Diagonaldi
Very well executed
PiraBit
if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.
Philippa
All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
Cassandra
Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.
Boba_Fett1138
So far I have only seen 2 different Fred Olen Ray but I can already tell that he is absolutely one of the worst directors that is still working today. His movies are just so bad, that they are not even funny to watch.I can stand the occasional low budget horror-attempt and can take them for what they are but this is just too much to take. It's an insanely bad movie, that you shouldn't even watch to see how bad it is. Just take my word for it and don't even think about ever watching this.While watching this movie I even started noticing that I wasn't even paying attention to it, while I wasn't even doing anything else. It's just a completely uninteresting movie and I literally couldn't care about anything that was happening. I therefore also really can't tell what the story was about because I simply did not care. It's title might sound cool enough but really, this is not even a werewolf movie. If I have to classify this movie as anything, it would be as soft-core porn because it has a couple of lame attempts at nudity and sex sequences at it, that aren't even done well, not even from a soft-core porn perspective. Horror-wise there is absolutely nothing going on in this movie.It's an incredibly cheap looking movie. It's one of those films that has a TV look all over and if this movie cost anything above $1,000 to make, I would be very surprised. No serious money on the sets, effects, make-up or costumes got ever spend. Even the sound can be all messed up at times, when the actors don't speak closely enough into the camera's.The movie really doesn't flow well, which is due to its messy editing but also lacking directing. The movie also completely fails to feature some likable characters. All of the characters are basically extremely horrendous ones, that do absolutely nothing to make you like any of them. They do quite the opposite throughout this movie actually. I also really can't tell who was supposed to be the main character, or so to speak, 'hero' in this.Needless to say that the acting is also real horrible in this. They couldn't spend any money on the movie its visuals, so they of course also couldn't spend any on some decent enough actors. Actually funny to see that I start recognizing some of these actors who keep popping up in these absolutely horrible- and often soft-core porn, flicks.Do us all a favor and just give up, Fred Olen Ray. You even shouldn't be allowed to make movies in the first place with that sort of a name.1/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/
Hypnotica
... and that question is... DOES *NO ONE* MAKE GOOD WEREWOLF MOVIES ANYMORE?! This movie features an incredibly untalented cast, very cheesy and outdated special effects and just plain bad writing.First problem, too much sex and nudity. Now some, especially men, might argue with that opinion, but that fact is I wanted to see a movie about werewolves. If I'd wanted to see that many breasts exposed, I could have just rented a porno. Seriously, this was one step above a snuff film. (If you don't know what that is, I am *not* going to be the one to explain it.) Now, the special effects. I get that this was very low budget production, and so was not expecting anything state-of-the-art. That would have been dumb. But I have literally seen better special effects made by teenagers on their home computers. It was sad.Most of the actors, particularly the women, were more likely cast for their willingness to get naked and get it on with the other female cast members than any acting skills they might possess. (Which are very few.) Now, if the script had at least been well written, some of the other stuff could have been forgiven. This was not the case. And the real hell of it is that they started out with a fairly good plot line. Bringing Elizabeth Bathory into the mix, for example, was a good idea and one that I have not often seen used. The reincarnation factor wasn't exactly original, but could have worked out quite well. There is also a tragic back story for the werewolf, in which he basically trades his humanity to Bathory in exchange for saving his beloved wife from the plague. Ironically, once his wife begins to heal, he ends up killing her while in werewolf form. The writer/director was, unfortunately, apparently just not talented enough to build on that plot very well. Maybe he was too distracted by all the pointless lesbian sex he just had to put in.In all, this movie doesn't rank up in the category of "Worth at least one watch." Heck, it doesn't even rank high enough to be put in the "So bad, it's funny" category. This movie is part of the bottom dwelling "There ain't nothing funny about a movie *this* bad" category, where it is kept company by the likes of "El Chpacabra" and "Miner's Massacre." Now, I admit, no one made me watch this, er, film. (And I use the term "film" very loosely.) That's not to say that I'm not still a bit disgruntled by the fact that I shelled out about four bucks to rent this thing. But I admit that was my own folly. Having made that horrible mistake, I now warn any who might be reading this not to make the same mistake. To say that this... film is a waste of both time and money would be an understatement. If you're like me and want to see a good werewolf movie, go with a classic, like "The Wolfman" and the sequels starring Lon Chaney Jr. (At least they have the excuse of the time period for the special effects and they're well written enough.) If you want something a bit more modern, I'm sorry to say that you're limited to the 80's and early 90's. To my knowledge there have been no good werewolf movies made since then. Oh, there have been a few good ones that feature werewolves, but none exclusively about werewolves.I still have hope that someday, someone out there in Hollywood will make a worthy werewolf film once more, but I'm not holding my breath.
