Beast of the Yellow Night

A bad man makes a deal with the devil to stay alive. His reward a pile of rotten meat and existence. The devil has plans for him. The man must occasionally turn into a beast and reek havoc on the surrounding area. There is another part of the plot, his relationship with his min- skirt wearing wife. He has not treated her well, but because she loves him, she puts up with his inconsistencies, including coming back from the dead in a hospital. He knows that there is no good end, but he has been made invulnerable, so he must carry out the wishes of his master. The problem lies with what the desired end is. When dealing with he devil, we must recognize his powers and, since we don't know how extensive they are, our hero (anti-hero) has no real free will. That's the rub. He meets a snarly old blind man who has a checkered past and philosophizes constantly. The central character would like to die. The interesting thing is that after his resurrection he is a pretty kind man, thoughtful and gracious and caring. I don't know. It's so darned obtuse that I just never got a handle on it.

BEAST OF THE YELLOW NIGHT is yet another classic from Director Eddie Romero. War criminal, Joseph Langdon (John Ashley) makes a deal with Satan (Vic Diaz), inheriting another life. He becomes businessman, Philip Rogers. With his beautiful wife, Julia (Mary Wilcox), he seems to have hit the jackpot!

Of course, as the old saying goes, "When you dance with the devil, the devil calls the tune", and Philip's existence soon becomes a nightmare of grisly murder and madness. He's transformed into a monster, resembling a scorched pot roast with fangs!

Meanwhile, goody-two-shoes Julia tries to save their marriage. Can her love overcome Philip's bloodlust and break his bargain with Beelzebub?

Compared with other horror films, BOTYN is a royal mess. However, compared with other Romero epics, it's a minor masterpiece! Are the actors like human furniture? Yes. Is the dialogue inane, and delivered in emotionless fashion? Yes. Still, the plot holds together in a strange, dull way. Watch and believe...

Beast of the Yellow Night features a hideous man-monster that tears its victims to shreds, but the real horror is a semi-naked Vic Diaz. The rotund Filipino actor appears at the beginning of the film as Satan wearing nothing but a loincloth (my eyes!), promising dying army deserter Joseph Langdon (John Ashley) immortality if he agrees to become a servant of evil. Unperturbed by Vic's lack of clothing, Joseph agrees and is 'reborn' in several bodies over the years, his mission to awaken the evil in the people that he meets. Langdon's latest guise is that of facially disfigured accident victim Philip Rogers, who, having been pronounced dead, amazes everyone by coming back to life with a brand new face (his doctor is so shocked that he promptly has a heart attack).

Phil's sexy blonde wife Julia (Mary Charlotte Wilcox) takes her hubby home but notices that he now behaves rather strangely. But it's not just his personality that has changed: from time to time, Phil/Langdon physically transforms into a horrible bloodthirsty creature with rubber claws and great big jaws.

The first of producer Roger Corman's movies to be shot in the Philippines during the '70s, this clunker from director Eddie Romero is frequently confusing (what Satan has to gain from turning his servant into a killer beast is never explained) and pretty dull for the most part, even when Ashley is in monster mode. There are a couple of brief gory moments (a disembowelment and some slashed faces), and Wilcox sheds her clothes (or her body double does--it's hard to tell), but for the most part the film is painfully slow, especially when the creature is given refuge by an old, blind bandit (an idea lifted from Frankenstein?). The ending sees the monster and the blind man trapped by the army in a burning field of grass, Phil/Langdon finally shot and killed even though he was bullet-proof only moments earlier.

First off, the summary is inaccurate. Satan doesn't save the man's life, the man becomes a spirit of evil that inhabits people and awake the latent evil in those around him.

Second, having seen this movie and all of the episodes of SCTV with Mary Charlotte Wilcox, it is obvious these are two different actresses. Shape of the face, eyes, their voices, everything is different. Also, no one else but Mary Charlotte Wilcox could be Idela Voudrey and that includes this Mary Wilcox.

I like this movie for some reason. It tends to get a little slow but it actually has a nice sort of message at the end when Langdon finally meets his fate, something he longed to experience for decades as a spirit of evil.

John Ashley stars and he seems like he is doing a kind of Elvis impersonation at least with the hair when he isn't the beast. Satan transforms him into a murderous creature put of punishment because of his desire to be an individual again. A temptation that strikes him when the devil allows him to inhabit this man with his own face. The change causes him to lose focus on ruining the people around him to trying to spare them that pain. It could have been more than just a monster movie but it tries....

After recently finding a copy of this on DVD, I brought it home and was amazed to find this was everything I was looking for and a whole lot more. Filmed in the Philippines and directed by Eddie Romero, I was horrified/enlightened by its blasphemous blend of cannibalism, comedy, and deals with the devil gone bad. John Ashley is excellent as one of the most frightening, gruesome, and demented-looking monsters I've ever seen. Entertaining as can be. For me, the only thing scarier than this movie is the fact that I almost never got to see it! Great flick!