Director: Enrique López Eguiluz
Year: 1968
Country: Spain/West Germany
Alternate Titles: La marca del hombre-lobo; The Mark of the Wolfman; Vampire Dracula vs. the Werewolf; Hell's Creatures; The Wolfman of Count Dracula; The Vampire of Dr. Dracula; The Werewolf's Mark
Genre: Werewolf
Plot:
After hearing of a curse on the family, a descendant decides to investigate a strange accident at an abandoned castle, and upon discovering a severe gash on his chest he finds that he can turn into a werewolf and asks for help only to learn those he trust also has a terrible secret that puts everyone in danger.
Review:
This is one of the better entries in the series. Among its better features is how the film’s old-school attitude shines through as it has a great combination of European sleaze and American Gothic sensibilities. That the film takes place almost exclusively in a castle allows for the always-impressive settings, from the gloomy dungeon, long winding hallways, tons of long, winding staircases, and plenty of other factors that are found in Gothic castles. The costuming and pace are also quite reminiscent as well, and combined with the notion about the family curse coming to pass give this film a literal dripping atmosphere. The pace is quite nice, and the big scenes are placed at the right moment to keep things from getting bored with the discovery of the ancestor leading to his eventual release to plant the curse on him and the search for a cure to his condition happening quite early leading to a generally fun time here.
There’s also a lot to like with the generally fun action present here. The sleaze comes at the more exploitative elements thrown in, which mostly come from the werewolf's actions. The kills are brutal for the time, with the decidedly European blood and gore. It's got a great combination of the two where the series of werewolf attacks are enjoyable and fun. From the attack on the gypsy couple who are staying at the castle to the pretty chilling attack in the woods that causes the infection, this one offers a lot of fun on top of the scenes where he’s chained up being kept from attacking. Even managing to throw a brutal and frenetic werewolf brawl into the matter for even more action leading into the chilling final battles with both species having quite a lot of high-energy action to give this a lot of thrills. The last plus here is the twist in the story about the way to deal with the werewolf which is a great injection of originality into the proceedings, making this a bit more clever than the other films from the time. These here manage to offer up quite an impressive entry in the legendary Waldemar Daninsky series of films.
There isn’t much wrong with this one. The main issue is that this is one of the hardest films to understand. It's not like nothing is explained, and many scenes don't seem to make a lot of sense. Waldemar is hardly given any backstory and his role in the proceedings changes a couple of times. He at first is the creepy owner of a forbidden castle, then becomes a kind-hearted person who invites a pair of wanderers to his castle, and switches to wanting to investigate when they go missing. It was given the impression that the events took place at his castle, then clearly doesn't know that the kills took place. It's just one example of a confusing series of storylines. It’s also somewhat needlessly psychedelic with several scenes looking quite over-the-top and artistic for no real reason and they stick out as plainly obvious compared to the more traditional and old-school approach elsewhere here. However, there really isn't much wrong with it, just a confusing series of events.
Overview: ****.5/5
If films that look great but don't make any sense are your favorite kinds of films, then this will greatly appeal to those. The film is also recommended to those that love the European Gothic way of horror films and to fans of Paul Naschy, while only those that aren’t appreciative of this style or format will find themselves troubled with this one.
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