Rudolph Weissmann (Manuel Manzaneque) and Janice von Aarenbert (Dyanik Zurakowska) were childhood friends. They are reunited after returning home from boarding school. Rudolph and Janice appear to be in love until a stranger named Waldemar Daninsky (Paul Naschy) comes on the scene. Janice begins to fall in love with Waldemar.
Nearby, in the deserted Castle Wolfstein, a pair of wandering gypsies takes refuge from a storm. The gypsies get drunk and decide to rob the graves of those buried in the tombs underneath the castle’s old monastery. In one of the graves is Imre Wolfstein, a werewolf who was stabbed in the heart with a silver cross. When the silver cross is removed the werewolf comes back to life and kills the gypsies. It then begins to terrorize the countryside killing people.
Waldemar finds the dead gypsies and understands that there is a werewolf killing the villagers. He takes the silver cross with him. The townsmen believe the deaths are caused by a pack of wolves, so they form a hunting party and go after the wolves. When Rudolph is attacked by the werewolf Waldemar comes to his rescue and kills the wolf with the silver cross. In the process Waldemar is bitten. Both Rudolph and Waldemar know that Waldemar is now cursed by the bite of the werewolf. Grateful to Waldemar for saving his life Rudolph wants to help Waldemar.
Janice finds out that Waldemar is now a werewolf and also wants to help. They scour the castle for any old papers that will tell them what to do. They finally come across correspondence referring to a Dr. Janos Mikhelov (Julian Ugarte). Rudolph sends the doctor a letter telling him about Waldemar. Dr. Mikhelov and his wife Wandessa (Aurora de Alba) agree to come to Castle Wolfstein. What Rudolph and Waldemar don’t know is that Janos and Wandessa are vampires that plan on using Waldemar for their own diabolical purposes.
“Frankenstein’s Bloody Terror” AKA “The Mark of the Wolfman” AKA “Hell’s Creatures” AKA “The Nights of Satan” AKA “The Vampires of Dr. Dracula” AKA “La Marca del Hombre Lobo” was released in 1968 and was directed by Enrique Lopez Eguiluz.
It is a Spanish horror film and the first of what is known as the Naschy werewolf films. Naschy not only starred in the film, but he also wrote the screenplay. Sometimes referred to as the Spanish Lon Chaney, Paul Naschy was a screenwriter, director and actor. His real name was Jacinto Molina Alvarez. Naschy played the werewolf Daninsky in twelve films. He holds the record for the most times playing a werewolf. Lon Chaney Jr. played the werewolf character only seven times. Each of Naschy’s werewolf stories were individual and had no connection to the others plot wise.
It ended up being a decent and interesting movie. The plot is slightly unusual and a bit refreshing with vampires tossed in as two evil nemeses to the sympathetic werewolf.
The American version of the film was called “Frankenstein’s Bloody Terror” despite the fact that Frankenstein has nothing to do with the film. Originally shown in 2-D the film was pulled and a 3-D version was released. The 3-D version was not as popular. The reason was attributed to bad 3-D effects.