I love Spanish horror films. Their baroque settings, atmospherics, offbeat takes on established genre characters, ironic endings and frank sexuality and violence distinguish them from more self-conscious British entries and literal American horrors of the period. Paul Naschy during the early 1970s wrote and starred in several prime examples of romantic horror permeated with a sense of gloom and death. This film released in the US under the misleading title Curse of the Devil is a prime example of Naschy's effective use of locations and period setting to tell a tale of accursed lycanthrope Waldemar Daninsky, in this case adding themes of witchcraft and colonialism to add subtext to the more standard tale of Waldemar's need for peace at the hands of a woman who loves him. Peppered with picturesque gore and eroticism, in its original Spanish language the film comes off as one of the more dramatically sound Spanish horrors of the period topped off by a perfect surprise ending manifest in a single freeze frame. Carlos Aured directed two other excellent Naschy films during this period, Horror Rises from the Tomb and The Mummy's Revenge, as beautifully photographed as this but destined to be shunned by those who are either unwilling to read subtitles or ready to reject anything that does not follow prefabbed formulaics.
Review of Curse of the Devil