capkronos
Elizabeth Bathory (Michelle Bauer) sells her soul to Satan for eternal youth and (as most of us know) must bathe in the blood of young women (not just virgins, as you will later see!) to retain her youth. She is also responsible for periodically sending her dark lord Lucifer some damned souls by making human sacrifices. Somewhere along the years she crosses paths with Waldemar Daninsky (Paul Naschy), a nobleman in love with Lady Eleanor Daninsky (Stephanie Bentley). When the black plague ravages Eleanor, Elizabeth strikes a deal with Waldemar to return her to life. She does, but then Waldemar is transformed into a werewolf, kills the newly-revived Eleanor and is captured by townspeople who drive a silver cross through his chest. He's then laid to rest in a hidden crypt in the Daninsky family castle and forgotten. (By the way, the time and place of these events are never given.) Flashing ahead to today, descendant Richard Daninsky (Jay Richardson) learns he has just inherited a huge castle reputed to have a treasure hidden somewhere inside. He travels to Europe with the crew from the television series "Current Mysteries" in tow. Amongst the group are arrogant TV reporter Melanie Charles (Kennedy Johnston), her producer boyfriend Tony (Leland Jay), script supervisor Leslie (Beverly Lynne), beefcake cameraman Steve (Frankie C. Cullen) and make-up artist Christie (Jacy Andrews). The group also hire psychic Amanda Collins (Stephanie Bentley), who is a dead-ringer for the long- dead Eleanor because she is actually a ghost. And wouldn't you know it, there in the castle alive and well-preserved is Elizabeth, who is posing as the caretaker and housekeeper, but is naturally up to other devious things.Elizabeth leads Richard down into the dungeon/crypt and tricks him into removing the cross from the corpse of Waldemar. Waldemar returns to life, kills Richard, gets outside and starts biting chunks out of villagers. Meanwhile, the TV crew goof off and get off in assorted combinations. The sex scenes for the video release (including the expected girl-girl encounter) cut to black before they get too racy, suggesting there may be an unrated version out there somewhere. If one does indeed exist, it will probably end up on Cinemax at 3 a.m.; this film is fun and perfect for late-night trash-film fanatics. Director Fred Olen Ray does an OK good job with the return of Naschy's famous Spanish horror character. He's added a little fog, a little ambiance, a little blood and some romanticism to this tale in intentional reverence to the El Hombre Lobo movies of the 1970s. He also stuck pretty closely with the original werewolf design and special effects. The only major difference is that the cheesy time-lapse werewolf transformations of yesteryear have been replaced by the cheesy morphing werewolf transformations of today. The film is nowhere near as atmospheric as the original Spanish productions, but there's plenty of nudity/sex and even a decent amount of blood to keep B movie fans mildly entertained.The period details (aside from the castle and some costumes) are not convincing in the least and neither are the performances from most of the younger cast (Beverly Lynne and Jacy Andrews excluded), but having three veterans in the pivotal roles makes a big difference here. Jay Richardson dies pretty early on, but he's an-always reliable character actor and does just fine here. It's great to see Paul Naschy in an American movie and playing Waldemar again. He has a few English-language lines with his thick Spanish accent, but spends most of the film in make-up or standing off in the background watching the action from afar. But the real star of this one is Michelle Bauer, who is menacing, sexy, sardonic, wickedly funny and delivers her dialog with great camp relish. Pay careful attention to her facial expressions. She never just stands around waiting to say her line; she's always active in what's going on while others around here often seem to be drifting off. It is one of her best performances and largest roles... and none too soon! The 44-year-old (who seems to be growing old gracefully with no signs of reconstruction or Botox face-freeze) is surrounded here by girls who are young, attractive and refreshingly devoid of silicone. Never mind that, Michelle steals the spotlight away from all of them.
moviemanic07
A man who recently inherited a European castle with a rumored hidden treasure invites the buxom crew from a television supernatural show to help him find the treasure. I said buxom crew, because, I believe, that is the whole point of this film. After pre-title sequence where our buxom villainies offers a buxom victim to a strangely-annoyed Lucifer, who appears via a bad special effect, we skip ahead a couple hundred years to the present day where the buxom host of the television show starts getting naked on the sofa with her producer boyfriend, and then
. Wait a minute. Was I hitting on a subtle leitmotif? I decided to hit pause button and went to the trusty IMDb to see whether I was watching a horror movie or soft core porn. I was right to suspect the latter. It seems director Fred Olen Ray has done quite a bit of soft core. Oh well. Nothing wrong with that, unless you were hoping to see a horror movie and there wasn't any thing scary here unless you have an unnatural fear of breasts. Ray, however, is a true professional and he moves things along at a brisk pace, so it really doesn't matter too much if the level of acting fails to rise above that of soft core porn or if the 'action' music theme sounds like a refugee from a mid-90's video game. No thrills or scares here, but if you like breasts
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