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Really Surprised!

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

Count Waldemar Daninsky (a solid and sympathetic performance by Spanish horror legend Paul Naschy, who also wrote the script) gets bitten by a werewolf and subsequently suffers from the curse of lycanthropy. He seeks help from Dr. James Mikhelov (a perfectly sinister turn by Julian Ugarte) and his alluring wife Wandessa (ravishing redhead Aurora de Alba), but things go seriously awry when the duo turn out to be vampires. Enrique Lopez Eguiliz's merely okay direction lets the place plod along at a too gradual clip in the rather laborious opening third, but luckily still manages to develop a fair amount of creepy atmosphere and stages the infrequent werewolf attacks with a reasonable amount of flair. In addition, this movie is a bit too tame and tepid; latter entries in the Daninsky series were much racier, more explicit, and hence better. This film does improve as the enjoyably daft story unfolds, with a rousing climax complete with an exciting fight between Waldemar and Dr. Mikhelov and a poignant and tragic downbeat ending. Moreover, there's a bevy of beautiful ladies on hand to keep things watchable: Besides de Alba, we also have lovely blonde Dyanik Zurakowska as the fetching Countess Janice von Aarenbergand and the enticing Rosanna Yanni as fiery gypsy girl Nascha. Both Emilio Foriscot's sumptuous widescreen cinematography and Angel Arteaga's shivery'n'groovy score are up to speed. While it's not one of Naschy's best, this picture is nonetheless worth a watch for Naschy fans.

"Frankenstein's Bloody Terror" is what I like to call one of them horror hodgepodges. There's a whole lot going on and it might look very confusing, but basically it's a very straightforward and sensationalist horror mess made in Europe but mainly intended for the American drive-in crowd. It's the first entry in the long-running and relatively notorious Spanish "Hombre-Lobo" series, all starring Paul Naschy as the eternally doomed lycanthrope Count Waldemar Daninsky. Some of the sequels might be better known, like "The Werewolf Vs. The Vampire Women" and "Curse of the Devil", but this is the movie that introduced us to Waldemar and showed us how he became a werewolf. In spite of the suave sounding title, the film has absolutely nothing to do with the mad scientist Baron Frankenstein or its monstrous creation. There are, however, plenty of werewolves and vampires. It's just that, around that time in particular, any horror flick with "Frankenstein" in its title was a guaranteed hit amongst the horror loving audiences. The makers of this film inventively put the connection by claiming the Frankensteins are distantly related to the Wolfsteins, a noble European family that were cursed with Lycanthropy. The last descendant of the Wolfsteins lies dead in the family crypt, with the silver dagger still in his heart to prevent resurrection. When a greedy gypsy couple (gypsies … they always screw things up in horror movies) removes the dagger, the wolf man goes on a bloody killing spree in town. Waldemar Daninsky and Rudolph Weissmann, two romantic rivals battling for the love of the yummy young countess Janice Von Aerenberg, are forced to team up during the organized hunt in the woods. Waldemar saves Rudolph's life when the wolf man attacks, but he can't avoid getting bitten and thus takes over the curse. In a last desperate attempt to find a cure, they call upon professor Dr. Janos Mikhelov, but he and his voluptuous wife Wandessa are actually vampires and primarily interested in the virgin blood of Janice and Rudolph. Yes, okay, admittedly this all sounds quite convoluted and ambitious, but the truth is that "Frankenstein's Bloody Terror" is nothing more than an amusing roller-coaster of campy horror and kitsch! The film has a rather slow and talkative opening half hour – with too much dull and pointless information about the love triangle between Janice, Rudolph and Waldemar - but as soon as the gypsies desecrate the Wolfstein tomb, there's non-stop bloody action and typical Euro-horror camp. The plot centering solely around the lycanthrope is still very atmospheric and moody (with eerie images of a dark forest and the vicious attack of a family), but as soon as the vampires appear, the whole thing just becomes too eccentric. Approaching the finale, there even is a wrestling match between two werewolves and the oddest vampire-kill in history of horror cinema. Whenever the plot becomes too much of a mess, the film reverts to the chattering fathers of Janice and Rudolph, as they summarize what's been going on at regular intervals. The make-up effects are decent and actually rather gruesome for 1968 and there are numerous hints at sleaze and perversion. This was the first horror film of Paul Naschy, but he kept playing Waldemar Daninsky throughout 12 more films and over a span of nearly 40 years. As in most of his films (especially the ones he wrote and directed himself), Paul Naschy plays a character that is extremely successful amongst the ladies even though he's not the least bit attractive. Waldemar Dankinsky for life!

For being the introduction to one of the most enduring horror series in European cinema, FRANKENSTEIN'S BLOODY TERROR is rather lame - apart from being an edited variant of the original Spanish cut, bearing the more accurate title THE MARK OF THE WOLFMAN - but one tends to forgive Paul Naschy the many shortcomings of his script on this occasion because here he was still treading the waters, as it were. That said, his penchant of filling the plot with as many monsters and weird situations as his imagination could conceive is already well in evidence, as we not only get two werewolves for the price of one but there's also a mad doctor and his female assistant involved, who both just happen to be vampires! At such a distance it is easy to forget the impact that Naschy's presence as either Daninsky or his werewolf alter-ego made on the movie-going public when it first appeared (proving obviously popular enough to generate the myriad sequels, or variations on the same theme, which followed) for, even if the monster gets a fair work-out here (scenes from this film were actually lifted outright for the abysmal THE FURY OF THE WOLFMAN [1970]!), he's also chained up for a good part of the second half, as if Naschy was as yet unsure how to use his 'creation'. In fact, the vampires dominate most of the proceedings during the latter stages of the film, while early on there's also excess footage featuring a gypsy couple (who, for plot purposes, unwittingly revive the werewolf which subsequently 'marks' Waldemar Daninsky); however, despite the limited resources at the film-makers' disposal, the Gothic atmosphere is well up to par for the course (though dissipated somewhat by the faded print I watched!).

MORD39 RATING: ** (of ****)The first of many werewolf films starring Paul Naschy as the doomed lycanthrope, Waldemar Daninsky.Bitten by a werewolf, Naschy seeks help from a weird couple of specialists who are not exactly what they appear to be. It's a fun and very atmospheric movie to watch, despite its dubbing and low budget. With a tendency to confuse, it's not for every taste...but it's the perfect place to start for those interested in Spanish horror.