Night of the Werewolf, The / Vengeance of the Zombies (Double Feature) (Blu-ray)

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Unfortunately that's all I could piece together from the storyline, though, as you could say that I was heavily distracted by the cheesy stereotypical 1970s jazz music running rampant throughout the entire film. Honestly, I have no clue what director León Klimovsky was thinking with this creative choice. The music didn't suit the movie at all, and even in scenes meant to be suspenseful the element of danger was sucked dry by the fangs of the upbeat musical score.

The other thing that I had a major issue with was the way absolutely nobody put up any kind of fight against, or even made an attempt to run away from, the zombies. The undead creatures were dreadfully slow, so slow that even Gorn from the original "Star Trek" series could run circles around them. Maybe the horrible soundtrack acted as a hypnotic stun gun because all these people did was stand still and scream, waving their arms in the air like they just didn't care. I'm pretty sure I saw someone glance at their watch a couple of times as they were awaiting their doom, too.

I hate to say it but the most exhilarating part of the movie, and members of PETA might want to skip this paragraph, was a chicken sacrifice. I'm not talking about a mock killing or a killing done off the screen, this was a full-fledged beheading right on camera with blood from the decapitation drizzling into a pentagram painted on the floor. All I could think about was that sketch on "SNL" with Michael Bolton singing to set the chickens free.

Video:
"The Night of the Werewolf" is presented in widescreen with an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, while "Vengeance of the Zombies" has a standard fullscreen ratio of 1.33:1. Both films were considerably clear for older pictures for the most part, and only had minor grain every once in awhile. The night scenes in "Vengeance of the Zombies" were on the dark side and difficult to make out, but that was the worst of it.

Audio:
Both films in the collection feature Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, English Dolby Digital Mono and Dolby Digital Surround Sound, but to be honest it all sounded the same to me. All of the dialogue came through on all speakers, and I couldn't tell a difference between the three audio formats.

Extras:
"The Night of the Werewolf" and "Vengeance of the Zombies" each have a striking animated menu resembling an ancient tome. It actually flips through the pages when choices are selected which I thought was a nice additional touch. Both discs also include an introduction by a now aged Paul Naschy, and contain a similar assortment of extras.

For starters, there's a Theatrical Trailer (English) for each film. They're definitely not at all like the flashy trailers we have nowadays, basically just made up of clips from the movies with the title popping in now and then as a reminder.

Also included are alternate Spanish Credit Sequences that goes through the opening credits in Spanish instead of English.

A few deleted and extended scenes appear on "The Night of the Werewolf" originally intended to be included in the final cut but never made it. The alternate scenes in "Vengeance of the Zombies" are strange since they are all of the nude scenes completely redone without the nudity, but that's probably due to restrictions of certain theaters in those days.

Lastly, each disc contains two galleries, one with still photographs from the productions, and the other showcasing the nostalgic movie posters and lobby cards developed for different countries.

The Final Cut:
Naschy movies definitely aren't for everyone, but to be honest I didn't mind "The Night of the Werewolf." As previously mentioned I've seen a lot worse during my lifetime, and the story held its own even though it had a few holes. That doesn't make it a good film by any means, but the castle grounds were breathtakingly beautiful as were the women, so there were always plenty of interesting things to look at when the plot started disintegrating. As for "Vengeance of the Zombies," all I can say is that music was just downright maddening. I don't mean to keep harping on the subject, but once you see it you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. At least it's part of a double feature to take the edge off and provide a little more bang for your buck, and I'm sure Naschy fans will appreciate the extras as well as the re-mastering in high-definition.