El Retorno de Walpurgis

Last updated
Curse of the Devil
Retorno-de-walpurgis-el-spanish-movie-poster-md.jpg
Spanish film poster
Directed by Carlos Aured
Written by Paul Naschy (credited as Jacinto Molina)
Produced byLuis Mendez
Ramiro Meléndez
Starring Paul Naschy
Fabiola Falcón
Maritza Olivares
CinematographyFrancisco Sánchez
Edited byMaruja Soriano
Music byAngel Arteaga
Distributed byLotus Films
Prods. Escorpion
Izaro Films
Goldstone Film Enterprises
Release dates
  • September 1973 (1973-09)(Spain)
  • 1976 (1976)(U.S.)
Running time
84 minutes (USA, uncut)
CountriesSpain
Mexico
Language Spanish

El Retorno de Walpurgis (The Return of Walpurgis, also known as Curse of the Devil) is a 1973 Mexican-Spanish co-production horror film that is the seventh in a twelve-film series about the werewolf Count Waldemar Daninsky, played by Paul Naschy. This film ignored the events in all of the earlier Wolf Man films and began an entirely new origin for el Hombre Lobo, which is strange because the film's Spanish title The Return of Walpurgis seems to tie it in with Naschy's earlier 1970 film Walpurgis Night. The Wolf Man makeup was done by Fernando Florido. The film was shot in June 1973, and by September, it was already in theaters in Spain, as El Retorno de Walpurgis. It wasn't released theatrically in the U.S. however until 1976, as Curse of the Devil.

Contents

It was shown in Germany originally on August 7, 1974, as Night of the Diabolical Orgy, then was re-released on October 7, 1974, as Die Todeskralle des Grausamen Wolfes / Death Claws of the Cruel Wolves. Mexico released it as Night of the Killer, France as L'Empreinte de Dracula / The Mark of Dracula , and Belgium as Return of the Loup Garous. [1]

This was the last film that Naschy worked on with director Carlos Aured. As soon as the film was completed, Aured became very cold toward Naschy and never again asked him to work with him. Naschy said in his autobiography that he never understood why Aured acted that way toward him, but he surmised that perhaps Aured thought Naschy was becoming too controlling on their collaborations, since Naschy was not only starring in the films, he was also involved in writing and casting them. (They reconciled their differences in 2007, but by then Aured was just months away from dying.). [2]

This film was followed by Naschy's eighth Hombre Lobo film La Maldicion de la Bestia (1975).

Plot

In medieval times, the nobleman Irineus Daninsky engages in a duel to the death with the evil Barna Bathory, whose wife Elizabeth Bathory runs a cult of Satanic worshippers. Irineus beheads Barna, then has his army round up the Countess and all of her followers. He has them all put to death, but not before the Countess puts a curse on the Daninsky bloodline.

Hundreds of years later, the wealthy Count Waldemar Daninsky (a descendant of Irineus) kills a wolf on his grounds. The animal transforms back into a Gypsy upon death, and Waldemar finds himself cursed by the local Gypsy witch who is angry that he killed one of her band. The witch summons Satan (a thin, uncredited actor in a head-to-toe black leotard) who participates in a nocturnal orgy with some of the nubile gypsy girls in the woods. The witch then orders a young, beautiful Gypsy girl named Ilona to seduce Daninsky and then, while he is sleeping, to bite him with the skull of a werewolf which she smuggles into the Count's mansion.

When she presses the skull's fangs into his skin, Waldemar is doomed to become a werewolf himself on Walpurgis Night (April 30). Without a doubt, this is the most original of all of Waldemar's various "origins" in the series. The gypsy then flees from Waldemar's mansion into the woods, where strangely she is decapitated by an axe-wielding escapee from a mental hospital for which the local police have been searching.

Meanwhile, an aged surveyor Laszlo Wilowa rents a cabin on Waldemar's estate, and moves in with his blind wife and his two beautiful young daughters, Marie and Kinga. Waldemar falls in love with the chaste Kinga and they make love, but Waldemar also winds up in bed with her sister Marie who is a bit of a nymphomaniac. While they are making love, Waldemar transforms and tears Marie to shreds. He later returns to the cabin and violently kills both Laszlo and his blind wife, leaving Kinga an orphan. Later, as Waldemar tries to comfort Kinga, she informs him that she is pregnant with his baby.

