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by Hubbs Kowalski

I remember meeting Paul Naschy at a convention. I was surprised that he was sitting there alone with no one at his table. I had a few things to sign and we got along famously, even though his English wasn’t so hot (tell you the truth, mine ain’t so hot either). A true class act that made the films I’ve seen by him even better.

However, that cherished memory doesn’t make THE WEREWOLF SHADOW (also known on these shores as WEREWOLF VS. THE VAMPIRE WOMAN) any better.

Given a nice re-release by BCI for their unfortunately now-defunct Spanish Horror series, WEREWOLF SHADOW is both parts boring and stupid. I don’t expect a lot from my horror at times, but, hoo boy, is this shit hard to sit through.

The character that made Naschy famous, the werewolf Waldemar Daninsky, is brought back to life by some doctors who remove the silver bullet from his chest. He awakens and makes short work of the doctors then runs out and kills a hot dish in the blue moonlight. One has high hopes when you have a close up on a nice titty with blood running down it so early in a film.

The plot, besides Daninsky’s return, concerns two female students doing work for some stupid college class or something, I guess. I was falling asleep a lot, especially during the protracted discotheque scene in the beginning where one of the main chicks spouts on about what she’s doing to some well-dressed douche she dates who works for the government. The scene is right after the bloody titty mentioned earlier which means this particular Naschy film goes downhill super fast.

And the girls are fucking dumb. By that I mean, the script doesn’t afford them the brains to do anything right. The main reason they’re out there is to find the tomb of a suspected vampire countess. They do and one of them does the stupidest shit in the world, which is to pull the silver cross out of the vampire countess corpse and accidently cut herself while doing it, dropping blood all over the countess’ skeleton mouth. Note to self: If I ever desecrate a tomb and everything seems to jive with what’s been said in the legend, don’t pull out the silver cross.

Actually, I’m done reviewing this movie and part of it has to do with getting older.

I’ve promised this review to the Poobah for weeks now. The last few things he’s sent me I can barely get through, THE WEREWOLF SHADOW being one of them. I’ve had to do it in five or ten minute increments. It’s not good at all.

But does it look good? Yeah, nice restoration. There’s a lot of other in-depth reviews of this film out there that compare the quality between this and the previously released Anchor Bay version. You need to go check those out because my life is too short to waste making and comparing screen shots of a film that’s been giving me writer’s block and feelings of guilt for not getting in this review in a timely manner all because, really, it’s not good. When I watch movies this bad anymore, I feel my mortality creeping in.

Matter of fact, fuck ol’ La Noche De Walpurgis right in its dirty ass. I’m done with you.

Now I feel like I need an opportunity to defend myself.

I like a majority of Naschy films and European horror in general, especially the Blind Dead films, giallos, etc. And I’ll admit, there’s some good creepy stuff in SHADOW. But it’s extremely minimal and doesn’t make it easier to sit through. WEREWOLF SHADOW is absolute fucking torture.

There are a lot of folks who’d disagree with me but it’s usually going to be the European horror stalwarts who thrive on any and all of this stuff BCI is putting out. There are better Naschy films in the BCI collection. VENGEANCE OF THE ZOMBIES for example. But this is just Naschy filler that sucks your soul. A great guy and an important figure in horror history, but he’s made some real stinkers, and this is one of them.

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