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!).
Review of Frankenstein's Bloody Terror