Maritza tells Kinga that Waldemar is a monster, and that only she is pure enough to be able to release him from his curse by killing him. Even though Kinga knows now that Waldemar murdered her entire family, she still loves him because he is the father of her unborn child.

The townspeople learn that it is Waldemar who has been killing all the locals (they had thought that the escaped axe murderer was doing it), and to punish them for keeping Waldemar's secret, they kill both the butler and the nanny. Waldemar manages to murder the local police inspector before being stabbed to death by Kinga with a silver dagger plunged into his heart.

An epilogue shows an older Kinga visiting Waldemar's grave years later with their son accompanying her. As they leave the graveyard, the full moon illuminates them and we see the boy's hand is covered with hair!

Cast

Release

The film was released theatrically in its native Spain as El Retorno de Walpurgis in September 1973, in Germany as Die Todeskralle des Grausamen Wolfes (The Death Claws of the Cruel Wolves) in July 1974, in the U.K. as Curse of the Devil in 1976 (on a double bill with Amando de Ossorio's Return of the Evil Dead ), and in the United States as Curse of the Devil in 1976. (The American distributor "Goldstone Film Ent." tried to connect the film to The Exorcist in its ad campaign.) It was shown in France under the inexplicable title L'empreinte de Dracula (The Mark of Dracula). It was released in Mexico as Night of the Killer. [3]

The film was later released on VHS as Curse of the Devil. [4]

The film was released on DVD by Anchor Bay Entertainment in 2002 as Curse of the Devil. It was subsequently re-released in a special edition in 2008 by Deimos Entertainment, a subdivision of BCI Eclipse, under the same title. It was also released as a German language Blu-ray from Subkultur under the title Die Todeskralle des Grausamen Wolfes. [5]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Naschy</span> Spanish actor and filmmaker (1934-2009)

Jacinto Molina Álvarez known by his stage name Paul Naschy, was a Spanish film actor, screenwriter, and director working primarily in horror films. His portrayals of numerous classic horror figures—The Wolfman, Frankenstein's monster, Count Dracula, Quasimodo, Fu Manchu and a mummy—earned him recognition as the Spanish Lon Chaney. Naschy also starred in dozens of action films, historical dramas, crime films, TV shows and documentaries. He also wrote the screenplays for most of his films and directed a number of them as well, signing many of them "Jacinto Molina". Naschy was bestowed Spain's Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts in 2001.

<i>La Noche de Walpurgis</i> 1971 Spanish film

La Noche de Walpurgis /Walpurgis Night, is a 1970 Spanish/German horror film starring Paul Naschy, the fifth in his series about the werewolf Waldemar Daninsky. This film was directed by León Klimovsky and written by Paul Naschy, and is generally regarded to have kickstarted the Spanish horror film boom of the 1970s. This was Naschy's all-time most financially successful film. It was also the first of 8 films that he would make with director Leon Klimovsky at the helm.

<i>The Mark of the Wolfman</i> 1968 Spanish film

The Mark of the Wolfman, is a 1968 Spanish horror film, the first in a long series of films about the werewolf Count Waldemar Daninsky, played by Paul Naschy. The film was also known as Hell's Creatures, The Nights of Satan, The Vampires of Dr. Dracula and Frankenstein's Bloody Terror. Naschy originally suggested actress Barbara Steele for the part of the vampire countess Wandesa, but Aurora De Alba wound up getting the part.

Las Noches del Hombre Lobo is a lost 1968 Spanish horror film that centers around the werewolf Count Waldemar Daninsky, played by Paul Naschy. It has been credited as the second part of Paul Naschy's 12 "Hombre Lobo" films. However, it's been heavily disputed if the film was ever made or exists at all. No one, including Naschy himself, has ever viewed the film and it has never seen a theatrical or home media release.

<i>Assignment: Terror</i> 1970 Spanish film

Los Monstruos del Terror, also known as Dracula vs. Frankenstein and Assignment: Terror, is a 1970 Spanish-German-Italian horror and Sci-Fi film co-directed by Tulio Demicheli and Hugo Fregonese.. Eberhard Meichsner was also credited as a director only in the British promotional material, but by all accounts he was not actually involved.

<i>The Fury of the Wolfman</i> 1974 Spanish film

The Fury of the Wolfman, aka Wolfman Never Sleeps, is a 1970 Spanish horror film that is the fourth in a long series about the werewolf Count Waldemar Daninsky, played by Paul Naschy. Naschy wrote the screenplay as well. The film was shot in early 1970. It was not theatrically released in Spain until 1975 due to problems involved in finding a distributor, although it was distributed in edited form on U.S. TV in 1974.

