Il licantropo e lo yeti

THE WEREWOLF AND THE YETI is really a misnomer, but then NIGHT OF THE HOWLING BEAST (the title borne by the print I watched) doesn't do it justice either as the story spans not one but several nights, none of which is more important than the other! Anyway, this isn't a bad effort in Naschy's ongoing "Waldemar Daninsky" saga - hampered slightly by the disc freezing up momentarily on four separate occasions, particularly towards the end: plot-packed though it is, the film is actually pretty straightforward compared to the others I've watched by Naschy - it is indeed livelier than any of them - and the snowy locales in which it is set are a major asset (despite the minimal budget on hand). Naschy turns in a creditable performance (though he was reportedly dissatisfied with how the film turned out), but the werewolf make-up is a matter of taste as it's certainly not scary-looking; the Yeti, then, hardly bears a mention as its function is almost incidental to the narrative and is not even given a distinguished 'look' to make it stand out during the climactic duel. The director's overall style, alas, is rather flat: the Gothic atmosphere one associates with this type of film is mostly lacking here. Apart from this, none of the characters is all that interesting (wicked sorceress Wandesa is especially annoying) but, at least, there's some gore to keep one watching (a male member of the expedition ends up impaled on a thick pole whereas a girl is skinned alive!) and the fist-fight between Waldemar and the villainous Sekkar Khan is quite energetic; there's also a welcome - and wholly gratuitous - touch of eroticism in the sequence where Waldemar meets two vampires-cum-cannibals in a cave who, apparently, also have the power to infect him with 'The Curse Of The Beast'!!