Fury of the Wolfman (1972)
[+]
(Foreign Titles)
Nomination Year: 2010
SYNOPSIS: What initially drew us to this movie was the premise as explained on the back of the DVD case. Allow me to quote the plot summary of Fury of the Wolfman: "Lola (Perla Cristal), a female psychiatrist, resurrects her lover (Paul Naschy) after he has been attacked and bitten by a Yeti in Tibet. Subjecting him to bizarre mind-control experiments that force him to turn into a werewolf, she is attempting to awaken his dormant manliness that never existed before his death. Instead she awakens a killer that is completely under her control."
While this is all undoubtedly sort-of true, it's true in a very disappointingly unlurid fashion. How is this possible? I saw the movie and I'm still not certain. The pacing of the thing sure doesn't help.
The movie starts with flashbacks (really annoying 50% image superimposition flashbacks) to the scientific expedition where Professor Waldemar Daninsky is bitten by the yeti. He is nursed back to health by a Random Tibetan Guy who warns him of the curse portended by the pentagram-shaped scar left by the yeti. Professor Daninsky is a man of science and so doesn't believe a word of it, but still ... he is haunted by the pentagram. So much so that the last quarter or so of the flashback, he is moaning, "Pentagram! Pentagram! Pentagram!" in addition to whatever else is happening onscreen.
Later in the film, he discovers that his wife has been unfaithful and has a voiceover of "Unfaithful! Unfaithful! Unfaithful!" At that point, we decided that "Unfaithful Pentagram" would be a good band name.
It's also worth noting here that the film's musical store is attempting to be Dark Shadowsesque, but by way of slow fingering exercises. The most exciting thing to happen in the background music is when the key (ploddingly, predictably) changes.
As the movie unfolds, we learn the following things:
1. Chematrodes are really powerful, especially in waves.
2. Female scientists are both spooky and evil.
3. Werewolves like to bite people's necks, as if they were hairy vampires.
4. Reporters make the best detectives.
5. It is hard to kill a horse with a flute. Sorry, wrong movie.
6. Chematrodes are an attempt by science to dominate humanity.
7. Werewolves can escape easily from any sort of imprisonment.
8. Pentagram! Pentagram! Pentagram!
9. Nothing (not even police intervention) happens with any speed.
10. "This can't be scientific! This can't be scientific!"
I suspect that the writer and director of this film got together and said, "Let's make a werewolf movie for people who aren't in any hurry."
While this is all undoubtedly sort-of true, it's true in a very disappointingly unlurid fashion. How is this possible? I saw the movie and I'm still not certain. The pacing of the thing sure doesn't help.
The movie starts with flashbacks (really annoying 50% image superimposition flashbacks) to the scientific expedition where Professor Waldemar Daninsky is bitten by the yeti. He is nursed back to health by a Random Tibetan Guy who warns him of the curse portended by the pentagram-shaped scar left by the yeti. Professor Daninsky is a man of science and so doesn't believe a word of it, but still ... he is haunted by the pentagram. So much so that the last quarter or so of the flashback, he is moaning, "Pentagram! Pentagram! Pentagram!" in addition to whatever else is happening onscreen.
Later in the film, he discovers that his wife has been unfaithful and has a voiceover of "Unfaithful! Unfaithful! Unfaithful!" At that point, we decided that "Unfaithful Pentagram" would be a good band name.
It's also worth noting here that the film's musical store is attempting to be Dark Shadowsesque, but by way of slow fingering exercises. The most exciting thing to happen in the background music is when the key (ploddingly, predictably) changes.
As the movie unfolds, we learn the following things:
1. Chematrodes are really powerful, especially in waves.
2. Female scientists are both spooky and evil.
3. Werewolves like to bite people's necks, as if they were hairy vampires.
4. Reporters make the best detectives.
5. It is hard to kill a horse with a flute. Sorry, wrong movie.
6. Chematrodes are an attempt by science to dominate humanity.
7. Werewolves can escape easily from any sort of imprisonment.
8. Pentagram! Pentagram! Pentagram!
9. Nothing (not even police intervention) happens with any speed.
10. "This can't be scientific! This can't be scientific!"
I suspect that the writer and director of this film got together and said, "Let's make a werewolf movie for people who aren't in any hurry."
Kevin Hogan
José María Zabalza
Paul Naschy
