RELEASE DATE: 1972
RATED: Unrated
REVIEWED BY: The DarkSider
Our film begins at some dinner party being held by a guy named Imre. Old Imre and his young fianc� (who I sure loved him for his personality) named Justine are planning a romantic getaway in scenic Romania or something. I'm sure Bermuda or The Cayman Islands were way overrated anyhow.
During the party, the guests obnoxiously schmooze away about their impending trip and how they should wear garlic and other anti-creatures of the night garb. Oh ho ho ho...funny, funny. Imre makes mention of how he plans to visit the graves of his parents. All goes...um...well until a window blows open knocking over a statue bust. People immediately start to leave after this. Why, well nothing ruins a party more than silly wind caused accidents.
This cuts to Imre and Justine traveling the countryside. Justine is a bit spooked by the surrounding areas, which of course means a car failure is imminent. The car sputters out and Justine, who apparently never heard of the term "shelter in place", goes out wandering. She comes across a horribly disfigured guy and screams her head off. Imre chases off the guy who didn't seem that much of a threat to me.
Cut to the local inn where Imre is chatting it up with the local innkeeper Gyogyo. Seeing we haven't had a wise old man who warns of approaching danger yet in the film, Gyogyo takes that position up. He describes the graveyard that Imre plans on visiting a mean old place. That and to add to the meanness, theres an evil black castle next to it. Well Imre, who apparently hasn't seen many films like this, ignores all the warnings and heads out the next day with Justine.
As only one can imagine, things go haywire during the grave visit. Imre notices a bunch of guys raiding their car and dashes into action. He is awarded with a knife to the chest and dies. Justine is almost given the old "in-out" by the thugs but a man rescues her just in time. He hauls her back to the dark castle.
Justine wakes up and starts to wonder aimlessly throughout the castle. She stumbles upon her dead husband and starts to panic. The man who rescued her appears and scares her even more. I guess that would be because he didn't say anything like, "please don't panic", rather he kind of just stares menacingly at her.
Justine blacks out again and wakes up to meet the lady of the house named Uswika. She gives the low down on the man of the house named Waldemar. He is a sick man looking for a cure according to Uswika. This sets up the obligatory "ohhh, poor guy" angle for Justine.
Meanwhile Imre's assailants set out to avenge Waldemar's counterattack. They are immediately greeted one evening by Waldemar's alter ego, the Wolfman. Side note on Naschy as The Wolfman. I'm not exactly sure why we're supposed to find him imposing. He is a bit on the short, stocky side and kind of looked silly in the role. Almost like a teenager dressing up as the Wolfman for a dive Halloween party.
Well the village folk don't take kindly to the Wolfman. Matter of fact they lop off Uswika's head and march around town with it. They get out their standard issue pitchforks and torches thus commencing their march on Waldemar's castle. Waldemar and Justine decide that sticking around is all too overrated and head out to London. Why, well for one thing thats apparently where a lot of werewolves go on vacation (see films by John Landis) and secondly, this is where Dr. Jekyll's grandson lives.
The plot, bending all believability, sets up a former romance angle between Justine and Jekyll. She pleads for her new love (gee that was a quick Imre recovery period wasn't it) Waldemar's cure. Dr. Jekyll agrees to see Waldemar in an appointment.
Anyhow, all too conveniently, Waldemar gets stuck in an elevator on the day of his appointment. What a pisser. To make matters worse there is a full moon out which causes Waldemar to transform right in front of an innocent bystander on the elevator with him. I have to admit, it was one of the worst Wolfman transformation sequences in movie history. Waldemar looked more or less like a crazed Chinese guy who hasn't shaved in weeks in the middle of it all.
Well after making a virtual mess of things again, Dr. Jekyll finally meets with Waldemar. All the while, Jekyll's assistant/part time lover Sandra gets a bit tiffy about the whole deal. I guess she doesn't like Jekyll helping dumb blondes like Justine. Anyhow, Jekyll finds the equation to helping Waldemar. As retarded as it is, here's the idea more or less;
(Deep breath...) Waldemar who obviously is under control of the moon is told to come in during the next full moon because Jekyll plans to strap him down and inject him with the Mr. Hyde serum thus turning him into Mr. Hyde who would shoo away the Wolfman once and for all and after all this Jekyll plans to inject Mr. Hyde with the cure. Gasp...ok feel free to read that again if you must. Its a bit stupid so feel free to let it sink in before moving on.
Ok so of course the experiment turns into a disaster. Well actually at first it goes very well with an appearance from Mr. Hyde. Aka, Waldemar in a bad wig. However Sandra kills off Jekyll before he can give him the cure. This leaves Mr. Hyde to mess with the common public. Matter of fact he pushes a guy into some water after pretending to light his cigarette. Yeah...what a meanie. He also finds time in his schedule to kill off Sandra who fails to supply him with the Hyde serum.
So eventually Mr. Hyde's potion wears off in some disco club where people are dancing hideously. This gives way to a rebirth of the Wolfman. At this point I had given up trying to figure out the whole Hyde/Wolfman thing. The Wolfman, under some canine instinct or something, ventures out to find Justine at Jekyll's place.
Justine, under the dying commands of Jekyll, finds the recipe for Hyde's serum and burns it. She also finds some silver bullets because once again, every house has them in stock. After a brief scuffle of sorts, the Wolfman rips out Justine's throat. However in a last ditch effort Justine shoots the Wolfman dead. The two die holding hands, forever loving each other in plot stupidity.
This movie seems like two ideas sewn together in a rather bad tapestry. The first half of the movie seems to have little or nothing to do with the second half. Well minus the whole Justine/Waldemar connection, which was of no real interest anyhow. The violence is mediocre with bargain basement special effects.
Perhaps the biggest mystery is why this was a "VS" movie. It wasn't like Hyde and the Wolfman were locked in an epic battle of death. Rather, just two classic monsters done really badly in one body. Now thats an accomplishment.
1.) When Werewolves Attack - The Wolfman rips out several throats in an extreme bout of necking.
1.) The Village Folk - Back in the day the term "village people" meant a rowdy mob hell bent on bringing down a monster. Nowadays, it means leather ass-less chaps at a 70s disco and thick fumanchu mustache wearing guys named Bart who like to wear them.
2.) Hyde/Wolfman - In today's cutesy terms of a power couple like "Tomkat" & "Bragelina", would that make them "Wolfhyde" or "Hydeman"?
3.) Sandra - She probably would have gone down as the first Hyde groupie if he didn't kill her.
