Fury of the Wolfman (1972) – Episode 106 – Decades of Horror 1970s

"When the heliotrope starts growing among rough rocks and the full moon shines at night, in a certain area of the Earth, a man turns into a wolf." How could they forget the part where the man is bitten by a Yeti? Join your faithful Grue Crew - Doc Rotten, Chad Hunt, Bill Mulligan, and Jeff Mohr - as they do their best to make sense of the mess known as Fury of the Wolfman (1972).

Decades of Horror 1970s
Episode 106 – Fury of the Wolfman (1972)

Waldemar Daninsky, a lone survivor of a Tibetan expedition, returns home to find his wife has been unfaithful to him. Carrying the curse of the pentagram (or pentagon, as stated by the monk who nursed him back to health), the fury of the wolfman is unleashed! After disposing of his cheating spouse, he finds himself captive in a castle by a female mad scientist conducting mind control experiments. In a vain attempt at escape, he discovers the freaks leftover from past experiments dwelling in the dungeons.

- IMDb (Written by Humberto Amador)

 

• Director: José María Zabalza (as J.M. Zabalza)
• Writer: Paul Naschy (screenplay) (as Jacinto Molina Alvarez)
• Featured Cast
  • Paul Naschy as Waldemar Daninsky/Wolfman
  • Perla Cristal as Dr. Ilona Ellman/Eva Wolfstein
  • Verónica Luján as Karin
  • Miguel de la Riva as Det. Wilhelm Kaufmann
  • José Marco as Merrill
  • Francisco Amorós as Helmut Wolfstein
  • Javier de Rivera as Detective
  • Ramón Lillo as Frederick
  • Pilar Zorrilla as Erika Daninsky

Your loyal Grue-Crew thought it was high time to include a Paul Naschy film in the canon of 1970s icons they’ve discussed. Unfortunately, they chose Fury of the Wolfman, quite possibly the worst of Naschy’s films, even by his own account. Chad and Jeff are Naschy virgins and could not believe what they were seeing and hearing. The dubbed dialogue made so little sense, Jeff felt like he was watching something produced by the folks from the Bad Lip Reading website. Chad thought it might have been the longest 83 minutes of his life and admitted to being completely flummoxed. Doc and Bill spent much of the time discussing Naschy films they should have watched instead of Fury of the Wolfman. Understandably, the lot of them get sidetracked a few times in their discussion. In the end, they enjoying many of the practical effects including Naschy’s version of the wolfman makeup.

As tough as it was to watch, the 70s Grue-Crew had a great time discussing it and vow to cover another Naschy film within six months. If you are so inclined, a poor version of Fury of the Wolfman is currently available on Amazon Prime.

Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror 1970s is part of the Decades of Horror 3-week rotation with The Classic Era and the 1980s. In three weeks, the next episode in their very flexible schedule will be David Cronenberg’s Rabid (1977) starring Marilyn Chambers. 

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