Saturday, June 8, 2013

The Werewolf Versus the Vampire Woman (1971)

Director: Leon Klimovsky

Starring: Paul Naschy, Gaby Fuchs, Barbara Capell, Andres Resino, Yelena Samarina, Jose Marco, Betsabe Ruiz, Barta Barri, Luis Gaspar

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Things happen that have never been seen by human beings. The blood flows like vintage wine.

Plot: Elvira is travelling through the French countryside with her friend Genevieve, searching for the lost tomb of a medieval murderess and possible vampire, Countess Wandessa. They find a likely site in the castle of Waldemar Daninsky, who invites the women to stay as long as they like. As Waldemar shows Elvira the tomb that supposedly houses the countess, she accidentally causes the vampire to come back to life, hungrier than ever. Daninsky has a hidden secret of his own, but will it be enough to save the two girls from becoming Wandessa's next victims?


My rating: 5/10

Will I watch it again? No.

The version I watched was called THE WEREWOLF SHADOW and it ran 91 minutes.  IMDb doesn't show that run time but others run less and one more at 95 minutes.  I don't know what's missing from those 4 minutes but the one I saw had some scant nudity, making me wonder what the point in having so little was when there were many opportunities for more.  It's possible the longer cut had more. Nevertheless, more skin wouldn't have helped this picture much.  I'm still trying to figure out why Naschy has such a cult following.  I'm not seeing any charisma at all.  He moves very little and he does a lot of staring while the actor across from him does all the work.  Best unintentionally funny scene?


The pacing is slow although I did manage to barely stay awake until the end.  I was hoping for more werewolf vs. vampire broads action but you only get the one final scene in the picture where he briefly goes up against a vampire chick.  It was neat while it lasted but it wasn't enough to save this picture.  Groovy tune, though.



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