Werewolves and Vampires, Oh My!

This month's movie is La Noche de Walpurgis - WALPURGIS NIGHT! - better known to American audiences as Werewolf vs. the Vampire Woman.

For a low-budget flick, it's actually pretty good - although a bit slow in spots (I cut most of those scenes out in my edit ;-)

Paul Naschy makes an excellent werewolf in the Lon Chaney Jr. / Larry Talbot tradition and this isn't his first nor his last appearance as the werewolf Waldemar Daninsky; it's merely one in a series of 12 films spanning a total of 35 years!

Werewolf vs. the Vampire Woman follows the traditional werewolf and vampire legends fairly close. As is usual in these legends, the werewolf is somewhat a victim of circumstances whereas the vampire is cursed by her own choices...well, sort of.

The Vampire Woman of the title, Countess Wandessa d'Arville de Nadasdy, is referred to as a witch; but not in the Harry Potter or even the Wiccan sense of that word. She is a full-blown Satan worshiper with upside-down crosses, black masses, human sacrifice, blasphemy, dogs and cats living together in sin and everything else that comes with selling your soul to the dark lord. And in the end it is her vanity which leads her down the path of no return.

However there is another woman in the film named Genevieve who becomes a vampire; not because she is especially evil, but because she succumbs to Wandessa's seduction.

In all likelihood, there would've been a THIRD vampire woman in this story as well; but the movie's heroine, Elvira, overcomes evil with a little help from her friend, a silver cross and what that cross represents.

Which means it's time to dig into the spiritual implications of this film...

I've already discussed the idea of werewolves as victims and vampires as victimizers in two previous blogs; but what I want to draw out of this film is the need for community and the power of faith.

Community in this film is represented by Waldemar's friendship with Elvira. The writer of Ecclesiastes tells us that "two are better than one for if one falls, the other can pick him up..." and so it is multiples times with Waldemar. He serves to encourage, instruct, admonish, correct and more than once physically rescue Elvira from the clutch of evil. And so it is with us. It's hard enough to walk the straight and narrow in this life as it is; but how much more difficult when we try to do it alone, without friends, without counsel, without anyone's help.

Faith is represented in this film by the silver cross and there's a really good scene I'd like to point out. After successfully scaring off the vampires a number of times with the cross, Elvira falls asleep and knocks a piece of clothing on top of it. With the symbol of her faith temporary out of sight, she succombs to Genevieve's attack and then complains to Waldemar that the cross didn't protect her. Well, technically she DID have the cross; but like Peter walking on the water, when she lost sight of the symbol of her faith her fears took over and down she went.

That's how it is for us, too. We want to believe in a God who is bigger than all of our problems; but sometimes we take our eyes off the Savior and focus instead on our current crisis and find ourselves saying "where is God when I need Him?" and the truth is He was there all along but we were too busy worrying about circumstances instead of looking to Him for relief.

You know, a copper penny is NOTHING in comparison to the Golden Gate Bridge and yet, if you hold that penny in front of your eye you can block out the bridge, the sun in the sky and the entire horizon for that matter. None of these things have vanished - you're just allowing a little penny to obscure the much bigger picture.

Soooo...if you haven't watched the movie, check it out while it's still online. And if you're feeling like Elvis has left the building - or more importantly that God has checked out of your life - take a step backwards and remember just how big the God of Creation - the God who created the Universe - the God who created you and me - really is.

And last but not least, if you're walking the journey alone, see if you can't connect with one or more like-minded souls. Formally. Informally. It doesn't really matter. Two are better than one any given day...make that every given day.

Well, that's it for now. Join me next month for Dementia 13, written and directed by Francis Ford Coppolla. Until then...pleasant dreams!