Curse of the Devil (1977)

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Fresh and Exciting

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Irineus Daninsky(Paul Naschy)and his men, crusading in the name of God, execute a group of Satanists and his ancestry are cursed by E Bathory as she is burned alive. 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. A pretty one from their group seduces Waldemar later sprinkling some of her "infected" blood on the skull of a wolf's head pressing a nasty bite into his flesh. He is now to become a werewolf at the Full Moon always to terrorize innocents biting and slashing. A vicious ax-killer is also on the loose chopping up pretty ladies and beheads the satanic woman who accursed Waldemar with werewolf blood. The ax killer will also do battle with Waldemar in werewolf form. A family from Budapest set roots in a cottage nearby Waldemar. Waldemar falls in love with the older daughter of the Wilowa family who informs him she's pregnant with his child. Her jealous younger sister seduces Waldemar..at the wrong time, a night of the Full Moon, and becomes another in a growing line of werewolf victims. Soon many villagers(..and a traveling troupe camping nearby Waldemar's estate)are getting their throats slashed and faces ripped to shreds. 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. Mixes the occult within the werewolf sub-genre for some interesting results. I think it would work a lot better if given a better soundtrack, in Spanish language with subtitles(truly terrible dubbing where it seems that those who spoke the dialogue had contempt for the material making this flick cheesy when it could be an more serious werewolf product), and had snappier pacing. But, this delivers on the gore..lots of bloody gaping throat wounds and facial tears. The werewolf even slams a huge stone across a victim's face! Also has a grisly scene towards the end as villagers decide to form a lynch-mob killing Waldemar's hired help and comrade with farm equipment. Beautiful location assists, especially at night where my favorite sequences seem to take place. Chock full of nude female flesh as well. Not as good as "Werewolf Shadow", but not the worst werewolf film I've seen.

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!"). One of the more risible moments occurs towards the end during the showdown between the werewolf and the Chief of Police: since the latter starts throwing stones at the former, rather than physically attack him as is his fashion, Daninsky chooses to lift a huge rock and smash his face in with it! 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

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. Whilst never up to the standards of a Hammer horror, which it resembles at times in plot and content, fans of this kind of stuff will find enough to enjoy for it to warrant a viewing.

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.