Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Bea Swanson This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Josephina Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Leofwine_draca My second Naschy film (the first being WEREWOLF SHADOW) was much as I expected, more Spanish werewolf action. That's not to say it's a bad film, as it really isn't. This time however the scenery is different and much of the film takes place in a large forest which is nicely atmospheric. As for the plot, it's the typical werewolf story with the added bonus of witchcraft. I like the way Naschy always has to have as many different monsters as possible in his films, it certainly adds something and makes them more fun.There is some truly atrocious dubbing in this film, especially in the scene where he meets his lover's family. The words just do not match the mouth movements at all and no attempt has been made to sync them. Which is pretty funny when it appears on screen. The film has much the same Gothic atmosphere as your typical Hammer film, and benefits greatly from this. The budgets are obviously lower but there is enough action going on to keep this from becoming a problem.There's a lot of nudity again, especially in the black magic ritual, I don't know why women have to strip off when the devil is around but I guess that's the way it is. And lots of werewolf action too. The werewolf makeup in this film is, I have to say, quite laughable, but there's a couple of excellent man-into-beast transformations (and the required reverse beast-into-man at the end). There's a lot of gore on offer, and you know it's the '70s when the blood is a little too paint-like. Lots of people get killed and have blood covering their faces, there's also a maggoty body which Naschy liked to include in his films (hey, well all love maggoty bodies!).Naschy himself is once again good value for money, always the likable yet tragic hero of the story. The scene where the curse is put into practice is also quite horrible and effective. Altogether, this film is a typical werewolf romp and a lot of fun to watch as it has a lot of action and people fighting and getting killed in it. If you're a Naschy fan then it really is a must see.

Witchfinder General 666 "El Retorno De Walpurgis" aka. "Curse Of The Devil" of 1973 is already the seventh film in which Spanish Horror/Exploitation legend Paul Naschy plays Werewolf Waldemar Daninski. These Waldemar Daninski films (many of them carry an "Hombre Lobo" title) are not exactly connected with each other (some of them play in the past, some in the present), but they all revolve around Waldemar Daninski, a usually kind-hearted man who is turned into a Werewolf by a curse. Unlike the title might make believe "El Retorno De Walpurgis" is not a direct sequel to the foregoing "La Noche De Walpurgis" (aka "The Werewolf Vs. Vampire Women") of 1971, the most famous of the Waldemar Daninski films. While "La Noche..." played in the present (1971), this film takes place in the past, presumably in the late 19th century. It is also not quite clear whether the Waldemar Daninski in this film is the same, or an ancestor of the other - he has quite the same traits of character, however.In medieval times knight Irenius Daninski (Paul Naschy) rid the world of a coven of devil-worshipers when he killed their leader in battle, and had his witch wife burned and their followers hanged. Before being burned at the stake however, the devil-worshiping lady put a curse on Daninski's family, vowing to be back for revenge... Several centuries later, the kind-hearted Waldemar Daninski (also Naschy) lives in the castle... More than its predecessors, "El Retorno De Walpurgis" gives a little background information about how the Daninsky-curse came to existence. The film is quite typical for a Naschy-flick. On the one hand the story is often extremely cheesy, but on the other hand it has moments of great style. As far as I am considered, a Naschy flick is always worth watching, as they mostly provide a great atmosphere, and practically always provide two elements that all my fellow Exploitation-enthusiasts should appreciate: Loads of sleaze and female nudity, as well as stylish (if sometimes cheesy) gory outbursts. And this is definitely the case with "El Retorno De Walpurgis". The film is filled with gore scenes, which are quite nicely done for a budget that was supposedly quite low, and all the female characters have exhibitionist tendencies, most memorably the stunningly beautiful Maritza Olivares and Fabiona Falcón. The fact that the werewolf-makeup is not exactly frightening does in no way lessen this film's cult-value. Low-budget Spanish Horror-exploitation from the 70s is a supremely entertaining kind of cinema, and Paul Naschy is its king. While this "Retorno De Walpurgis" may not be a must-see, it is definitely a highly entertaining film that my fellow Eurohorror buffs should enjoy! Paul Naschy Forever!

