Human Beasts (1980)
BOMB (out of 4)
Bruno Rivera (Paul Naschy) is a hit-man working for the Yakuza. He sets up a major robbery but after stealing the jewels he decides to keep them. After being wounded he is discovered by a kind doctor and his daughters but soon he realizes this isn't a good thing.
I said "soon he realizes..." but let me change that. In the final seconds of the movie he realizes that they aren't what they seemed. When NIGHT OF THE WEREWOLF bombed at the box office, horror star Naschy had to travel to Japan for financing and that resulted in two movies. This one here and THE BEAST AND THE MAGIC SWORD would follow. I'm really not sure what they were trying to do with HUMAN BEASTS but there's no question that it's the worst film in Naschy's career and a truly torturous thing to try and get through.
What's so shocking about HUMAN BEASTS is how it really doesn't fit into any genre. It's partially horror but not really. It's partially a Yakuza movie but not really. It has some mystery elements but it's not really a mystery. This is a film that really doesn't belong to any genre and for the life of me I can't see what made anyone want to give money to this picture. I mean, if Naschy as a werewolf had just bombed were there really going to be anyone wanting to watch this thing?
I've read reviews from people calling this an unsettling nightmare and a creepy picture but I don't see it. In fact, the movie is downright boring right from the start and it just drags to the point where you wish you were the one being targeted. The performances aren't the worst that you'll ever see but they're still not great enough to keep you into the picture. The gore is minimum and in reality there's just nothing here. It's a flat, boring and drawn-out picture that just doesn't work at all.
BOMB (out of 4)
Bruno Rivera (Paul Naschy) is a hit-man working for the Yakuza. He sets up a major robbery but after stealing the jewels he decides to keep them. After being wounded he is discovered by a kind doctor and his daughters but soon he realizes this isn't a good thing.
I said "soon he realizes..." but let me change that. In the final seconds of the movie he realizes that they aren't what they seemed. When NIGHT OF THE WEREWOLF bombed at the box office, horror star Naschy had to travel to Japan for financing and that resulted in two movies. This one here and THE BEAST AND THE MAGIC SWORD would follow. I'm really not sure what they were trying to do with HUMAN BEASTS but there's no question that it's the worst film in Naschy's career and a truly torturous thing to try and get through.
What's so shocking about HUMAN BEASTS is how it really doesn't fit into any genre. It's partially horror but not really. It's partially a Yakuza movie but not really. It has some mystery elements but it's not really a mystery. This is a film that really doesn't belong to any genre and for the life of me I can't see what made anyone want to give money to this picture. I mean, if Naschy as a werewolf had just bombed were there really going to be anyone wanting to watch this thing?
I've read reviews from people calling this an unsettling nightmare and a creepy picture but I don't see it. In fact, the movie is downright boring right from the start and it just drags to the point where you wish you were the one being targeted. The performances aren't the worst that you'll ever see but they're still not great enough to keep you into the picture. The gore is minimum and in reality there's just nothing here. It's a flat, boring and drawn-out picture that just doesn't work at all.