accattone74 This is the first Waldemar Daninsky film – the kick start of Spanish Horror's Golden Age. It's shot in 70mm, and every corner of the frame pops with confident art direction, however naive some of it may seem now. A wonderful homage to Universal Horror's heyday, but updated with Bava- esque lighting more garish than Gothic. Right out of the gate, Naschy portrays a truly ferocious monster, knocking down and chewing up everything in sight, stopping short of the film loaded in the camera. Had audiences ever seen an actor portray a monster, let alone a werewolf, with such utter physical abandon? I'm thinking of the scene in which Waldemar the werewolf smashes into a villager's hut and attacks the unsuspecting residents. Spanish audiences had certainly never seen anything so phantasmagorical, and so bloody. Most surprising to many contemporary viewers is the fact that there are several moments of real fright and suspense. The colors are ludicrously bold, as is Naschy's performance when he's howling it up. Includes swarthy gypsies, cape-clad satanists and a beautiful but deadly witch/vampire: Wandessa. Added bonus: Naschy often stripped to the waist. Not much else to say. Just sit back, enjoy, and escape!

Coventry "Frankenstein's Bloody Terror" is what I like to call one of them horror hodgepodges. There's a whole lot going on and it might look very confusing, but basically it's a very straightforward and sensationalist horror mess made in Europe but mainly intended for the American drive-in crowd. It's the first entry in the long-running and relatively notorious Spanish "Hombre-Lobo" series, all starring Paul Naschy as the eternally doomed lycanthrope Count Waldemar Daninsky. Some of the sequels might be better known, like "The Werewolf Vs. The Vampire Women" and "Curse of the Devil", but this is the movie that introduced us to Waldemar and showed us how he became a werewolf. In spite of the suave sounding title, the film has absolutely nothing to do with the mad scientist Baron Frankenstein or its monstrous creation. There are, however, plenty of werewolves and vampires. It's just that, around that time in particular, any horror flick with "Frankenstein" in its title was a guaranteed hit amongst the horror loving audiences. The makers of this film inventively put the connection by claiming the Frankensteins are distantly related to the Wolfsteins, a noble European family that were cursed with Lycanthropy. The last descendant of the Wolfsteins lies dead in the family crypt, with the silver dagger still in his heart to prevent resurrection. When a greedy gypsy couple (gypsies … they always screw things up in horror movies) removes the dagger, the wolf man goes on a bloody killing spree in town. Waldemar Daninsky and Rudolph Weissmann, two romantic rivals battling for the love of the yummy young countess Janice Von Aerenberg, are forced to team up during the organized hunt in the woods. Waldemar saves Rudolph's life when the wolf man attacks, but he can't avoid getting bitten and thus takes over the curse. In a last desperate attempt to find a cure, they call upon professor Dr. Janos Mikhelov, but he and his voluptuous wife Wandessa are actually vampires and primarily interested in the virgin blood of Janice and Rudolph. Yes, okay, admittedly this all sounds quite convoluted and ambitious, but the truth is that "Frankenstein's Bloody Terror" is nothing more than an amusing roller-coaster of campy horror and kitsch! The film has a rather slow and talkative opening half hour – with too much dull and pointless information about the love triangle between Janice, Rudolph and Waldemar - but as soon as the gypsies desecrate the Wolfstein tomb, there's non-stop bloody action and typical Euro-horror camp. The plot centering solely around the lycanthrope is still very atmospheric and moody (with eerie images of a dark forest and the vicious attack of a family), but as soon as the vampires appear, the whole thing just becomes too eccentric. Approaching the finale, there even is a wrestling match between two werewolves and the oddest vampire-kill in history of horror cinema. Whenever the plot becomes too much of a mess, the film reverts to the chattering fathers of Janice and Rudolph, as they summarize what's been going on at regular intervals. The make-up effects are decent and actually rather gruesome for 1968 and there are numerous hints at sleaze and perversion. This was the first horror film of Paul Naschy, but he kept playing Waldemar Daninsky throughout 12 more films and over a span of nearly 40 years. As in most of his films (especially the ones he wrote and directed himself), Paul Naschy plays a character that is extremely successful amongst the ladies even though he's not the least bit attractive. Waldemar Dankinsky for life!

Lee Eisenberg I think that Jacinto Molina - known as Paul Naschy in the English-speaking world - had appeared in a few movies before this one, but it was in "La marca del Hombre-lobo" (called "Frankenstein's Bloody Terror" in the US) where he played werewolf Waldemar Daninsky for the first time. And you gotta love it! Anyway, the story goes that he's helping hunt a werewolf on the loose, but it bites him before he kills it. Now stuck with the curse, he enlists the help of some doctors who turn out to be vampires. Needless to say, everything results in a final showdown.I get the feeling that these Euro-horror flicks from the '60s and '70s may have influenced some of the American slasher movie directors, what with gore and sexuality. One scene in particular shows some transients frolicking erotically and...guess what happens to them! A precursor to the scene in "Scream" where the guy notes that "sex=death" in horror movies.Overall, this is one of those movies that you just gotta see. I would assume that they named the character Waldemar Daninsky so as to give the film a more Gothic feeling (and it pretty much works). I wonder how the movie would have been had they set the movie in their native Spain and given the character a corresponding name.

vtcavuoto This is the film that made Paul Naschy a star. The title is misleading as there is no Frankenstein to be found. Don't let that stop you from enjoying a fine piece of horror. Waldemar Daninsky(Naschy)is bitten by a werewolf and you know what happens next. Two doctors arrive to seek a cure but they're only interested in drinking blood(yes, they're vampires). At the end, the vampires are eliminated and Waldemar is killed by a silver bullet.The werewolf make-up is pretty good and the sets are excellent-almost as good as the ones by Hammer studios. If you get the chance to see this, don't miss it! By the way, this film was very rare but it is now being released on DVD starting 10/25/05 by Media Blasters. The great thing is that they are improving the picture quality so it won't be like the faded transfers on hard to find VHS tapes.