The_Void Paul Naschy made a hell of a lot of horror films and, unfortunately, many of them are somewhat less than brilliant. His "Hombre-Lobo" cycle is a set of films that sometimes gets some attention and this film is a part of that series. I've seen two previously - Werewolf Shadow and 'The Werewolf and the Yeti', which somehow managed to make it onto the Video Nasty list. I'm not a fan of either film at all and I feared this may be another bad example of the cycle, but to my surprise, Curse of the Devil is actually quite good! The main inspiration obviously comes from the Universal classic 'The Wolf Man' and features an upstanding citizen struck with the curse of changing into a werewolf every full moon. It's one of those deals where an ancient ancestor messed with the wrong people and it's turned out bad for Count Waldemar Daninsky as he becomes the afflicted generation. A witch instructs a beautiful naked woman to put the curse on Daninsky with the aid of a wolf's skull. She has sex with him first and then does the honours, leaving the Count with a bit of a problem.Spanish horror tends to be a bit slow, and that is the case here; though it's not a big problem as the film is always at least interesting and it's not as slow as some other examples. The title is a bit misleading and alludes to something more along the lines of Satanic horror, though obviously that's not the case; the 'curse' part makes some sense though. Paul Naschy delivers another good performance that fits his character, though he gets a lot of experience playing the same kind of roles so a good performance should really be expected. The werewolf effects appear to have been based on the Universal classic and possibly Hammer Horror's The Curse of the Werewolf too. I can't say they're very convincing, but there is a change sequence that's amusing. There's not a great deal of gore in the film but this is made up for by the way that the film delves into the werewolf legend. I can't say that this is a great film or a great werewolf film; but it's an enjoyable one and for my money the best of the three "Hombre-Lobo" films that I've seen.

lazarillo This not one of your better Paul Naschy/"Hombre Lobo" movies, but it's not a total waste of time either. It begins in Medieval times where Count Daninsky (a Polish count?--okay, why not) kills his nemesis Count Barthory in a joust and then burns alive his wife Elizabeth, a notorious Satan-worshipper famous for bathing in the blood of virgins. Barthory curses Danisky with the promise that one of her descendants will someday curse one of his descendants with lycanthropy (THAT must have worried him). Cut to more or less the present-day where the modern-day Count Danisky (Naschy again)nearly runs over a woman, who has just left a coven meeting (featuring a naked orgy with the shadow of the Devil). He takes her home and, of course, ends up in bed with her where, after he falls asleep, she takes the opportunity to put a lycanthropic curse on him in an elaborate ritual involving blood and a fake wolf skull (the only potentially greater mystery than why Naschy is catnip to all the beautiful women in these movies is why he keeps sleeping with THEM when something terribly always seems to happen). The woman runs away and is promptly killed off by an axe-wielding escaped lunatic lurking in the woods for no good reason.The oblivious Danisky doesn't worry too much about what happened to his bed-mate, but immediately falls in love with the daughter of a neighboring landowner. But of course, he also doesn't turn down the charms of her curious younger sister(who puts the "bare" in barely legal). In one the most memorable lines she tells him that she has "come a virgin but (is) not leaving as one". She doesn't have to worry it turns out because he turns into a werewolf in mid-coitus. Soon the bodies begin to pile up. At first, the killings are blamed on the axe-wielding lunatic and even Danisky himself, protected by a loyal servant, remains oblivious, but then the lunatic is found dead too and the angry villagers start howling for werewolf blood. And what about the satanic coven?--oh, never mind.Obhviously there is no way to tie all the incredibly random threads of this movie together satisfactorily and they really don't. Basically it ends more or less the same sappy and tragic way as all these movies do. Still if you like the "Hombre Lobo" series, you'll probably like it. It's not as good as "Werewolf Shadow" (which it is supposedly a direct sequel of), but better than entries like "The Werewolf vs. the Yeti" or pretty much all the "comeback" films Naschy did in 80's and 90's. Recommended to Naschy fans if no one else.