The Craving

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Where's Christopher Lee? We forgot to think anything was worthwhile about this yarn. To the American ear this sort of music is impossible. Like so many Spanish horror movies, there is some lemminglike need to include clowns such as the grave robbers to drive down the skull count. They are not funny, interesting or bearable. It may be that the translation doesn't help, but we're sure the original was no bargain either. This film is notable for the absence of special effects. Not since the forties have we seen such an unathletic werewolf. Another common failing that this film suffers from is an appalling lack of focus. You've got the werewolf movie, and then the sub-plot of raising the countess-vampire, and eventually the proliferation of such. It does not work to just fill up the screen with classic monsters. We expected the Frankenstein monster to come lumbering across the screen at any at any moment. Some attempt is made to produce some kind of interest in the characters with the love triangle involving Valdamar, Mechia and Karen, but this falls pretty flat. The werewolf hero Valdamar couldn't be duller. Also, with all the dark haired women changing sides and becoming vampires, you'll need a score card to tell them apart. But why bother?</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>* Blood *  Violent * Strong Language * Brief Nudity *</B></div> <div> <B>* Sexual Situations * Not Particularly Gory *</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Plot Summary: Hungarian Sigla 15th century. The Countess Elizabeth Vatori is condemned for witchcraft and vampirism to be buried to death. Her servants will be tortured and her brother, who is a werewolf, spiked and hanged. She calls them religious fanatics and says she will return. Switch to the twentieth century. We have some idle rich types going on about a friend Erica who is interested in the occult. Not a pretty sight. The graves of the Vatori family have been found in the Setier castle. The legends say that if the blood of a virgin is shed on the countess' ashes, she will return to life. Back in Hungary, a couple of clownish grave robbers have shown up at the castle. Valdamar Lelinski's grave has a curse on it. Erica admits that she has given herself up to black magic and that her friends will give up their blood. Erica strangles her mentor to get the medallion that will be part of the ritual to raise Elizabeth. When the clowns pull out the silver sword from the corpse, guess what? The girls have arrived in Hungary, and we get a tavern scene in which an old timer tells legends of the castle and warns them away. They rent an old clunker of a car and head out as the folk make the sign of the cross. A tree falls in front of them and bandits fall on them. When it looks like rapes are about to take place, a cross bow starts twanging from a jerkin clad personage in the wood. However, the girls troubles are not over as the car gives out as they arrive at the castle. Inside, they see some well preserved horrors. A strange, deformed woman steps out of the shadows, accosting Karen and when she runs out she sees Bulcha with his crossbow. Though she faints, it's apparently love at first sight. The other two women shuffle around in the dark for a while until they find Elizabeth's sepulcher. Soon they're having dinner with Bulcha, the crossbow wielder. Mechia, the deformed woman, is a servant. Mechia had been condemned to be burned for practicing witchcraft, but a storm broke out before the job was finished. Mechia puts a cross under the fallen woman's pillow. Erica tells one of the girls that Bulcha is Valdamar Dininsky, the werewolf. Pretty soon we see a real Lon Chaney style werewolf coming after some lovers. He is not much interested in the bullet the man plugs him with. Erica mentions that the nub of a cain she has is made of silver and that bullets can be made of it so everything will be all right. It isn't mentioned who is going to do the silverwork out in the middle of nowhere. Erica's waiting for the moon to be in the right alignment and then they will perform the ritual. The full moon's out, so soon we get a pretty cheap werewolf transformation (back turned). Karen, whom Valdamar is sweet on, sees the transformation. Luckily, Mechia comes down the stairs with a silver cross and the werewolf exists through a window, soon finding and methodically doing away with other prey. Erica hypnotizes one of the girls, hangs her upside down above the crypt, and starts cutting. Smoke starts coming from the crypt and it looks like Erica's got her wish. The now vampirised Erica shows up and attacks Mechia. The next day, Valdamar finds Mechia's cross. They go to the town and everyone agrees that the countess Vatori's back in business, and the call goes out for some garlic. Vampires are showing up at campfires with their mist makers. The vampirised Mechia shows up at Valdamar's bed and it looks like he's entered the fold, or will Karen come to him in time with her silver cross to save him? The big tension is, will the vampires get hold of Valdamar's furious power, or will he overcome them? Toward the end, we get what must be the most dull faced werewolf transformation in film history.control of the earth's insect population.</B></div> </td> </tr></table></body>