<i>Dr. Jekyll y el Hombre Lobo</i> 1972 Spanish film

Dr. Jekyll y el Hombre Lobo, also known as Dr. Jekyll and the Werewolf, is a 1971 Spanish horror film, the sixth in a series of 12 films about the werewolf Count Waldemar Daninsky, played by Paul Naschy. Naschy actually plays a triple role in the film, portraying Waldemar Daninsky, the Wolf Man and Mr. Hyde. This was Naschy's 2nd film working with director Leon Klimovsky, following their hugely successful 1970 collaboration La Noche de Walpurgis. This film also featured Euro-Horror star Jack Taylor, Mirta Miller and the beautiful Shirley Corrigan of England. The film failed however to reach the box office success of Walpurgis.

<i>La Maldicion de la Bestia</i> 1975 Spanish film

La Maldicion de la Bestia is a 1975 Spanish horror film that is the eighth in a long series about the werewolf Count Waldemar Daninsky, played by Paul Naschy. The film has also been known as The Werewolf and the Yeti, Night of the Howling Beast and Hall of the Mountain King. This film ignored the events from the earlier Hombre Lobo films and provided an all-new origin for Waldemar's lycanthropy, having the curse transmitted to Waldemar by the bites of two female werewolves. A yeti is woven into the storyline, but in this film the Yeti is not the direct cause of Waldemar's lycanthropy. Fernando Florido and Adolfo Ponte handled the special effects throughout the film.

<i>Night of the Werewolf</i> (film) 1981 Spanish film

El Retorno del Hombre Lobo is a 1980 Spanish horror film that is the ninth in a 12-film series about the werewolf Count Waldemar Daninsky, played by Paul Naschy. It is also known as The Craving and Night of the Werewolf.

The Beast and the Magic Sword is a 1983 Spanish/Japanese horror film that is the tenth in a long series of films about the werewolf Count Waldemar Daninsky, played by Paul Naschy. This film moved the Daninsky family curse back to a medieval setting, as Naschy felt the Daninsky saga need not always be confined to a modern-day setting.

<i>Licántropo</i> 1997 Spanish film

Licántropo, also known as Licantropo: The Moonlight Murders or Lycanthrope: The Full Moon Killer, is a 1996 Spanish horror film that is the 11th in the "Hombre Lobo" series about the werewolf Count Waldemar Daninsky, played by Paul Naschy. Following his near-fatal heart attack in 1991, Naschy wrote the screenplay for this film as a sort of therapy while he was recuperating from his surgery. He filed it away for future use and the script lay dormant until producer Primitivo Rodriguez contacted Naschy in 1996 and asked him if he had any ideas for a new horror movie.

Tomb of the Werewolf is a 2003 film directed by Fred Olen Ray. It is the twelfth and last in a long series of films about the werewolf Count Waldemar Daninsky, played by Paul Naschy. The film contains a number of adult sex scenes bordering on softcore pornography. The film was shot on Video in 2003 and first distributed directly to VHS as Tomb of the Werewolf in June 2004. It was later reissued as an uncensored DVD in 2015 as The Unliving by Retromedia Entertainment. Director Ray said years later in an interview that the film never made a profit.

<i>Vengeance of the Zombies</i> 1973 Spanish film

Vengeance of the Zombies is a 1972 Spanish horror film directed by León Klimovsky and starring Paul Naschy, Mirta Miller, Vic Winner and Aurora de Alba. The film was shot in July 1972, but was only theatrically released in Spain in June 1973. It was shown in Italy as La Vendetta dei Morti Viventi. The film was shown in Germany over the years under three different titles....Rebellion of the Living Dead, Invocation of the Devil and Blood Lust of the Zombies.

<i>The Hanging Woman</i> 1973 Spanish horror film

La orgía de los muertos a.k.a. The Hanging Woman, Beyond the Living Dead, Return of the Zombies and Bracula: Terror of the Living Dead, is a 1972 Spanish/ Italian horror film directed by José Luis Merino, starring Paul Naschy and Dyanik Zurakowska. The film was shot in March 1972, but wasn't shown in Spanish theaters until September 3, 1973. It was shown theatrically in the U.S. in 1974 as The Hanging Woman, and then was later re-released there as Beyond the Living Dead. It was released in Germany on April 6, 1976 as Der Totenchor der Knochenmanner/ Death Chorus of the Skeletons, and re-released in Germany on March 1, 1977 as Die Bestie aus dem Totenreich/ The Beast from the Death Realm. It was shown in the U.K. as Zombies - Terror of the Living Dead, in France as Les Orgies Macabres, and in Australia as Bracula, Terror of the Living Dead.

