La Maldicion de la Bestia
La Maldicion de la Bestia (The Curse of the Beast) is a 1975 Spanish horror film that is the eighth in a long series about the werewolf Count Waldemar Daninsky, played by Paul Naschy. The film has also been known as The Werewolf and the Yeti, Night of the Howling Beast and Hall of the Mountain King. This film ignored the events from the earlier films The Fury of the Wolfman (1970) and Curse of the Devil (1972), and provided an all-new origin for Waldemar's lycanthropy, having the curse transmitted by the bites of not one, but two, vampire women! A yeti is woven into the storyline (as in The Fury of the Wolfman), but in this film the yeti is not the cause of Waldemar's lycanthropy, but rather the catalyst that brings Waldemar to Tibet in the first place.
| La Maldicion de la Bestia | |
|---|---|
 Spanish theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Miguel Iglesias Bonns |
| Produced by | Modesto Pérez Redondo |
| Written by | Jacinto Molina |
| Starring | Paul Naschy Grace Mills Silvia Solar |
| Cinematography | Tomàs Pladevall |
| Edited by | Carmen Fábregas |
| Distributed by | Independent International Pictures (USA, theatrical), Mariano Sanz Sanz (Spain) |
Release date |
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Running time | 94 minutes |
| Country | Spain |
| Language | Spanish |
Naschy followed up this film with a sequel called Return of the Wolf Man (a.k.a. The Craving) in 1981.
Plot
Waldemar Daninsky goes to Tibet to look for proof that the yeti exists. He gets captured by two savage vampire women in a cave who turn him into a werewolf by biting him. Waldemar's friends are then kidnapped by a band of Tibetan pirates who torture their victims gruesomely, and in the grand climax of the film, Waldemar (in werewolf form) gets to fight a genuine Yeti in bloody hand-to-fang combat. Although a yeti is involved in the plot, note it is the two vampire women (and not the yeti) who transform Waldemar into a werewolf in this film, thus giving him yet another origin for his lycanthropy. This film involved more nudity and graphic gore than most of Naschy's other Wolfman films.
Release
The film was released theatrically in the United States in 1977 by Independent-International Pictures under the title Night of the Howling Beast. The subsequent VHS release came from Super Video.
The film was banned in the UK by the BBFC under the Video Recordings Act of 1984 and was featured on the "video nasties" list. It has never been released in the UK.
The film has been released on DVD in its native Spain by Tripictures. It was released on VHS alternately as Hall of the Mountain King, Night of the Howling Beast and also as The Werewolf and the Yeti in the 1980s.