The Howl of the Devil – Mondo Macabro (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: Spain, 1988
Director: Paul Naschy
Writers: Paul Naschy, Salvador Sáinz
Cast: Paul Naschy, Caroline Munro, Howard Vernon, Fernando Hilbeck, Mabel Ordóñez, Sergio Molina

Release Date: June 8th, 2021
Approximate Running Time: 96 Minutes 56 seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVCC
Rating: NR
Sound: DTS-HD Mono Spanish
Subtitles: English
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: $29.95

"Hector Doriani a stage and screen actor who feels himself living in the shadow of his dead twin brother, Alex Doriani – the latter once a famous star of horror movies. Alex’s young son, Adrian, now lives with Hector in his brother’s isolated mansion in the countryside. To keep alive the memory of his father, the boy imagines himself visited by the spirit of the dead man, incarnated in a series of classic horror characters from the past. Eric, Alex Doriani’s former butler, now also works for Hector. His main role is to locate and bring to the mansion a series of women who are paid large sums of money by Hector to take part in various sadistic sex games. To complicate matters even further, the games always seem to end with the women getting slaughtered in various gruesome ways by a black gloved, masked killer." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 4.5/5

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfer, “brand new 4k transfer from film negative”.

The Howl of the Devil comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 37.4 GB

Feature: 26.4 GB

The source used for this transfer is in great shape. Colors are nicely saturated, image clarity looks strong throughout and black levels look very good.

Audio: 4.5/5

This release comes with one audio option, a DTS-HD mono mix in Spanish and included with this release are removable English subtitles. The audio is in great shape, dialog comes through clearly, everything sounds balanced and ambient sounds are well-represented.

Extras:

Extras for this release include a Mondo Macabro preview reel, an archival making of featurette (27 minutes 8 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Spanish with removable English subtitles), an interview with actor Sergio Molina titled Adrian Speaks! (36 minutes 22 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Spanish with removable English subtitles) and an audio commentary with Troy Guinn and Rod Barnett (The Naschycast).

Summary:

There’s no denying Paul Naschy’s affection for horror cinema. Over the course of his six-decade career he portrayed horror cinema’s most celebrated monsters. With the character he most remembered portraying being a werewolf named Waldemar Daninsky.

By the late 1980’s European horror cinema no longer was able to draw international audiences like it did during its heyday the 1970’s. Though, Paul Naschy continued to make films until his death. Paul Naschy's career reached its apex in 1983 with Panic Beats and The Beast and The Magic Sword.

Content wise, The Howl of the Devil features all the elements that have become synonymous with his most celebrated films. The superbly realized premise allows Paul Naschy to portray several iconic monsters Frankenstein's Monster, Mr. Hyde, The Phantom of the Opera, Waldemar Daninsky, and Quasimodo and The Devil. Also, there’s never a shortage of gory murder set pieces and naked women.

Though the opening setup has a dark tone, outside of the kill scenes the overall tone is more playful than sinister. With the scenes where Paul Naschy’s characters interact with a boy who’s portrayed by his son Sergio Molina being the most heartfelt of his career.

From a production standpoint, there’s not an area where The Howl of the Devil does not excel. The excellent premise gives Paul Naschy plenty to work with and he gives what is arguably the strongest performance of his career. The well-executed narrative ensures there’s never a dull moment and the visuals are overflowing with atmosphere.

Mondo Macabro continues to shine a light on the cinema of Paul Naschy by giving his films solid audio/video presentation and insightful extras Paul Naschy, highly recommended.

Written by Michael Den Boer