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(1979) Earl Owensby, Kristina Reynolds, Sid Rancer, Ed Grady, Richard Dedmon. Nothing like a fun, schlocky American-made werewolf movie set in the Deep South—and that’s what this is. The werewolf makeup isn’t exactly Jack Pierce, but it’s still pretty cool. The film begins in a rustic old mansion with the stabbing death of an old man as he lays in his death bed—something about a family curse! The young heir to the estate returns home, but soon finds he has also inherited a family curse that will turn him into a werewolf on the next full moon! Before you know it, villagers with torches are searching for the Wolfman! Owensby isn’t exactly Lon Chaney, and he’s a bit on the pudgy side (kind of like Paul Naschy without the muscle mass), but somehow it all works—a true drive-in B-movie, filled with outrageous schlockiness. The fact that you have a bunch of characters dressed in 1800s-style clothing but talking like modern day southern rednecks just ads to the lovable dorkiness of it all. Then there’s Ed Grady, who hams it up like Lugosi or Karloff with his wonderfully over-the-top performance as an evil clergyman. Adding to the ambience is a lurid music score that combines, piano, harpsicord, orchestral, and electronic music. Hokey, but still great fun. Beautiful color, 35mm.
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