Review of Dr. Jekyll vs. The Werewolf

Let's face it. Horror fans either appreciate Paul Naschy's art or they just comment on the bad dubbing and complain about the pacing. Naschy's films beat with the heart of the Universal horrors that he was weaned upon and that inspired him to write his first screenplay for Mark of the Wolfman (Frankenstein's Bloody Terror in the US). Saddled with budgetary restrictions, political upheaval in Spain and sometimes turbulent relationships with directors, Naschy's best films are a journey to a different time and cinema ethos, conferring a powerful sense of place and atmosphere to stories rich with horror and pathos. This film plays in two parts, the first half focusing on Naschy's reclusive lycanthrope Waldemar Daninsky and the development of his love interest, the second half detailing Dr Jekyll's attempts to have Waldemar's transformation to Mr Hyde overtake his even more intense animal instincts. The scenes of Naschy as Mr Hyde prowling through Soho's seedy district while he offs strippers and prostitutes are among some of the more unsavory ever filmed, to the extent of him drooling and panting while he chokes one of them with their own stocking. Many today will find the somewhat graphic scenes of torture, including Dr Jekyll's jealous assistant garroting Naschy's naked lover, to be excessive in a very different way than the onslaught of graphic special effects offered up by today's horror cinema. The film's conclusion proves that Naschy is a romantic at heart, as in nearly all of his horror films he is misunderstood and the finale is frequently more tragic than frightening. Of course, the film has much better impact in its original language with subtitles, as the American version is awkwardly dubbed conferring an amateurish feel which is not part of the original production. To my knowledge, there is no licensed release of this film available domestically, so cropped and poorly dubbed copies will have to suffice.