as a Yeti (with minimal screen-time). The first half is pretty tiresome, but the film catches up in the second half with tons of sleaze, gore and genuine nastiness as well as camp fun. The landscapes look as Himalayan as Barcelona, and the whole thing makes little sense, but that does in no way lessen the fun. Paul Naschy is charismatic as always and the female cast members are entirely hot.

Since the film has little to no real suspense or creepiness it is easily the least interesting of Naschy's 'Hombre Lobo' films, but it is nonetheless highly entertaining. The fact that this impossible-to-be-taken-seriously piece of camp fun was on the UK's infamous Video Nasty list of banned films once again shows the idiocy of film censors. Definitely no must-see, but warmly recommended to my fellow Paul Naschy fans.

Having just previously watched Paul Naschy's The Werewolf Versus the Vampire Woman and enjoyed the Hell out of that one, I had the same expectation when seeing this other one in which he once again portrays Waldemar Daninsky, the Werewolf. Well, part of me was bored until Waldemar encounters two women in a cave and makes love to them! There's quite a bit of nudity not to mention perhaps a little more gore than I saw in the previous one. To tell the truth, I wasn't as enthralled by this movie as I was with The Werewolf Versus the Vampire Woman. Maybe the increase of those elements I mentioned got to me or maybe having seen mostly werewolf movies for the past two weeks, I may be a little werewolfed out. Or maybe the print was wretched. I will say no way was I completely bored by this movie so that's a plus! So on that note, I say go ahead and watch The Werewolf and the Yeti or the alternate titles of Night of the Howling Beast or La maldicion de la bestia.

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.

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.