While most of the 'Waldemar Daninsky'/'Hombre Lobo' Werewolf flicks starring the great late Spanish Horror legend Paul Naschy cannot really be described as masterpieces, they are all entertaining and have a certain inimitable charm that can only be found in Naschy flicks. Being an enthusiastic Naschy-fan, I must say that "La Maldición De La Bestia" aka. "The Werewolf and the Yeti" (1975) is doubtlessly the most ludicrous and preposterous, and sadly also the least entertaining of the 'Hombre Lobo' flicks that I've seen; and yet it is immensely entertaining and definitely worth watching for my fellow fans of the man.
Usually, Waldemar Daninsky (who recovers from Werewolf-curses and, often, death with every passing film) is turned into a Werewolf by an ancient family curse, or by an unlucky coincidence. In this film, Paul Naschy's most famous character is an adventurer and scientist, who joins an expedition to the Himalayas, in the course of which his colleague's sexy young daughter falls in love with him (of course). He then becomes a werewolf after being held in a Himalayan cave by two sex-hungry and cannibalistic pagan priestesses... "The Werewolf and the Yeti" is highly camp and cheesy (also in comparison to the other "Hombre-Lobo" flick, all of which have a delightful camp factor), and occasionally extremely illogical and confused. In about 90 minutes, the film includes cannibal priestesses, the Werewolf, demonic witch doctors and an insane Himalayan warlord who wants to be Fu Manchu, as well as a Yeti (with minimal screen-time). The first half is pretty tiresome, but the film catches up in the second half with tons of sleaze, gore and genuine nastiness as well as camp fun. The landscapes look as Himalayan as Barcelona, and the whole thing makes little sense, but that does in no way lessen the fun. Paul Naschy is charismatic as always and the female cast members are entirely hot.
Since the film has little to no real suspense or creepiness it is easily the least interesting of Naschy's 'Hombre Lobo' films, but it is nonetheless highly entertaining. The fact that this impossible-to-be-taken-seriously piece of camp fun was on the UK's infamous Video Nasty list of banned films once again shows the idiocy of film censors. Definitely no must-see, but warmly recommended to my fellow Paul Naschy fans.
