I always try to give the benefit of the doubt to foreign cinema (especially low-budget foreign cinema), since they don't have the entire Hollywood Machine that takes movie in one end and presto! out pops a movie from the other end.  I say I try to give the benefit of the doubt, but in this case it didn't help.

Paul Naschy appears in his characteristic role of Valdemar Daninski, Polish noble and reluctant werewolf (he also directed, under the credited name of Jack Molina).  In the opening, he is sentenced to death alongside the Countess Bathory and her henchmen; unlike Bathory, who pronounces an ominous curse and promises to be back, Daninski only hopes that his soul will be at peace.

Of course, it is not to be.  Fast-forward to modern day (or at least to 1980), where a graverobber removes the silver cross-dagger impaled in Daninski's chest, and ta-dah!  The wolf's back in action!  (That seems to me to be a crossover from vampire lore, but I'm willing to let it slide.)

At this same time there are also three American women who've been researching the location of the Bathory crypt; unbenownst to the other two, one of the three has been in psychic communication with Bathory, and plans to sacrifice her friends to being the Countess back to life.

Naturally, they meet up with Daninski in the most awkward transition possible.  In one scene, one of the women catch sight of Daninski suddenly and falls back into an open pit, knocking her out; in the next, the other two women are sitting at the dinner table with Daninski, genteely discussing their discoveries.  I thought I must have left the room without remembering.  Where did Daninski get the antique-stuffed mansion on short notice?

Anyway, Bathory does come back to life, and the inevitable conflict ensues, along with a string of the most pointless werewolf attacks.  I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the entire horror of lycanthropy is that one becomes a beast, killing and devouring ones victims.  The transformed Daninski does indeed kill, but then just leaves the bodies there and looks for the next victim.

While we're on the subject, the specialest of the special effects, the transformations, are simple time-lapse sequences that Universal did better forty years before with The Wolfman.  Ooh, look!  Fuzz in growing on Nachy's face, and his nose has obviously been smeared with greasepaint!

I'll admit, this is the only Naschy werewolf movie I've seen, and word on the street is that it's far from his best.  I'm actually glad; I would have for the man to have devoted himself to this series if every one were as vapid, slow-paced, and uncompelling as this one.

Other observations:

In the initial scene, Bathory's henchmen are sentenced to be "tortured, and then reduced to ashes."  Obviously someone doesn't know his history; torture was an evidence-gathering technique, completed before sentencing.  It would be like sentencing someone to be cross-examined and then sent to prison.

The soundtrack was doing adequately -- until it suddenly turned into vaguely ominous disco.  (This happened a couple of times, eliciting giggles from myself.)

I hope the original dialog wasn't nearly so laughable as the dubbed translation; I also hope that in the original, you could tell by the accent which actors were supposed to be Americans and which the Carpathian villagers.  (While we're at it, a note to filmmakers:  If a large part of your movie revolves around three girlfriends, could you do us the favor of not having them all look EXACTLY ALIKE?!)

After Bathory revives and "converts" two women, the countryside is in an uproar about the vampire murders.  Hello?  What about those werewolf killings, three to a night?  Or is that just an expected fact of life in the Carpathians?

If I knew I were going to turn into a werewolf night on schedule, I'd probably make sure to do it in a room without a stockpile of breakable antiques.

Apparently the Carpathian mountains are just teeming with solitary campers, waiting by their fires to be attacked.

When Daninski's girlfriend asks (quite rightly) why they don't discover Bathory's hidey-hole during daylight and dispose of her, he says, "Only during the night of the full moon will I have sufficient power to destroy her."  And yet, in the final showdown, how does he exhibit this awesome power?  He bites her.  Big whoopie.