El carnaval de las bestias

An Asian crime syndicate enlists the aid of Paul Naschy in a diamond heist, a choice they come to regret when he violently betrays them. He kills the syndicate leader, the father of a girl he's been feigning romance with. She shoots Naschy in a vengeful rage, but he escapes into the wilderness. Critically wounded, he slips under, only to awaken in the personal care of an eccentric doctor and his two sexy daughters. At this point, the film switches gears, and what began seemingly as an action/crime film suddenly shifts into a hybrid mystery/lurid revenge story, culminating in a weird but satisfying finale in the flavor of classic EC horror comics.

All things considered, it's a likable little dish of a very different flavor. 5.5/10.

"Human Beasts" is an odd mix of crime drama, action film, and horror - in that order. Naschy plays a criminal hired by Japanese gangsters to steal some diamonds. One of the gangsters is his girlfriend who is in loe with him, but the movie doesn't do much with this. When he steals the diamonds he cold-bloodedly murders everyone involved in transporting them, which shocks his employers, making one wonder what they expected when they hired a hitman to carry out the job. Naschy double crosses them and escapes into the Spanish highlands, but is injured in the fracas, and awakes in a mansion where a rich man and his beautiful daughters care for him.

We see Naschy bandaged up lying in bed with a doting woman standing beside him, there is a cut to something else, and cut back, and - what do you know - that doting woman is naked in bed with Naschy! This has to be one of the most unintentionally hilarious edits I have seen in a movie. Who needs things like seduction, sexual tension, chemistry - this is Naschy we're talking about. You know the girls are going to get naked. Why not just show her in bed with him and be done with it?

The man who owns the mansion is inexplicably kind to Naschy, and his brutal criminality begins to soften. But right from the beginning we are shown that, surprise surprise, all is not as it seems in this spooky mansion. In one of the weirdest moments, we see the man whipping the panty-clad butt of his beautiful black maid, while she admonishes him, "harder! harder!"

Is she a maid, or a... slave?

The movie seriously stalls when Naschy starts living at the mansion. Considering how it skips the details of Naschy's apparent seduction of the daughters, this is strange: it's like it misses necessary scenes to replace them with filler. The movie cuts to the Japanese that Naschy has ripped off, but for no real reason I can tell, other than the fact that the movie is a Japanese co-production. There are also some dream sequences, and a ghostly apparition of a woman who serves no purpose other than reminding you you are watching a horror movie.

In one of the movie's more memorable scenes, a man is... meant to be eaten alive by some bloody-snouted pigs.

Finally, there is a crazy fancy dress party at the mansion, which is probably the movie's best moment. As the rich eccentrics eat, the pigs are cut back to, reminding us for the nth time that Eurohorror basically exists to show rich people behaving like swine.

This scene comes too late, though, and I'd be surprised if many who watch "Human Beasts" would still be paying attention by this point. The film has some good moments, but the structure is too weak to string them all together, unfortunately. I think all Naschy is worth watching for cult/horror fans, but this isn't one of his best.

This time Naschy is turned into a criminal mercenary who deceives ,steals and kills and goes on a murderous rampage until to terminate in the ¨Texas massacre house¨. The story starts in Japan on the lake Hakone near mount Fujiyama . Bruno Rivera (Paul Naschy) a tough mercenary is hired by an organization of fanatic idealists to carry out a hold-up on a valuable stash of diamonds. Bruno double-crosses his pregnant Japanese girlfriend and the criminal group and returns Spain. There he is located , taking place a chase and exciting pursuit nearly an old monastery . Being wounded , he is healed by the medic Simon (Lautaro Murua) and his daughters Alicia (Azuzena Hernandez)and Monica (Silvia Aguilar) . He takes shelter in their mansion but his former love interest Mieko (Eiko Nagashina) swears vengeance and is relentlessly looking for Bruno . Finally Bruno decides to escape until a creepy and surprising finale .

The picture is full of perverse images , sadism , morbidness and some nudism .It packs a crossover between noir cinema , gangsters genre and horror . Also displays acceptable photography , and Nazi iconography as usual in Naschy films. The film is narrated by means of flashbacks with Bruno's nightmares , developing Japan events and actual deeds when Naschy lives in the house of the rare family. The pig scenes of Ridley Scott's ¨Hannibal¨ seem to be taken from this film .

