Bestia y la espada mágica, La (1983)
 | Directed By: Jacinto Molina |
| Written By: Jacinto Molina | |
| Starring: Jacinto Molina (screen name Paul Naschy), Julia Saly, Beatriz Escudero ... | |
| Running Time: 120 min | |
| Release Date: 1983 | |
| Availability: Limited / Unavailable | |
Internet Movie Database:  |
This Daninsky story is a horror fantasy filmed in Japan, bringing Japanese legends into the werewolf myth of Jacinto Molina. As with all of the installments which he wrote and directed himself, this one is very rare and hard to find.
YES! Finally a Daninsky movie in it's original language, with subtitles! And what's more, it's the one that combines werewolf folklore with Japanese mythology, two of my favourite things! Needless to say, I was pretty excited about this one. I got it from Horror Theatre Video, and the fact that it's in Spanish more than makes up for the poor quality.
It begins with two the leaders of the Romanian empire in a castle, discussing their war against Hungary. The Hungarians are of course portrayed as a vicious race who practise dark magic and witchcraft. The Romanians decide that their finest warrior, Waldemar Daninsky, must challenge Abalcu, leader of the Hungarians. In return for slaughtering this evildoer, all he asks for is the emperor's youngest daughter ... what a hero. Of course he wins, but he and his new wife are then cursed by a Hungarian witch. She is promptly killed ("My powers are invincible! You can't stop me! ... Oh, right. Arrows."), but not before she renders them unable to have children and turns Waldemar into a werewolf. D'oh! And so, they travel around searching for a way to end this curse. They explore religion and Japanese mythology, encounter witch-hunters and samurai, and overcome all obstacles to be victorious. Well, sort of.
This is all incredibly original for a Daninsky movie. Many of the previous movies were treading over the same basic territory, but this story is unusual and enthralling. The fusion of superstition and supernatural events is very interesting, and the idea of "Werewolf vs Samurai" is peculiarly appealing. It is, overall, an extraordinary film. Molina does a good job of emulating the trashy hack n' slash samurai flicks of the period. On the other hand, the script feels disjointed and in places the film is needlessly confusing. It's slow moving and takes a while to really get started.
This is a rare item of the Naschy catalogue, and strictly for fans and collectors only (until it gets a restored version, at least). But if you fit into either of those categories, I'm confident that you'll love it to bits.
So Jacinto Molina has grown even MORE hair since we last saw him in the "The Craving" ... he looks a bit like a hippie who just happened to miss the sixties by over a decade. At the beginning of this film, we see the reappearance of that creepy wolf's skull from "Curse of the Devil", and again it is used to curse Daninsky. Once again our wolf man is searching for his cure, this time travelling to Japan, and several methods are tried --everything from a rare flower to brain surgery. Just give it up, Waldemar! The werewolf is slaughtering the poor folks at a Japanese village, and they are unable to kill the beast. They make a cast of it's footprint and note that it has characteristics of a human and of a wolf. Thankfully they are familiar with the werewolf mythology, including the use of silver bullets or, yep, silver samurai swords. Boo-yah. The magic sword in question is one that may finally be able to destroy the beast. It also goes into much more detail about how to kill a werewolf -- "For a wolfman to be cured of the curse he must be killed with a silver bullet discharged by a pure woman during a full moon. This woman must value his life, but must not be afraid to die in the exchange. If the woman hates him or fears him, he will live again after the bullet passes through him, he will continue to kill and destroy." It is also specified that even if a werewolf should lose a limb, then it will eventually grow back so long as silver isn't used. Neat. It's an interesting werewolf that's on show here, not quite like Molina's earlier wolf men. The werewolf seems to have developed a strange habit of tearing off women's clothes before he kills them. And there's a scene where he must break out of a dungeon ruled over by a dominatrix and her amazon warriors and, well ... sorry, Mr Molina, but there does come a point when whatever way you look at it, you're just beating up girls. Never mind, there's plenty of cool samurai fights as well, including of course Werewolf vs Samurai. In short, this movie does exactly what it promises. |
    |
