User Reviews

Following his near-fatal heart attack in 1991, Paul Naschy made this werewolf film in an attempt at a comeback, but it was poorly distributed and received bad reviews. He's still playing the cursed Waldemar Daninsky, who is still a werewolf but growing old. Only the love of a pure woman can end his curse. Until then, he's going to keep killing everyone he can. But now, a serial killer is competing with him for victims.

This film doesn't score as well with lovers of these films. Perhaps because it's talky. It doesn't have much gore. Because it's a morality story. Or probably because the werewolf doesn't show up for a long time while female scientists and ghosts talk and talk and Naschy has heart issues.

However, just when I was ready to check out, there's a scene where a crazy dubbed voice starts making evil phone calls and I was all in.

Sure, it's a somewhat sanitzied Naschy film with strange bluesy soundtrack choices. It's still better than watching what passes for the news.

Despite having heard of his most famous creation for years,I have never got round to taking a look at Paul Naschy's werewolf saga.Talking to a DVD seller after seeing Naschy's impressive El huerto del Francés,I was pleased to find out that he had recently tracked down one of the later werewolf flicks,which led to me finally getting my paws on a nasty wolf.

The plot:

Becoming a successful novelist, Waldemar Daninsky finds that there is still no women in sight who can kill him,and free Daninsky from his decade long werewolf curse.As a spree of killings start to take place that suspiciously look like they have been done by the infamous werewolf,someone starts investigating their family past,and ends up getting under the historical fur of Daninsky.

View on the film:

Produced by a TV company,director Francisco Rodríguez Gordillo & cinematographer Manuel Mateos bring an eerie atmosphere out of the low budget with a deep blue tint casting a supernatural shadow over the movie. Limiting the appearances of Naschy's werewolf, Gordillo pulls the fangs of horror with wonderfully bonkers detours biting into ghosts and murderous priests. For his 12th Werewolf title,the screenplay by actor Paul Naschy (who gives his returning wolf a mischievous grin) got torn to shreds by the director,who cut out the most risqué elements (!) Despite being left in ribbons,the movie is able to howl at the moon thanks to an ambition to dress an anthology round the werewolf,and a sharp-tooth misdirection over who the Naschy werewolf is leaping in the moonlight for.

Dearie me! Not only were the careers of the successful '70s horror directors failing in the 1990s, but it was the same in Spain, where horror veteran and legend Paul Naschy made this misguided addition to the Waldemar Daninsky series. LYCANTROPUS: THE MOONLIGHT MURDERS (1997, original title Licantropo: El asesino de la luna llena) is a contemporary tale which sees an aged Naschy - looking every one of his 60+ years - playing a family man and writer suffering from the usual werewolf curse, while his daughter finds herself harassed by an obscene caller. It's a cheap and oddly lifeless afair, suffering from a director - Francisco Rodriguez Gordillo - who seemingly hates the horror genre.

By all accounts, Gordillo excised most of the sex and gore from the script, leaving this largely bloodless and completely lacking in the gothic atmosphere that defines Naschy's earlier output. The werewolf doesn't even feature all that much, which is a pity as the make-up is decent, and one nifty transformation sequence is aided by CGI inserts and layered sound effects. It's more a mystery than a horror, but it's incredibly talky, and largely inert, meaning you'll be bored for much of the time. This is one Daninsky outing we could have done without.

It is a strange movie. We could say that in this final movie of the Saga, a more existentialist and ill Waldemar Daninsky is described. Finally, redemption through love comes.

This picture is Noteworthy because it does not deliver much gore or nudity for a change.

Also, there is a strong critic of intolerance and xenophobia. At the beginning, there is a scene involving Nazis in Central Europe.

Also, there is a strong critic of church and religion.

Authority and Modernity are ridiculed too.

The budget is low, there is some atmosphere, and the plot deviates a bit from the usual routes.

For connoisseurs, we must mention that Dr. Westenra is Amparo Muñoz, Miss Universe 1974, turned junkie, addicted to Heroine, and not looking great. Extremely Morbid.

A different take, end of the Saga.