Jacinto Molina ,under pseudonym Paul Naschy turns out to be the continental Europe's biggest horror with his classic character , the unforgettable Waldemar Daninsky and frightening to viewer. He played as El Hombre Lobo for the umpteenth time . Jacinto Molina Aka Paul Naschy ,who recently passed away, was actor,screenwriter and director of various film about the personage based on fictitious character, the Polish count Waldemar Daninsky. The first film about Waldemar was ¨The mark of the Wolfman (1967)¨ by Enrique Eguiluz , after that ¨Night of Walpurgis¨, ¨Fury of the Wolfman¨ , ¨Doctor Jekill and the Wolfman¨ ,¨The return of the Walpurgis¨, ¨Howl of the devil¨, ¨The beast and the magic sword(1982)¨ that is filmed in Japan and finally ¨Licantropo(1998). After ¨The craving¨ it was such a box office disaster that Jacinto was bankrupt. He was forced to turn to Japan for making artist documentaries, as he filmed ' Madrid Royal Palace and Museum of Prado' and he gets financing from Japanese producers for ¨The human beasts¨, the first co-production Spanish-Japan and followed ¨The beast and the magic sword¨. Both of them are lavishly produced for the Paul Naschy standards. As the Atrezzo and gowns were well manufactured and exterior shot on both countries .

It's a B series entertainment with abundant sensationalistic scenes and a Naif style.The movie has a bit of ridiculous gore with loads of blood similar to tomato and is occasionally an engaging horror movie full of slashing, beheading, and several other things. This time Paul Nashy/Jacinto Molina exhibits little breast but he was a weightlifting champion . Pretty slow going and some flaws and gaps , but hang in there for the incredible and unexpected ending . In the picture appears habitual secondaries from Naschy films as Luis Ciges , Pepe Ruiz , Rafael Hernadez and other known supporting cast as Tito Garcia and Ricardo Palacios .Good cinematography by Alejandro Ulloa (Horror express and The return of the Wolfman )is accompanied by a correct remastering and filmed in Japan , Madrid , Valley of Lozoya and surroundings . The motion picture is professionally directed and played by Jacinto Molina , a slick craftsman and mediocre actor.The flick will appeal to Paul Naschy fans and terror genre enthusiasts. Rating : 6, passable and entertaining.

Human Beasts (1980)

BOMB (out of 4)

Bruno Rivera (Paul Naschy) is a hit-man working for the Yakuza. He sets up a major robbery but after stealing the jewels he decides to keep them. After being wounded he is discovered by a kind doctor and his daughters but soon he realizes this isn't a good thing.

I said "soon he realizes..." but let me change that. In the final seconds of the movie he realizes that they aren't what they seemed. When NIGHT OF THE WEREWOLF bombed at the box office, horror star Naschy had to travel to Japan for financing and that resulted in two movies. This one here and THE BEAST AND THE MAGIC SWORD would follow. I'm really not sure what they were trying to do with HUMAN BEASTS but there's no question that it's the worst film in Naschy's career and a truly torturous thing to try and get through.

What's so shocking about HUMAN BEASTS is how it really doesn't fit into any genre. It's partially horror but not really. It's partially a Yakuza movie but not really. It has some mystery elements but it's not really a mystery. This is a film that really doesn't belong to any genre and for the life of me I can't see what made anyone want to give money to this picture. I mean, if Naschy as a werewolf had just bombed were there really going to be anyone wanting to watch this thing?

I've read reviews from people calling this an unsettling nightmare and a creepy picture but I don't see it. In fact, the movie is downright boring right from the start and it just drags to the point where you wish you were the one being targeted. The performances aren't the worst that you'll ever see but they're still not great enough to keep you into the picture. The gore is minimum and in reality there's just nothing here. It's a flat, boring and drawn-out picture that just doesn't work at all.

Paul Naschy (born Jacinto Molina) was Spain's most famous horror star, best known for the role of the lycanthropic Waldemar Daninsky, whom he played a total of 12 times in movies released between 1968 and 2004. Along the way, Naschy - who died of pancreatic cancer last year - acted in a couple of non-werewolf movies, including "El carnaval de las bestias" (alternately called "The Beasts' Carnival" and "The Human Beasts" in English). This one concerns a man (Naschy) who gets shot by some Japanese gangsters whom he betrayed and gets taken in by a mysterious doctor and his daughters...and later discovers that they have a gross passion.

I guess that I didn't like this one as much as Paul Naschy's other flicks, partially due to the rather vague plot, and also just because I prefer watching Naschy grow fur and fangs. But even so, it was an OK movie. Just see if you want to eat meat after watching it.

I wonder what the result would have been had Paul Naschy ever worked with Pedro Almodóvar.