<i>Horror Rises from the Tomb</i> 1973 Spanish film

Horror Rises from the Tomb, is a 1973 Spanish horror film starring Paul Naschy and directed by Carlos Aured. Leon Klimovsky was Naschy's first choice for director, but he was busy on another film so his assistant director Carlos Aured took the job. Naschy was mercilessly rushed into writing the screenplay for the producers in 36 hours, yet after the film was completed, it took more than a year to get it released in theaters. The film was shot in February 1972, and was only released in Spain and Mexico on April 27, 1973 as El espanto surge de la tumba. The film was released in Germany on October 4, 1974 as Blutmesse fur der Teufel/ Blood Mass for the Devil. They re-released the film in Germany on Sept. 2, 1980 as Blood Mass of the Zombies in an attempt to cash in on George Romero's hit film Dawn of the Dead. In France, the film was retitled L'amour parmi les monstres.

<i>Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll</i> 1974 Spanish horror-giallo film

Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll is a 1973 Spanish horror-giallo film directed by Carlos Aured and starring Paul Naschy, Diana Lorys, Maria Perschy, and Eva Leon. The film was shown theatrically in Spain in August 1974 as Los Ojos Azules de la Muñeca Rota. It was released theatrically in the U.S. and on VHS Home Video as The House Of Psychotic Women, and was shown on U.S. late-night television as House of Doom. The film was shown in Belgium as Mystery of the Blue Eyes. Most prints are missing a brief scene where a pig is slaughtered on a farm. Today the film is readily available complete and unedited on DVD as The Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll.

<i>Panic Beats</i> 1983 Spanish film

Panic Beats is a 1983 film starring Paul Naschy and Julia Saly. The film was a Spanish-Japanese co-production made as a sequel to Naschy's 1972 Horror Rises From the Tomb. It was produced by Augusto Boue and Julia Saly for Naschy's company Aconito Films. Paul Naschy plays the monstrous Alaric de Marnac and Julia Saly, Lola Gaos, and Silvia Miro co-star. Some stock music written by Roberto Nicolosi for 1959's Caltiki the Immortal Monster can be heard in the background.

La cruz del diablo is a 1975 Spanish horror film directed by John Gilling and starring Carmen Sevilla, Adolfo Marsillach, Ramiro Oliveros and Emma Cohen. Its plot concerns a hashish-smoking British writer who travels to Spain to visit his sister, only to discover she has been murdered by a satanic cult.

<i>Count Draculas Great Love</i> 1973 Spanish film

Count Dracula's Great Love is a 1973 Spanish film directed by Javier Aguirre, and starring Paul Naschy as Count Dracula. The film also features Rosanna Yanni, Haydee Politoff, Mirta Miller and Ingrid Garbo.

Inquisition is a 1976 Spanish-Italian historical horror film written and directed by Paul Naschy. It also features Daniela Giordano, Julia Saly and Mónica Randall. The film was shot in May and June 1976, and first shown in Spain in 1978. The special effects were handled by Fernando Florido, who outdid himself with his elaborate design for the demon Belphegor, seen during the film's bizarre dream sequence. Daniela Giordano loved the film and thought it was one of the best projects she ever worked on. An Argentinian one-sheet exists with the name of the film as Bajo el terror de la Inquisicion / Under the Terror of the Inquisition, but there is no evidence that the film was ever shown there theatrically.

References

  1. ↑ Benzel, Thorsten (2012). Muchas Gracias, Senor Lobo. Creepy Images. p. 222.
  2. ↑ Howarth, Troy (2018). Human Beasts: The Films of Paul Naschy. WK Books. ISBN 978-1718835894
  3. ↑ Howarth, Troy (2018). Human Beasts: The Films of Paul Naschy. WK Books. p. 136. ISBN 978-1718835894
  4. ↑ Howarth, Troy (2018). Human Beasts: The Films of Paul Naschy. WK Books. p. 134. ISBN 978-1718835894
  5. ↑ Howarth, Troy (2018). Human Beasts: The Films of Paul Naschy. WK Books. p. 318. ISBN 978-1718835894.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.