Ah, the first Daninsky movie of the eighties ... here I refer to Midnight Video's version entitled "Night of the Werewolf", which is pretty good quality but has annoying non-removable subtitles.

When a movie opens with a bunch of satanists being sentenced to gruesome deaths including buried alive, tortured, hanged, beheaded, and so forth ... you know you must be in for good, clean B-movie horror. The chief witch in question of course swears a terrible revenge (haven't we already been here in Molina's "Curse of the Devil"?), and among the condemned is the werewolf Waldemar Daninsky himself, sporting a rather stylish beard. He gets off comparitively lightly, being made to wear an iron mask and having a silver dagger driven through his heart. Centuries later, an evil witch finds a medallion in order to resurrect the ancient chief witch, and as fate would have it a couple of graverobbers remove the dagger of Daninsky's heart at exactly the same moment. Time for a "Werewolf vs the Vampire Woman" rematch ...

Jacinto Molina opted to direct this one himself, as well as the two other Daninsky movies made in the eighties. This means he has more control over the project than ever before, and contrary to what some say, I think he's actually a very good director. Probably the best ever to direct a Daninsky movie, anyway, and obviously he can capture his own artistic vision like nobody else could. This is probably why it feels more conventional and competent than most movies in the series. The sets are great, the special effects are good for it's time and the whole movie has a fantastic atmosphere to it. There is more gratituous nudity and gore than in most Daninsky movies, and I'm surprised it hasn't been a bigger hit with fans of the genre. There are certainly enough werewolves, witches, vampires, zombies and horrible sacrifices to keep them entertained!

Maybe I'm going overboard with the praise, but if you've seen the earlier Daninsky movies, you'll know that in most ways this is pretty damn good comparitively. The dubbing is actually pretty good (although dubbing is always a crime, of course), and they've tried to make the dialogue as hip as possible. Man, I just love the eighties mentality. The soundtrack is also very cool. Okay, okay, so the storyline is pretty much the same predictable stuff all over again. And once again it has no real consistency with the previous movies. But that's why we love it! Obviously it's not an easy movie to watch, it's arguably slow and there's some particularly dark stuff going on even for a Daninsky movie. Daninsky himself is something of an anti-hero, saving maidens in distress but also allowing his wolf side to run around slaughtering innocents. The vampires are very creepy and unearthly, as Molina has always been good at knowing how to portray them.

"El Retorno del Hombre-Lobo", "The Craving", "Night of the Werewolf" ... call it what you like, this is my favourite Daninsky movie yet. It's "The Werewolf vs the Vampire Woman" as it should have been, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

The Wolf Despite the fact that this is one of the modern Daninsky movies, there are no silver bullets in sight here. I guess it makes sense -- where the hell would they find any out in the wilderness? Instead, it's all about silver blades and crosses. In the opening sequence, Waldemar Daninsky is sentenced to wear an iron mask and have his heart pierced with a silver dagger (see top photo), but of course, as soon as the dagger is removed from his tomb he is resurrected. D'oh! The dagger isn't the only werewolf repellent, though ... one of the girls happens to find a walking stick with a silver handle, and mentions it could be melted down for bullets (it's not, though). The flimsy stick is later used to knock out Daninsky in human form. Huh? what a wuss! I thought he was supposed to be a bodybuilder! Anyway, this movie contains a particularly hairy Daninsky (see second photo down) who becomes even hairier in werewolf form (see third photo down). Normally the transformation scenes would involve him growing more facial hair, but obviously they have to be a little different this time around. The crossfade effects are particularly good here. In the first transformation scene, Daninsky flips out and starts throwing furniture around and such, while a girl stands there and watches him like a lemon. He is scared off by a silver cross, though, so all is well. The odd thing about Daninsky in this movie is that he doesn't seem to be aware of the concept of CHAINS. He doesn't lock up his wolf form, but simply offers protection in the form of crosses to those he cares about. Not that chains ever work anyway. The vampires are very well protected here, complete with creepy fog, face makeup and slow motion. As always there is a strong lesbian subtext among them. They're not interested in creating male vampires, but do want the burly Daninsky as their slave. The final confrontation between Daninsky and the chief vampire is thrilling enough (see bottom photo), but ultimately it's a pretty one-sided fight. Go werewolf! Go werewolf!

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