El retorno de Walpurgis (1973)



(AKA: Curse of the Devil) A Paul Naschy film in the Walpurgis series. A nobleman is cursed by gypsies to become a werewolf.
































CHARACTERS
RATING: ★★★★★★★★☆☆8/10

REVIEW: Exceptionally good. I love how Naschy built upon the werewolf myth; great horror aesthetics, a well-told story - and he doesn't forget to include the sleaze.

SYNOPSIS

Elizabeth Báthory (María Silva) is killing women for their blood. She is about to kill a girl when she is stopped by Irineus Daninsky. Waldemar Daninsky (Paul Naschy) is his descendant. Bathory has put a curse on his family bloodline. Out hunting, Waldemar shoots a wolf - which turns into a man. A Gypsy Witch (Elsa Zabala) puts a curse on Waldemar for killing the werewolf - one of her followers. So I guess he has two curses on him; I'm thinking that's bad. One of the witches gets naked. Ilona (Inés Morales) is chosen by the witch to put the curse on Waldemar. Ilona pretends to have been attacked and is rescued by Waldemar. All a part of her plan. Ilona is taken to his home, where she makes up a story about being attacked. While Waldemar sleeps, Ilona sinks a tooth from this skull into his chest - thusly turning Waldemar into a werewolf. Ilona runs into the woods and is killed by an escaped murderous psycho. We'll be seeing more of this psycho later.

Waldemar meets the Wilowa family newly arrived from Budapest. Kinga Wilowa (Fabiola Falcón) is the oldest daughter. Maria Wilowa (Maritza Olivares), the youngest, is flirtatious and spunky. Waldemar and Kinga instantly fall for each other. They have sex in secret cottage on the grounds. Kinga will actually get pregnant from this encounter. A local girl is murdered by the werewolf. Maria tells Kinga she likes Waldemar, and she doesn't like being in second place behind her. Maria disguises herself as Kinga and sends a letter to Waldemar to meet her at the secret cottage. Unfortunately, the escaped lunatic enters the house and tries to kill Maria. Waldemar arrives in the nick of time and kills the lunatic. Waldemar asks Maria why she pretended to be Kinga and wrote that letter. A little later, Maria enters the room stark naked. [One of the greatest nude scenes of all time. Totally unexpected, full frontal in great lighting, and a long scene.] They have sex, but Waldemar turns into the werewolf and kills her. Waldemar hides her body. Waldemar attends the funeral with Kinga.

Kinga learns from her mother that Waldemar has the curse - and only true love can lift it. She sets out to do just that. A traveling troupe of performers retires for the night. The female performer goes to fetch water and is murdered by the werewolf. The townsfolk gather to bury the troupe and are committed to vanquishing the werewolf. Kinga inquires about the scar on Waldemar's chest that wasn't there before. Waldemar will set out to the cottage by the mill; Kinga returns to her family. But at her home, the werewolf murders both her father and mother. Despite the fact that Waldemar has essentially murdered her entire family, Kinga still loves him - partly because she is pregnant with his child. Kinga fashions a silver dagger. Waldemar becomes the werewolf. Before the villagers can get to the werewolf, Kinga plunges the silver dagger into his chest. The villagers encircle the body - no longer a werewolf, now Waldemar. It ends with Kinga holding her son's hand - and as the camera draws closer, we can see he has a furry wolf hand. THE END


Comments

  1. Tom CasaleNovember 4, 2024 at 7:04 AM

    I've watched this film a number of times over the years -- mostly the English language version -- and it has that "feels like it's been overly edited" feeling about it. I don't know if anything is actually missing but the "naughty" scenes have that clipped feeling where it probably shows everything but the editing isn't smooth and the slight jumps at the start and end of each of those scenes make it seem like there's been cuts.

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